Into the Mountains!

Bula Vinaka!


Monday, November 4th, we took Elder and Sister Whitehead to the airport to start their journey home. We will miss seeing them every day!






After we left them, we decided to take a drive up into the mountains. We went about 60 kilometers into the mountain after leaving the main road – I would say highway, but everything is just 2 lanes, one each way! As with our previous trip, the farther you get away from the main populous, the more beautiful, and primitive it becomes. As before the people are wonderful. They want you to stop to just talk. We stopped once to take a picture of a tree, and a man walked across the street to talk to us. He was the village chief, and invited us to come back another time to visit.




That Monday was a holiday - Dewali – I’ll get back to that later!



The people were enjoying the day; swimming in the rivers, fishing (with nets), and in the villages, just gathering to eat and visit. Everything is green and lush. We just poke along and take a lot of pictures: flowers, people, structures, birds – the only wildlife was a pair of ducks swimming in a river and a couple of hawks – and just the country and mountains.

Many of the houses that had cows had their big milk cans out on the road to be picked up by a “milk truck”. That reminded me of my dad – when I was born he was driving a milk truck picking up milk, in cans, from the small dairies.

Some homes along the way...humble...in gorgeous country...living off the land around them. Friendly people!

The country is so fertile that plants just grow out of the fence posts!










We were headed in the direction of a large dam and lake, which serve as water storage for Suva. After traveling for about 4 hours we were talking to a man on the road and he ask where we were going. We named the dam, and he emphatically stated “too late, too late”. So we took his advice and turned for home. We used the day well, arriving home after dark.