In this job, you often think you have found the most beautiful places in the world. And you learn different types of beauty: tarnished, tourist, homespun, glass-fragile, there are many many different types of paradise.
But I’ve never seen anywhere quite so close to paradise as Dranuvi Island.
This place…photography doesn’t do it justice. Not even the best photograph.
It’s a tiny island, you can take a tour all around it in just a few hours if that, you could probably easily walk around it if you had most of the day. The sand is nearly pure white, and buried in it, scattered across it and lying on the edges of the water are massive clam shells, the kind you think to only see in museums and tropical films. They are extremely heavy, so even though anyone is free to pick them up off the beach, I didn’t’ see anyone trying to heft one back home, although I was able to find a small piece of one that was comparatively light. It’s now sitting on my dresser. Who gets to say they picked up a shell from a Fijian paradise? Not, I don’t think, all that many people.
Digging my toes into that white sand and wading into that breathtakingly clear, sparkling blue water, just washed everything off. This is a long cruise, there’s a lot of stress that accumulates onboard, whether we intend it or not, tempers run hot and emotions run hot…days like today? They serve to cool that.
And I just consider myself so lucky, to be able to warm my feet on the sands of paradise.