[p]beale12.4
[s]
pos: 16 44.759s 177 32.787e
Date: 18/09/2017 08:30gmt+12:00
A Bay with no name, north of Yasawa Island resort. A long crescent of pristine sand, fringed by coconut palms still laden with fruit. Sand shelving down gracefully to 6m depth and a perfect anchorage. No houses, bures, shacks, no other boats except us and Mahia.
A clear blue sky, water so clear you can see the sand ripples on the bottom, a gentle trade wind breeze, a big empty horizon to the west, and as the perfect day fades gently to evening, watching the sun set in a golden glow.
This is, for me, a new candidate for the best beach in the world.
We have left Blue Lagoon, left the track of the Yasawa Flyer and the Reef Princess and the other fast people carriers, and have returned a little to the sense of exploration and adventure we had across East.
It's easy to imagine an almost empty Yasawa Island chain; before the Fijians started sprinkling their western Islands with the resorts and the dive centres and the fast ferries and the floatplanes. I'm not knocking the way it is now, it is jobs and it is sharing with lots of people and it is lovely. But the almost emptiness here is lovely in a different way, and we are really enjoying another taste of that before we prepare to return home.
Late September and New Zealand is beginning to beckon. Back to flat whites and schedules and clean bright supermarkets and family and good times and jobs and rain.
We only have very intermittent cell phone coverage here in the north on the Yasawa Island chain, kind of symbolic of being near but just out of the beaten track here.
As usual, I swam a lap or two of the boat at 6:30 this morning. A crisp 26 degree water temperature is a lovely way to start the day.
Tropical winters are exceptionally good for your spirits; I recommend them highly.

[END]