Bula....
Traveling to Kadavu was not just a holiday but a learning experience. In fact, traveling anywhere should activate our intellectual curiosity. This quality usually indicates that you're not just traveling for the sake of it but traveling with a purpose.
With it's tropical rainforest, cascading waterfalls and the mighty splendour of the Great Astrolabe Reef, Kadavu has earned itself a reputation among the hikers and divers as one of the Fiji's most beautiful Islands.
Geography
One of the remote and rugged group of islands located 100km off Viti Levu's southern coast, Kadavu is the fourth largest island with a population of around 8,700. The two next largest island in the Kadavu group are Ono and Galoa, and there are many other smaller ones too. Weekly flights to the main town of Vunisea operate from both Nausori and Nadi airports while there are also daily ferry services to the island from Suva port.
The coastline is craggy and deeply indented - some bays are so indented that they almost split the island. There are rugged, volcanic mountains, the highest being Nabukelevu (Mt. Washington), 838m (2,749ft) high.
Villages
Namalata village, links the island's western end and it's centre, is known to Fijians as Na Yarabale ('the place where canoes are dragged across').
Namuana village is the home of the turtle callers, is also within this area.
The sacred turtles of Kadavu
Namuana village nestles in a bay on Kadavu Island. Here, the women still practice the ancient ritual of turtle calling. According to legend, many years ago in the village of Namuana, a princess named Tinaicoboga lived with her daughter Raudalice. The two women often fished around the reefs, but one day waded further out than usual. They were so engrossed in fishing that they failed to notice the approach of a war canoe paddled by warriors from a nearby village of Nabukelevu, who seized the women, bound their hands and feet with vine, and headed for home.
Outraged, the gods of sea wrought a great storm, and the canoe was swamped with water until it foundered. The warriors noticed that the women had changed into turtles and threw them into the ocean. The storm abated and they returned to Nabukelevu.
When the women of Namuana sing to them today, descendants of the turtles return to the village. But it is said that if any villagers from Nabukelevu are present the turtles will not appear.
Udulevu is a sacred place accessed through the village of Namuana where the actual turtle calling ceremony takes place.
Kadavu has few roads and small boats are the island's main form of transport.
Prevailing southeasterly winds batter the exposed southeastern coast of the Kadavu Group: all the islands can be subjected to inclement weather.
One of the main attractions of the island is their reefs, which usually hooks around the southeastern side of the island for 45km. On its seaward side, the reef drops away to 1,800m. It's a spectacular diving location, with a huge variety of colourful corals, fish and other marine species. Deep walls, reef passages and shallow reef-garden grottoes constitute the diving terrain. The top dive sites include Naingoro Pass, Usbourne Passage, North Astrolabe and Roberts Wreck.
