The Great Hike

Octopus Bay offers a hike to one of the highest peaks on Waya island. It's billed as a "strenuous" hike and it certainly is that.
Due to a death in the village we walked along the beach, rather than directly through the village. We were asked to remove our hats as a mark of respect.
We had been warned Fijian trails tend to take the most direct route, there's no meandering up a hillside using switchbacks, the path went straight up to the peak. The trail starts out in dense vegetation, with high humidity. We started with 24 hikers and soon lost 8. Don't worry there aren't eight tourists still wandering around the hillside, they all made it back to the resort. I think the scrambling over huge rocks and leaping over puddles deterred some folks.
I was concerned about an American couple in their early 70's. They were in Fiji to see their son's wedding. I thought maybe they hadn't heard the description of the hike.

The peak on the right is the one we hiked to.

The hike to the peak took about two hours, with a few stops for people to catch their breath along the way. Actually at the end climbing up the peak was really difficult, our guides had to help us all up, one at a time.

The last climb.

At the top we all took photo's and stopped to eat fruit and admire the view of the Yasawa islands (that Waya is a part of). Jim (our guide) pointed out Mafia island, where a certain Italian family opened a casino, that was quickly closed down by the authorities.

The now abandoned Mafia Island is on the left.


Me at the top of the peak, looking rather red.

I think we all expected to take a different route back down to the resort, but oh no this is a Fijian trail, so it was straight back down the vertical path. Unfortunately the dirt was loose on the path and I managed to get down in record time, thanks mostly to sliding down on my bum. I was concerned the older American lady might break a hip or something. But it turns out I had no need to worry, they were the bionic pensioners. They marched down the hillside and arrived at the bottom free of the dirt I was caked in. Just for good measure I managed to fall over when I reached flat ground too.