Wild swimming, fish on the beach, crumbs in the bed

Following a busy Fiji Ocean Swim Festival weekend at Plantation Resort on Malolo Laila island, nine swimmers cut loose and headed by speedboat to link up with our big fast cat transfer to the Yasawa Islands.

Our destination was  the more remote waters of Nacula (Nar-thu-la) Island, towards the northern end of the Yasawa Island group, a 120 km long strung out chain of some of the most stunning islands in the world. 

That same afternoon saw us on an out and back 2km swim off the beach in front of our Swim Safari base at Oarsman's Bay Lodge, along the beautiful crescent shaped reef that stretches out into the bay, it's pristine water, coral and colourful fish providing ideal therapy after a bouncy trip through unseasonal squalls.

Our second day of swimming included one of the Fiji Swim Safari pioneering favourites, the 4.2km journey along Nacula's south coast from the bay at Safe Landing on the south east corner of the island to Oarsman's Bay Lodge on the west coast. 

The next day, we swam our way through reef channels and around rocky outcrops on a low incoming tide. A planned 2.5km swim to an inviting offshore island beach became 3km of exploration over reefs as if we were on a starship journey through a different universe. We finally emerged on a stark bright beach, with coconut palms and lush green background.

We were a varied lot of swim safariists, representing Australia, USA, UK, Slovenia and Fiji, but the rapport was immediate, and made for some great banter and discussion during breaks in our longer swims, over meals, and on our various excursions and adventures. 

One of our best meals consisted of freshly caught fish cooked on an open fire on the beach, with boiled manioc and salad, and eaten with our fingers off leaf plates. Truly wild cuisine.

There were one or two challenging swims each day, cultural exchanges, walks, discussions, debates, plenty of laughter plus the occasional stunned silence as we took in the views, moments of unbelievable colour, texture and rugged beauty, not to mention the biting sea spray, as the early week wind continued.

It was a full, sense-scarring few days, the scars little reminders, like crumbs in the bed, that it wasn't all just a dream.