Mud Bath

I took a morning ride on the scooter to try and get some more scenic shots.  But the weather followed me and clouds obscured the best views.  During one downpour, the inhabitants of a bus shelter waved me in to join them, making room for both me and the bike under the roof.  Two ladies stuck up a conversation and were very friendly and we exchanged our stories.  Turned out they were two Jehovah's Witnesses on a mission to save my soul.  However, the rain subsided and I could gracefully depart with my soul intact.

Perhaps their prayers for me helped.  The scooter had a pretty bald back tire and performed poorly on wet roads.  It also had no mirror, broken speedometer and no fuel gauge.  So good that I only had it for 24 hours.. 

Readers concerned about my ability to float will marvel at my grace in quick sand.  As a last activity after surrendering my scooter at noon, I was invited by a predominantly British group, many young volunteers with Geo Force (UK) to share a cab ride to The Hot Springs.  (The Hot Springs beside my hotel is just a bubbly hole in the ground.  For this one I was told to bring a swim suit.)  It was a special spot that Kirsten, the Peace Corp volunteer knew about.  Soon there were eight of us going and the cabbie would need his bigger cab.  Freely translated, that meant a pick-up truck with cardboard in the back, where Ian, Zora and I bounced along.  The driver asked that we close the back cover when we drove past the police station!

Eventually we stopped at the side of the road where a slippery muddy trail lead steeply downward to a nearby hot springs pool.  All approaches are through mud.  Oliver slipped and he may never get the mud out of his pants.  It is just a pool in the forest.  Nothing more.  Change into a suit behind a (wide) palm tree and crawl in.  Some places you can stand and others you sink to your waist in mud.  Photos were taken and will have to follow later.  Red mud all around but black mud at the bottom.  Very warm and relaxing.  Some of the ladies were so mellow afterwards they were heading for a massage.

But the muddy crew that piled into the taxi was a sight to behold.  I was glad to be in the back.  The driver took us to a warm water river spring where we could all wash off in the bubbly spring, one at a time and rinse in the river.  Then back to Savusavu.  At the yacht club I could get yet another shower and feel clean again.

I've said goodbye to many friends many times but we keep finding each other on the street or the Yacht Club.

Rumours of a storm of cyclonic proportions seem unfounded although the weather has been very changeable today.

I'll now walk back to the yacht club, have dinner, get a cab, pick up my bags at the hotel and head for the Princess Lomaivitti at 7:00 pm