In Fiji, as we slowed down to take photos of the sea, my eyes caught something black moving at a distance. Getting out of the car where there was no fence to keep these piglets contained, we squealed with delight, as did this little white piglet who seemed happy to see us.

Fascinating Fact of the Day about Devon: 
From this site:

“Devon is home to the UK’s oldest humans:
No, not those people who constantly walk in front of you down High Street. A fragment of jaw bone was discovered in Kent’s Cavern in Torquay in 1927, and carbon dating followed by studies in 2011 say it could date from 44,200BC and is Homo Sapiens – making it the oldest modern human remains found in northwest Europe. Not all scientists agree with the dating, mainly the ones from Cornwall.“

Due to a photo shortage resulting from inclement weather, today we’re reflecting on a time four years ago when we had a fantastic time in the cultural village of Savusavu, Fiji, on the island of Vanua Levu.

(To see the post with some of today’s photos, please click here.  If you search our archives from September 7, 2015, to January 4, 2016, you’ll have an opportunity to read and see photos from our memorable experiences during four months in Fiji).

Most tourists, when visiting Fiji, tend to travel to the main island of Viti Levu, the largest of 330 islands in the archipelago. Vanua Levu would typically be the next choice, as the smaller islands’ second-largest and most populated island (135,961).

It appears there were no less than five piglets. The mom was contained within this wood structure, but the piglets could easily wander about.

Overall, we spent a total of four months in Fiji, three in Vanua Levu in Savusavu, and one month in another single-family home on Viti Levu (population 600,000) in the more remote area of Pacific Harbour.

Pacific Harbour, an hour’s drive from Suva, the capital and less desirable place to stay, is a popular residential area for ex-pats, locals, and tourists. It’s also a known area for adventure seekers with its exciting canals with white water rafting, bungee jumping, scuba diving, snorkeling, and more. See this link for more details.

But, the gem of our experience was the three months we spent in a tiny house overlooking the sea in the highly cultural and fascinating village of Savusavu. So few tourists visit Savusavu, I was unable to find stats as to the number of tourists that visit the village.

This diminutive aspect and the estimated 90% of the population are native Fijians, with 45% of which are Indofijians, those with ancestors from India born in Fiji.  

The ferry that was awaiting passengers for its daily run to the main island of Viti Levu took several hours.

The accents of the Indofijians still indicate a strong influence from India, acquired through their parents and grandparents, interlaced with the typical Fijian accent.  

Our wonderful neighbor, Sewak, educated us on the influence and culture of the people of India on the Fijian culture. As for the native Fijians and Indofijeans, we had the glorious experience of learning about their culture, rituals, and lifestyles, so different from our own.

It was Sewak’s dog Badal, who visited us every night for dinner. We always made him a plate with meat and vegetables. Sewak had permitted us to feed Badal meat when he and his wife were vegetarians.  

Each night Badal appeared on our veranda, folding over his front paws and waiting patiently for his plate of food. Through this friendly dog, we had an opportunity to get our “animal fix.” See his photo below:

Badal visited us almost every day in Fiji, checking out what may be on the evening’s menu.  We never failed to give him a plate of something delicious. After his meal, he’d sit cross-legged on the veranda looking at me, hoping for second helpings. For more photos, please click here.

There are dogs, farm animals, birds, along with an endless array of sea creatures seen by scuba divers and snorkelers.  We loved every moment, particularly in Savusavu.  

The beach is seen on the short drive to the village.

Photo from one year ago today, October 1, 2018:

It has become commonplace for us to see lions across the Crocodile River. However, we never will take these sightings for granted.  For more photos, please click here.

This lamb is half the size of the others.  Renate explained she never grew to full size due to a genetic anomaly..

Fascinating Fact of the Day about Devon, Cornwall: 
From this site:“
Devon has Europe’s Oldest Cinema:
Torbay Picture House was opened on 16 March 1914 and is believed to be the oldest surviving purpose-built cinema in Europe. In its early days, it featured a 21-piece orchestra, with each member paying a guinea to perform. There are 375 seats: 271 in the stalls, 104 in the circle, plus three private boxes at the back seating an additional eight. A project is currently underway to bring it back into use. We can’t say for sure, but the first film shown was probably the original Police Academy.”

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“They say that time flies when you’re having fun.”  We’ve found that time flies regardless of how much fun we’re having. During the past difficult last three months in South Africa flew by in a blur, from February to May 2019, waiting for me to heal enough to fly to Ireland.

One of the entrance gates to Renate and John’s 500-year-old seven-bedroom house.

