Drawaqa Island - Barefoot Manta Resort

Armed with Steve, Lauren and Seb, we got onto the last speedboat that would take us from the Yasawa flyer to a paradise island. We were all eagerly anticipating the Bare foot manta resort, as it was the island everybody was talking about, and everyone had said they had been lucky enough to see the Manta Rays.

The bonus to the Drawaqa island, was the channel that went straight past the resort, that was teaming with plankton, and therefore became the feeding haven for manta rays during the months of May through  to October. We were a little early for the season, but people were saying sightings of the Manta ray were daily, so we were praying we would be lucky enough to see them.

We pulled up to the island, greeted by a man playing a Ukele. Once again, we were treated like royalty and all of our bags were taken care of for us while we were welcomed in by the manager of the hotel. He told us all about the island, and did a quick tour of everywhere we could go. First stop was the diving school, where we were told about the procedure if Manta Rays were spotted by the on duty look outs. At the sound of drums, you were to run there where you would be geared up and taken out to see the Manta Rays. This instantly caused some confusion as the last few islands we had been too used drums to announce meal times.

After the diving school, he took us to see the two beaches, one faced the sunset the other the sunrise, the volley ball court and the dining area. It was a small island, but very roomy, and we were excited to spend our last days here. As we said, we had to pay a little extra, but we were glad we had not missed the opportunity to come here.

We were even happier when the manager said there had been a mix up with our room, and that we were uprgraded and would be spending the first night in a 3 coconut room!

Steve, Lauren and Seb looked a little gutted as the three of them were staying in a 4 bed dorm, but we promised we would invite them over for a drink on our private deck that evening!

We went and found our luxury room, and were so pleased with what we saw.

It was a canvas lodge nestled in the shade, complete with a deck and hammock, it had a zip up front door so you could look out onto the beach that was just in front of us.

We unzipped the front of our canvas room, and saw a hanging bamboo bed with 'Bula' spelt out in flowers. But the real shock and bonus was when we unzipped the back door, to find our outdoor en suite.

Having an outdoor toilet and shower was a little daunting, but would also be an exhilarating experience!

We spent the day on the beach, and as it started to cool down, the boys went to the volleyball court to have a match with some of the locals. Needless to say the locals were well practiced and thrashed the boys, but they seemed to enjoy having new opponents to beat. That evening, on the way to the dining area, we took a walk along the beach to soak in the absolutely stunning scenery.

this picture has not been enhanced in any way!

We got to the al fresco dining area, and found the tables were numbered for each room. As we were 3 coconut impostors for the evening, we got a table to ourselves and were also served an extra course of food!

Indian was on the menu, so as appetizers we were given poppadoms, and then a chicken satay was delivered for our starter. The main meal was a large lamb curry, and dessert was a kind of rice pudding dish.

We were absolutely stuffed afterwards, but took the time to nestle our bare feet in the sand and take in the burning red sunset.

After dinner, we found Lauren Seb and Steve and had some cocktails while we boasted some more about our extra course of dinner. We were summoned by the activity organiser to play games (Fijians love games!) and everyone in the dining area had to get into a team with everyone else from their country.

We found a group of pretty drunk English guys, and queued to play "throw the ball into the bucket". Needless to say, with the drunk northerners on our team we lost dramatically, as they were probably seeing more than one bucket, but it was a laugh.

Feeling drowsy from our cocktails, we went back to our room and admired the lovely bed with fairy lights on which Steph was exceptionally excited about. We kept the mosquito net down, but left the front of our room open so we could wake up to the sun and hear the lapping waves.

The next morning, we were woken to the sound of drums, and thought it was a little early for breakfast, however we got up and headed towards the food area. We had agreed to meet the others at breakfast, but they were nowhere to be seen so we assumed they slept in.

After breakfast we packed up our stuff from our luxury room, and moved into the basic cabin we should have initially got. It was still nice, but compared to our last accomodation, it was rather dull.

We headed down to the beach where we saw Lauren Seb and Lauren. We joked with them about being lazy and missing breakfast, but to our horror they explained the reason they had missed breakfast, was because they had heard the manta ray drums being banged, so they were out snorkelling with the rays whilst we were oblivious about it munching on our toast.

