Back to Fiji - Last Snorkel With Sharks

My flight to the US included a layover in Fiji and I decided to stretch out my layover and stay two nights.

Once I landed in Fiji in the evening, I realised I actually did not book an accommodation for the first night. I booked some random place/homestay and hopped in a taxi. The place existed on the website, but not in real life. Since I had no place to stay, the taxi driver - very friendly indeed - offered that I could stay with him and his wife.

But, in a great turn of events, I had two travel friends (Meshi and Tijman) that I met in Vietnam staying at the port where I would take the ferry from the next morning. So, I stayed the night with them and it was nice to catch up and relive our times in Vietnam and Laos together. What started as a disastrous night turned into a very lovely one.

Anyway, the next day I hopped on the ferry to Kuata Island. At the port I randomly ran into another travel buddy I met on the 3-Day boat expedition in the Philippines. He was also heading to Kuata. It is a small world.

So, Kuata. I was here before for my bull shark dive, but this time, I wanted to do a 'normal' dive. We were a total of three divers and just had a short boat ride to our dive spot. Essentially, we were diving along the reef wall of the island with its colourful corals, beautiful fish and wonderful underwater wildlife. Even spotted a turtle in the distance. While not spectacular, it was a very lovely last dive in Fiji and I was very happy to have done it.

The following day was all about snorkelling with reef sharks. It was the main reason I extended my layover. So in the morning, we hopped on a boat for a short ride, and jumped into the water, where the reef sharks were already swimming around. These types of sharks (black-tip and white-tip sharks) are not dangerous. We were in the water for a solid 35-40 minutes with the sharks swimming around, through and with us.

My heart and my soul was filled with happiness and gratitude. Being among the sharks, observing and snorkelling with them was just the best thing. I was in awe and smiling to myself about the fantastic experience, location and creatures. I never wanted it to end, so fascinating I found these animals.

In the afternoon, I went for one last snorkel off the beach and in an amazing stroke of luck saw another two reef sharks during that last snorkel. I couldn't believe it. Ah, what a really brilliant way to end my time here in Fiji, in Paradise.Read more