July 2004

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Monday 21 June 2004-Sunday 4 July 2004

This was also quit a turbulent time for the base at Safe Landing though. Firstly we had a changeover of ELs, then the other Rob left, making me the only 'old' vol on site. Coming full circle this left the job of doing a couple of in water validations down to me!

It's weird, but the last few days before other Rob left he was commenting on how everyone he arrived with, or who was onsite at that time had now left, and things were pretty strange for him. I didn't realise until he left, how true this is... being the person who's been at a site the longest sure was a strange feeling. In addition, I was handed the mantle of Fish Scribe and had the dubious honour of introducing this, which I did by way of a little ditty. To bring a little audience participation to the fore leaving the last syllable or two on each line to the gang to guess and complete. Original? Who knows, but it did go down pretty well.

On the 23rd I wrote in notes, 'Completely screw up right arm lifting kit from boat. Nasty cracking noises from elbow, but appears to be just muscular.' Missed three dives as a result of this, and had to be dragged onboard from then on in as lost just about all the strength in this arm.

Update: July 8 this injury was diagnosed via ultrasound as complete rupture of bicep distal tendon, had surgery to repair it July 12, in a cast for 6 weeks and will be 4 months before any real exercise can be done. Oh dear!

To show the acclimatisation that goes on too... the whole of the last week here I wore my full length wetsuit. This is a 2mm titanium lined jobbie, which has been worn in 17-18 degree water in Sydney, yet here it felt only just acceptable in 26 degrees! Yup - Life in Fiji will make you soft!

Update: Caught a bugger of a cold first day I landed in Sydney, given the 'freezing' late teen temperatures. More proof of Fiji softness!

	Sunset on my last night at Safe Landing.
	As is the tradition, my send-off sees the rest of the gang spelling (or rather trying to) out my name as the boat leaves. Left to right: Keith, Luis, Adrian, George, Nick, Drew, Will (top effort!) and Lene. Cheers guys!

The final part of the trip involved a return to Nadi, and a very pleasant day and a bit at The Nadi Bay Hotel, where the crowd are friendly, and I spent a couple of evenings chatting with the collection of random strangers you'll meet at such a place. Random, yes, but always with interesting tales.

	From the Yasawas Flyer, on the way back to Nadi.
	The pool at the Nadi Bay Hotel, not a bad place to lounge around.

All in all, I'd had to say the time on this expedition was very worthwhile. Towards the end think I was looking forward to moving on, possibly because of the 'colder' weather, possible as everyone I came with and met along the way had been replaced by new, unfamiliar faces.

I really hope to be another expedition in the future, at another site of course, and really hope I can retain some of the marine knowledge gained upon the way.