And we're off on the road to Labasa...

 Ok, STOP.  If the title phrase rings a bell, give yourself credit.  If you can hum the tune, give yourself a beer.

Anybody?  Anybody?  Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Dorothy Lamour, the 'Road Pictures'?  

And for you Millennials who are asking 'Bing Who?  Bob Who?  Is this like The Road Warrior'?  Your education is manifestly deficit.  For those of you who remember the comic genius of these folks, here's an Easter egg: "Patty cake, patty cake, baker's man..."  You're laughing, right?  I thought so.

Anyway, having been stuck in Savusavu for almost a week now and having fixed the head and meeting new folks and having happy hours, Nick and I were bored.  "Let's go to Labasa," said the intrepid Welshman.  (BTW, it's pronounced 'Lam-basa'.)  "Why not?" says I.  "Why?" says Grant.  "There's one row of shops, you walk up the street and back and then get on the bus to come back."  Spoiler alert:  Grant is wise in his ways.

Labasa is a bit of a hike; 24 miles according to my Apple Maps (see red line below).  Takes over two hours for an unencumbered trip.  

So at precisely 6:50 am I picked up Nick in the dinghy and we docked.  Walked to town, found the bus, sorted out the ticket system and sat back to enjoy our relaxing journey.  Until every school-aged child in Savusavu decided to hop on.  We had every seat filled, even kids in the aisles going to Saint Bedes College.  I don't know much about Saint Bedes - just that their students all wear uniforms.  Once they got off, there was breathing room on the bus again.

Then came the mountains.  The poor bus struggled mightily up the steep inclines and then roared down the  inevitable declines, the smell of hot brake drums singeing our nostrils.  You could feel the driver pump the brakes as the bus rocketed through switchbacks and hairpin turns.  I did something I don't think I've ever done in my life; I looked around for the emergency exits.  

Then Mr. Bus Driver decides he's a mashup of Mario Andretti (sorry, Millennials) and Tom Cruise in Top Gun; Maverick and is passing vehicles with other vehicles coming in the passing lane.  Honking the horn must do something to speed up the bus because we didn't crash head-on into oncoming traffic.

But up in the heights of the mountains I discovered...wait for it...Pinus caribea varhondurensis.  That's right - acres upon acres of pine trees.  In Fiji.  I thought I was back in the U.P.   Turns out the Fiji government thought it a good idea to introduce pines from the Caribbean to Fiji to stem erosion and provide a sustainable harvest of saw logs.  Looks like they succeeded - must be thousands of acres of pine trees on the hillsides leading to Labasa.

A few pics along the route:

The route included one organized 'biology break'.  At the top of the route, the bus driver suddenly pulled over.  He hopped out and we thought something was wrong with the bus.  Then all the guys in the bus started getting up and leaving the bus to go behind some ramshackle corrugated tin shed.  It dawned on Nick and me at that point.  Pretty soon all the guys got back on the bus and we continued.  I kinda felt like I should have joined them in solidarity, but I had the forethought to pee prior to boarding.

And then a half-hour later the bus stopped again.  Some guy got on selling eats and sugary sodas.  I bought 'bara' from him.  It came in a paper bag and was kind of a deep fried starchy thing.  Actually, it was pretty good.

We got to the bus station in Labasa, walked out, down the street, back up the street, and said "Grant was right.  Now what do we do?"  So we sat in 'Rachaels Restaurant' and had a Coke and plotted our next move, which was to involve food.  But that's for the next post...