Now, as we recall Ireland and the three months we spent in Connemara from May to August 2019, passed so quickly, the memories seem distant and far removed from our reality.

Now, as I’m quickly returning to my “old” self (old, indeed) we’re able to look back to our 15 months in Marloth Park, South Africa, focusing on the amazing months we spent in my favorite place in the world.

The lush green pasture.

It was about one year ago that I found myself saying to friends and perhaps even posting that I was in the midst of experiencing “the best year of my life.”  With our many friends close at hand with an outrageously busy social life and of course, the constant flow of wildlife both at “home” and in Kruger National Park, life couldn’t have been more pleasing.

Regardless of the hot weather, the mozzies, the insects and the prospect of snakes at every turn, we found ourselves entrenched in the magic that living in the bush offers.

Some have asked, “Did the cardiac by-pass surgery and its long and painful recovery tarnish any of our South African experience?”

The sheep in this particular paddock had been sick or have some disability.

No doubt, the last three months in Marloth Park were difficult, especially when I was too ill to be able to go out onto the veranda to interact with our wildlife friends, until the last few weeks before we departed in May.  

However, I’ll still stand by my statement that the first 12 months we spent in Marloth Park as being the favorite year of my life since we’d begun our travels almost seven years ago. It was a dream fulfilled.

The proverbial question is…will we return?  Our hopes remain that immigration will allow us to return and remove our status as “undesirables” for the three months we overstayed during my recovery.  

This is the biggest goose we’ve ever seen.

We’re scheduled to return on a cruise from Lisbon to Cape Town in November 2020, hoping to stay in Marloth for another three months, minus the few days we’ll spend in Cape Town.  

If we don’t receive the waiver, we’ll have to cancel that Azamara cruise and possibly lose our GBP 892, US $1100 deposit we paid long before I became ill.  We’ve decided to continue to wait to see if we’ll be approved for the waiver over the next few months.  If not, we may choose to get an immigration lawyer to assist in this process.

In the interim, we’ll continue to make plans for the future planning around the cruise as we continue to wait on the waiver.  Neither of us cares to have plans up on the air but in this case, we’ve decided to be patient and forge ahead

This dock on the pond outside our door is covered in moss due to the humidity.

This morning farm owners Renate and John stopped by to bring us fresh towels, a new down comforter and duvet with matching pillowcases, a dozen eggs from their chickens and feed for the ducks, geese, and chickens along with different feed for the sheep.

Once the rain stops we’ll wander out to the greenhouse to pick tomatoes and stop to feed the animals some “pellets.”  Ummm…farm life…we like it!

Have a delightful weekend!

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Photo from one year ago today, September 28, 2019:

From a recent visit to the “hippo pool” in the Crocodile River bordering Marloth Park.  For more photos, please click here.

A chicken in our garden, right outside the door.

Fascinating Fact of the Day about Devon, Cornwall: From this site:
“Devon “invented” the first Jack Russell Terrier
The Jack Russell Terrier was created by the Reverend John Russell – born in Dartmouth, went to school in Plympton, rector of Black Torrington. He bought a dog with stumpy legs, huge ears and was great at digging around in filth. The white and tan dog was excellent at digging out foxes which had gone to ground.”

We often hear comments such as, “Live in the moment. Don’t dwell on the past or the future.”

Roses blooming outside our door.

A considerable part of the joy we experience day by day is wrapped around our current lifestyle, our past travels, and the anticipation of experiences yet to come.  

No, this doesn’t mean we forget about where we are at any given moment. As shown in today’s simple photos, a chicken looking in the door was an experience in itself. Even in our old lives, we would have giggled over a chicken looking into the house.

 

For those who raise chickens, which more and more health enthusiasts are tackling these days as interest in free-range chicken and eggs has grown, a single chicken looking into the house may not be as big a deal as it is for us.

She approached the door when she saw us inside. “You got any pellets?”  she clucked!

We found ourselves giggling over this seemingly insignificant event. A short time later, we captured more photos of the farm and its farm animals when the sun peeked out for a few minutes.

We started a walk with the sun shining, heading across the road where the Dorset sheep are located in a paddock. Alas, no more than five minutes from when we left the house, it started pouring again, and we rushed back to the house. 

She was awaiting our reaction and the possibility of food.

Are we bored hanging around the farm? Not at all. We love this simple farm life with little obligation other than keeping the house clean, gathering firewood, grocery shopping, cooking our meals, doing our laundry, making and changing the bed, all of which is not unlike what most of us do daily.