Gutted wasn't even the word to describe how we felt, and even though the guys had said the visibilty wasn't great, and there had only been one ray, we couldn't believe that we had missed the main attraction to the island! 

There a few local Mata Rays to the island, who have been going there every year for a long time to feed. They all have names and distinguishing features, so they are quite famous on the island. There are two males and one large female who have their own individual personalities.

Despite missing them, this is what you can expect to see if you ever decide to head to Barefoot manta.

After a disappointing morning, we decided we wouldn't let it ruin our day, we spent most of the morning hovering by the diving school in hope of hearing the drums bang, but alas, nothing. There had been sightings of the manta rays daily for the last week, and we didn't want to be the unlucky ones who hadn't seen them.

As the day went on, we decided we didn't want to waste our day, and ourselves along with Steve and Seb had challenged ourselves the task of kayaking around the whole island at some point. Lauren had actually set out to do her diving PADI course in Fiji as it is really cheap to do there, so she was getting all the lessons she could get in before her exam that afternoon. This was going to be the day for us all to achieve our goals, and we thought maybe if we went to some open areas, we could catch a glimpse of some other great sea life delights.

We rented the kayaks out, and started the huge workout that would be kayaking against the current and in the midday heat. Lauren had gone off to do her diving exam, so we were determined to get back for when she finished so we could hear the verdict.

As soon as we kayaked round the corner of the island, the coral was bright beneath us, and we all dived in to have a look at what was below. The boys had great fun playing with some life form on the rocks that would hide away whenever you went close.

We came round to the last stretch of water that would take us home, and the water was so clear you could see the edge of the reef that we teetered on the surface of, in case we saw a turtle or god forbid, a shark. As we approached the island, we saw some divers pop up to the surface, only to see it was Lauren, who had just passed her diving course. After a day of achievements, we agreed to book a private table at the dining area that night so we could spent our last night on the Fijian islands together, as our room numbers were different.

That evening we met them once again as the sun was setting, and our table was right at the waters edge.

Once again, these photos have not been tampered with!

We enjoyed a lovely dinner of fresh fish, and a tasty slice of cake for desert, and washed it all down with some fruity cocktails and some card games.

Our final day in Fiji meant it was our last opportunity to see the Manta Rays, so we decided to stick close to the beach next to the diving school in case we heard the drums. The other guys were slightly disappointed with the sighting they had had, so would have liked another go again. Our boat to the Yasawa flyer would be leaving at 3pm, so we had ample time to see the Manta Rays on the off chance they showed up, besides lounging around on a beach all day was hardly a difficult task. Lazing in tubes was something we had both wanted to do when making our travelling bucket list, so this was a great opportunity to take lots of pictures.

The boys played games in the water, making a floating goal post out of tubes and attempting to throw a frisbee through the hole, whilst Steph and Lauren basked in the sun on the beach getting the last bit of tanning in before we left.

Unfortunately lunch time came and went, and there was still no sign of the Manta Rays, and even at 2:30 we were waiting in the dive shack in the hope it would come. At this point we were willing to miss our flight to New Zealand the next day if they came along just as the Yasawa flyer turned up. Unfortunately there was nothing, and it wasn't meant to be this time around, however we were all cheered up by the lovely goodbye ceremony the staff at Bare foot Manta put on for us. One man would start singing, and all the staff all over the island would drop whatever they were doing, and come and join in the songs that wished us goodbye and safe travels.

Although we didn't see the Manta Rays, barefoot manta was our favorite resort, and not seeing the mantas has now given us an excuse to go back at least!

We said goodbye to our buddies as they were spending their last days on the 'Beachcomber Island' the main party island, and after a quick goodbye and Facebook add, (note that there is ABSOLUTELY NO WIFI ANYWHERE in Fiji, you have to use the WiFi on the Yasawa flyer in between islands) we were bouncing along on our way back to Nadi.

We got to the port at night, and got another free transfer to our hotel 'The Nadi Bay' hotel. Here, we had some dinner at the hotel, restaurant, Tom having some pasta, and Steph a very strange spicy pizza and headed to bed. The evening felt very quiet after our last few days, and we may have even been sad after the disappointment of no Manta rays, and to be leaving beautiful Fiji, however the next day we would fly to New Zealand, and we were both buzzing with excitement as we would finally be reunited with our best friend from home, Mark!