Bart Bear's Blog

While we were in Fiji, cruising with Captain Cook, we did a couple of half-day trips on the big islands as well. For these trips we travelled in a bus. Now Fijian buses are a bit different to the ones you see in Australia. They are completely air-conditioned, that is they have no windows at all. That's usually no problem as the breeze keeps you nice and cool, but when it rains you do have problems. Well, here we are in a bus with rain absolutely pelting down, the way it only does in the tropics. You can see how the rain is supposed to be kept out. They roll down canvas screens. Only problem is that the clips that are supposed to hold the screens down are not up to the job so the screens flap about and let the rain in. The trick, if you are ever on one of these buses in the rain, is to sit near the aisle so you don't have to try to hold the flapping thing down, and NEVER sit near the window on the back seat. Dad did. All the water that hits the screen ends up being blown along the screen and down the sleeve of the poor coot who is trying to anchor the end. The buses have open luggage racks under them. Our bus had the water, picnic lunches and about a gazillion coconuts under there. However, the rain on this trip made such a mess of the roads and made some rivers flood so we didn't get to where we were going and I never did get a chance to crack one of the coconuts.

Labels: Captain Cook, cruising, Fiji