We don’t have a cleaner here for the three weeks on the farm. Sure, we have our fair share of clutter, including items on the kitchen counters where we often leave out bowls and pans we use frequently. But, we both work to stay on top of keeping the house spotless, exactly how we like it.  

In our old lives, clutter was out of the question, but now, although we don’t have newspapers, snail mail, and work-related clutter, we have lots of adapters and cords cluttering our space lying all over the living room floor, including our HDMI cord. We always have to walk carefully around these cords when there are few outlets in most holiday rentals.

Although it’s very cool, flowers are still blooming.

It’s not like the US, where there are often outlets on every wall.  In many countries, there are only one or two outlets in an entire room. We’ve never had outlets in the bathroom. We work around it.  

Tom figures all of this out upon our arrival at a new location and somehow manages to ensure we each have ample plug-ins for our digital equipment using our power strips and universal adapters.

Although we’ve assigned ourselves specific tasks, we’re always willing to help one another, regardless of the task. Tom is still babying me by not allowing me to carry heavy objects, bring in groceries or help with the firewood. I doubt this will ever change, but I do my fair share around the house, especially now that I feel well.  

Colorful flowers in the garden.

As more and more time passes, I think less and less about the problematic past seven months and spend more and more time reveling in the joys of past experiences and embracing those for the future.

We’re both very grateful for this life.

May you find gratefulness in your simple days!

Photo from one year ago today, September 27, 2018:

This was my favorite photo of impalas, taken in Kruger National Park.  Impalas have exquisite markings on their faces and bodies. For more pictures from our self-drive in Kruger, please click here.

In the rain, Tom was using the wheelbarrow to bring the wood to Pond Cottage.

Fascinating Fact of the Day about Devon, Cornwall: From this site:
Devon has the world’s country’s bakery
“I know what you’re thinking. The clue’s in the name. But like they don’t get cream teas right, our Cornish cousins didn’t invent the pasty either. The earliest recorded recipe for the pasty was discovered in 2006 and dated back 500 years. Yup, it’s in a Devon book. So, you can go to Europe all you like and get them to say Cornish Pasties have to be made in Cornwall. Doesn’t make it so. If you like, we can also prove we invented Cornish Piskies, the Cornish language, and the writer and director Joe Cornish.“

With the weather in the 14C, 57F range, the past several days consisted of almost constant rain, and it became pretty cold in the Pond Cottage. It’s been so hard. Using the woodstove was our best option to warm up. We’ve been bundled up in our sparse warm clothing.  

The past two nights, I wore socks to bed. It makes us wonder how cold we’ll be when we get to Minnesota in November, with the winter season rolling in. We recall a blizzard on Halloween in 1991 as described here and below:  

The woodshed…a building on this 500-year-old farm.

“In eastern Minnesota, the Halloween Blizzard shattered many of the previous October snowfall records. The 8.2 inches that fell in the Twin Cities on October 31 was more snow than had ever been recorded in any October in its recorded history. Over the next two days, the snow continued to fall, leading to additional snowfall of one to two feet (30 cm to 60 cm). By the time the snow ended on November 3, the storm had dropped 36.9 in (93.7 cm) on Duluth, the largest single snowstorm total in Minnesota history at that time. The Twin Cities received 28.4 in (72.1 cm), setting a single-storm record for the metropolitan area. In all, at least one foot (30 cm) of snow fell in a swath approximately 100 mi (160 km) wide from south-central Minnesota, northeastward into northwestern Wisconsin, and into the Minnesota Arrowhead. A more narrow band of 2+ ft (60+ cm) of snow fell from the Twin Cities to Duluth and northward.”

As it turns out, my son Greg and wife Camille have offered to loan us winter clothing while in Minnesota. If necessary, we’ll also buy a few items, such as warm jackets, sweatshirts, and sweaters, leaving them behind when we depart.

As mentioned in a post a few days ago (see the link), we were awaiting a credit from Easirent Car Rentals in Ireland. Over six weeks had passed, and we’d yet to receive the EU 2100, US $2308.71 they’d charged to our account. It was not a “hold” but an actual charge.

The dry woodpile from which Tom collected wood.  The kindling is to the left of the woodpile.  The owners encouraged us to use all we wanted. We’re using the wood-burning stove/fireplace to heat the house.

The credit appeared on the card last night.  We sighed with relief. We didn’t want to deal with the negativity of the threatening phone calls for one more day! Fortunately, after pressing them with the threat of reporting them to the Irish equivalent of the Better Business Bureau, they finally came through.

