I am was scared of everything. Things that fly, things that crawl, things that slither, things that bite. And mosquitos. But I was never scared of coconuts.
Fiji Island Hazards
When I arrived for my 4 week volunteering stint, in Nacula, a remote Fijian island in the middle of the South Pacific Ocean, I was immediately handed a piece of paper with a long list of things that could harm me.
Adjusting to island life was going to be hard, but luckily, it’s not so difficult to avoid falling foul of Fijian island hazards. Here’s how.
Don’t provoke sea snakes
Photo by Derek Keats 
The one thing that (quite rationally) worried me most about living on a remote Fijian island was the possibility of encountering a sea snake.
The bad news is that Fiji is home to the highly venomous black and white banded sea snake. Worse, they’re usually found around Fiji’s shores and sometimes make their way on to its sandy beaches, especially at night. The good news is that they’re not particularly aggressive and only bite when severely provoked.
Sea snakes tend to bury themselves in the sand in shallow water just off the shore. The best way to avoid disturbing and potentially provoking them is to let them know you are nearby by shuffling instead of stepping through shallow water. That way, they’ll move long before you’re likely to step on them.
Rats are interested in your food
“Rats are more frightened of you, than you are of them” they told me. Really?!
To be fair, if I seen a rat I would still jump out of my skin.
But living on an island for a month taught me that we’ve all got to share the planet.
It also taught me that rats are interested in your food, not you.
Avoid close encounters with rats by keeping your living areas clean and tidy, keep opened food (like biscuits) in sealed containers and convert food waste into compost.
Sharks are cute
derwerbepool / Pixabay
I have a bit of a fascination with sharks. I put that down to my brother forcing me to watch ‘Jaws’ at every possibly opportunity whilst growing up.
Living on an island with a bunch of ocean conservation enthusiasts and divers, I developed a whole new appreciation for sharks and their role in the worlds oceans. Sharks are at the top of the food chain in every part of the ocean and are so important to our ecosystem. By feeding on some of the larger fish, they help maintain the species below them which in turn helps sustain coral reef systems and seagrass.
Basically, we need sharks to maintain healthy oceans. And we need healthy oceans to survive.
I’m not sure I’d describe sharks as cute like some of my diver friends would, but I do have a better understanding of their importance.
Still, I wouldn’t want to come face to face with a shark.
As luck would have it there was a coral reef a few hundred metres out to sea, and although unlikely, it was generally only reef sharks that occasionally ventured beyond the reef and closer to shore.
As for me, I never once swam out further than the reef.
Cone Shells are not pretty souvenirs
Photo by Sylke Rohrlach
If there was one thing that was drummed into me from the get go, it was this. Cone shells are poisonous. Infact they can be deadly. They may look pretty. You may be tempted to pick one up for a closer look. But don’t. Absolutely do not touch a cone shell.
I didn’t need to be told twice.
Mosquito nets are a must
Within a few days of arriving in Fiji, I counted no less than 36 mosquito bites on various parts of my body. That number would have been much higher if it hadn’t been for my trusted mosquito net.
Avoid mosquito bites by always sleeping under a mosquito net.
I’d also recommend ‘Smidge’, a (reasonably) fragrance free, non-oily, mosquito repellant cream that doesn’t contain deet so it’s better for the environment, and for your skin.
Once I discovered Smidge, the mosquito’s seemed to lose their taste for me. Smidge is the only non-deet containing mosquito repellent I’ve found that works for me. I never travel without it.
Never sleep under a coconut tree
Did you know that Fiji’s number one killer is coconuts?
It’s said that around 150 people a year worldwide are killed by falling coconuts and Nacula island seemed to have more than its fair share of coconut trees.
I had learned how to avoid being eaten, bitten, stung and poisoned, only for a coconut to fall on my head and kill me. Great!
GeKi / Pixabay
Although the odds of me falling victim to an untimely death by coconut were relatively low (150 people out of 7.5 billion worldwide is only 0.000002%), I was taking no chances. So I listened intently and did my best to observe the avoidance tactics…
- Avoid walking under palm trees if you can.
- Don’t nap, sunbathe or seek shelter directly under a palm tree (apparently you have a better chance of surviving a coconut attack if you’re standing up).
- Look out for brown coconuts. Coconuts generally fall from trees when they are fully ripe. The coconut husk is usually bright green in colour as it matures and turns brown when it ripens and is ready to fall. Easy to spot. Sort of. I did see a few brown coconuts, and was amazed at the agility of the local teenagers’ Tarzan like manoeuvres climbing up 30 metre tall palm trees to harvest coconuts with their bare hands. But I didn’t see any coconuts fall.
And I survived.
What did I learn?
Most of the things I’m scared of are in fact probably more scared of me.
Most of the things I’m scared of don’t particularly want to harm me.
Most of the the things I’m scared of will stay out of my way if I stay out of theirs.