The Oldies planned to spend lots of time snorkeling in the lagoon at the Warwick. Well, 2 tropical lows and a cyclone made that impossible. These photos show why. The first 3 show the large debris that came over the reef into the lagoon. The photos only show the bits that were big enough to be caught on the lagoon bottom. There were other bits that were drifting on the surface with the current. Logs, from small firewood chunks up to whole trees were being dumped into the lagoon almost continually for 5 days. The heavy rain caused major flooding along the rivers, trees were uprooted, and all sorts of debris from the river banks and low-lying areas was washed loose. The flooded rivers carried all this out to sea, the current bought it along the outside of the reef and the big waves caused by the weather tossed it over the reef into the lagoon. Tides were exceptionally high due to a combination of Full Moon and storm surges. The lagoon had to be closed; moving logs and swimmers are not a safe mix. After the cyclone passed, staff were hard at work from small boats clearing out the lagoon and picking up the muck that was littering the beach. Maybe next trip the Oldies can snorkel.
Labels: Fiji
# posted by Bart Bear @ 11:25 am