While I was reviewing our various credit card balances online, which we generally pay off in full on the first of each month, Tom suggested we use accumulated rewards points on our cards toward any credits we may be paying off in a few days. We hadn’t done this in a while.

When we used the points this morning, we paid off $1397.37 on the cards. We’ve recently become more mindful of only using cards that provide the most reward points.

With all the vegetation and rain, it’s not unusual to see moss growing on the trees.

When we shop, we use a card that offers the most points for groceries. When we pay for travel-related expenses, we use two other cards, one in Tom’s name and another in mine. It’s working well for us.

The sun was shining when we awoke this morning, but it was raining again when we had our coffee. We’re looking forward to getting out. Most sightseeing venues near Devon require a drive of one or two hours on the narrow winding roads, which we aren’t willing to tackle in this rainy, windy weather.  

We’ll continue to wait patiently for a sunny day or at least a day without too much rain. In the interim, we’re enjoying the cozy fire in the woodstove while continuing our research.

May your day be sunny and bright!

Photo from one year ago today, September 26, 2018:

This male lion was cuddling up to this female.  For more of our lion photos, please click here.

See the description below of the narrowest official street in the world. (Not our photo).

Fascinating Fact of the Day about Devon, Cornwall:
“Devon has the narrowest road in the world (from this site):

Before I started preparing the post, we tackled the pouring rain and made our way from the house to the car. Needing a few items from the grocery store, it made sense to only drive to nearby Witheridge rather than head back to Tiverton, a 40-minute or more drive in the rain.

With it raining as hard as it has, added to the reality we were totally out of photos, we’d hoped to take more photos in Witheridge. Doing so was tricky when both the camera and I got soaked even while wearing my rain parka. It was not a good day for taking photos and attempting more sightseeing.

Sheep grazing near Pond Cottage.  This paddock is where the older rams reside to live out their lives.

Instead, we purchased the few items we needed and headed back to Pond Cottage to build a roaring fire and hunker down for the remainder of the day. In checking out the long-range weather report, it appears it could be raining for the next ten days.

We apologize for the lack of good photos for today’s post. We did the best we could under the circumstances. On Monday, if it’s raining when we return to Tiverton to shop, we’ll visit a few museums in the area. Rain or shine, museums are always a good option.

With our taxes done, our recent “paperwork” completed, and various supplies ordered that will be shipped to us from the mailing service. We now have more free time to begin researching our upcoming trip to India in five months.  

When we didn’t feel like driving in the pelting rain, we went 10 minutes to this small market in the village of Witheridge. They had everything we needed at reasonable prices.

All we’ve booked for India to date has been the exciting train trip on the Maharajas Express departing from Mumbai on February 2, 2020, ending in Delhi on February 8, 2020, and also the fabulous cruise embarking on April 3, 2020, from Mumbai, India and arriving on May 2, 2020, in Greenwich, England, a 29-night cruise. 

We need to begin further research on staying in India from February 8th to April 3rd, almost two whole months. We haven’t decided yet if we’ll rent a series of holiday homes or stay in hotels. If you’ve visited India in the past few years and have any suggestions, that would be greatly appreciated!

Tom had suggested we wait to book anything further for India until we had a better idea of how I’d be feeling. Now, after being off the three awful medications and being able to walk for the past month, my strength is quickly returning.

St. John the Baptist church is located in Witheridge.

It is no longer painful to walk, and the breathing issue (aka dyspnea) I was experiencing has diminished each day. The wounds on my legs and the hematoma on my right thigh are almost completely healed, and my sternum continues to be less and less painful when I move specific ways. 

Overall, I feel tremendous and hopeful for plans for the future.  Barring any unforeseen setbacks, I’m good to go anywhere we’d like to go in the world. We’ll continue to purchase global insurance, which is available annually for long-term travelers at a much better rate than we’d paid in the past.

Ultimately the international insurance we had all these years proved useless when they refused to pay my medical bills, claiming I had a pre-existing heart condition, which I did not have nor was aware of.  

Row houses in the village.

We could commence a lawsuit against the insurance company, but we’ve decided we don’t want to make our lives all about a legal matter, constantly on the phone with lawyers.  

Life goes on. And, we’re grateful that “life goes on!” We’re thankful to have survived the trials of the past seven-plus months, and feel free to return to our world journey with peace of mind and contentment.

May your day present you with peace of mind and contentment!

The baby tried drinking from the river on her own while mom stood nearby to watch for predators.  Giraffes are vulnerable to predators in this position. For more photos, please click here.