Oolala Savala Expedition

This is the boat that brought us to Savala.

We just returned from a real Fiji adventure! Oolala Savala! Savala is the name of the island we visited. It took one hour and fifteen minutes to get there by boat . Savala is a small, uninhabited island off the coast of mainland Fiji.

On the way, we jumped off the boat into the crystal clear, turquoise water to snorkel. We saw the beautiful colors of the coral reef and the exotic creatures within it, including tropical fish, starfish and sea urchins. We even saw Nemo, the clown fish. After that, we got to feed a school of fish that surrounded the boat. It tickled when all the fish swarmed around my hand eating every morsel of bread while taking curious nibbles at my fingers.

You can catch a glimpse of the fish we fed. There were literally thousands of them swimming around us.

Once we got back on the boat, a boy named Coby from Australia and I got to steer the vessel while a band played for us.

Once we reached the white sandy island, we were served a delicious lunch with bbq chicken, salad and tropical fruit.

One of our guides taught us all about the uses of a coconut tree, Fiji’s national tree. You may think the trees are just palm trees, but these trees produce coconuts. Nothing from the trees goes unused. Coconut roots are used in medicine to get the poison out if someone steps on a stone fish. Coconut trunks are used to make furniture, coconuts are used for food and coconut leaves are used to weave baskets, hats and fishing nets. They even use the spine of the leaf to make brooms.

After the demonstration we fed baby sharks. Their mother abandoned them, so the guides of our tour feed them. They are called black tip sharks. The guide let me feed the baby sharks some chicken.

Then, I got to go stand-up paddle boarding. It was my first time, but I only fell off once. We decided to snorkel a bit more, though we didn’t see much because our boat left soon.

On the way back, the captain stopped the boat and we got to dive off the boat. They served us tea and fresh baked banana bread and we sang songs with the band. What a nice adventure in Fiji!