The first cut is the deepest

I’m sitting on the beach. My coral cuts are healing slowly but steadily. Yesterday I had quite a headache and thick feet. I’ll probably get round the blood poisoning anyway. The wind is blowing at up to 45 km/h, everyone is out windsurfing and kitesurfing. A 60-year-old is doing 10-metre jumps with his kite. I feel infinitely small.

On the beach I listen to Rod Stewart, The first cut is the deepest and Coral, the invisible invasion. Some divers have taken some really good pictures out on the reef and E6, which I’ll post today. They said that the sharks here were only very small and harmless. Even if they were, I won’t be swimming across the open sea to Dolphin Island.

I’ve been here on Nananu-i-Ra for almost two weeks now and almost feel at home. It’s been good not to meet 30 new people every day – and to say goodbye to everyone after a maximum of three days. Must move on.

The plans for the next few days have been finalised. On Wednesday, a small boat will sail 50 kilometres from Ellington Wharf to Vanua Levu, the second largest island. There I will visit Savusavu, then Labasa, test a few resorts on the southern beaches and finally cross over to the garden island of Taveuni. The last three weeks are reserved for the Yasawa group. I’m hoping for wind as soon as I can kite again.

I really like Warren’s Eclipse kite. I’ve been waiting for two days for him to send me the price list from Australia. If the price is right and he takes my old nitro, I could soon have a red kite.