Navala Village is apparently an absolute pig to get to and can only be accessed by a four wheel drive or something similar due to the bad weather in the mountains where bridges are being flooded and roads are being eroded. With a walk at some point potentially on the cards we all decided to pack lightly and take only our small rucksacks with the bare essentials for our one night - all of us except Chelsea of course, who was trying to to jam a full shampoo, conditioner and strawberry body wash into her bag...

We got a taxi to Ba, north of Nadi. When we arrived we had a toe tapping wait for our villager to come and collect us, obviously he was on Fiji time and collected us 45 minutes late.

He had some things to buy in the markets of Ba for our stay so we accompanied him so that we could have a good nose around. His name was Tui, he was a mountainous Fijian with big eyes and a bigger smile. He was incredibly friendly and had a bald head with smudged grey hair that had been daintily plaited at the back.

As we accompanied him around the cleanest market on Earth; everything was swept to hospital standard and the array of produce available was stacked into neat rows or towers. Chelsea's favourite bit was a literal wall of pineapples all cleverly interlocked where you could buy a bottle of freshly squeezed pineapple juice for $1, it tasted divine! We also bought Kava for the village chief as a traditional gift before heading to a fish market where the stench was indescribably bad and Tui ominously bough a gigantic, slightly greying fish. As he bought it I gulped sullenly and whispered a small prayer that it wasn't for us.

As we bumped our way through the stone roads to Tui's village in the mountains he pointed out places of interest along the way. One particular point I found extremely interesting was a long, horizontal cave in the rock face. This cave had been used to hide women and children during tribal wars as there was only a single, thin pathway up to it. It looked pretty unassailable to me and a great vantage point in war.

As we neared the village we saw all the local children jumping into the river from the last bridge on our route; we stopped to have a look and non of them were camera shy!

Fancying a go we drove up to Tui's house and came back in our swimwear. The water seemed very fast flowing due to all the rain the village had been getting. The children (ranging in ages from as young as six) beckoned for us to jump in and assured as that the water was deep. Tentatively jumping in I was quickly made aware that the water was not deep at all, it was perhaps 9 inches deep!

As I suspected the water was incredibly fast flowing and tumbled me over the rocks in such shallow water. I attempted the old 'lie on your back, feet first' manoeuvre but just thudded down stream with my arse catching on every boulder the river had to offer. At one point I did a double handed 'I'm struggling, please christ send help!' wave over to the children on the river bank, they all just waved back enthusiastically, muttering, 'He's loving it!', assuming that I was having the time of my life. Half drowned and with a few litres of dirty river water ingested, I clambered up the stoney banking scratching all my feet in the process as I flailed up there like squid.

After only taking part in the river jump the one time we headed back to Tui's house. There is a faint air of sadness over the place as unfortunately, two years ago, Tui's mother had a stroke and he brought her back to live with him. As a result of being a fantastic son, the Bulous Eco Lodge that is bathed in beautiful gardens is just tipping into disrepair. What the place really needs is a woman's touch, as my mum would say, someone to make sure that everything is grand in appearance and at the expected standard.

We helped Tui prepare dinner in the evening and each shaved the white flesh out of a coconut using a special tool which you sit on and have a metal serrated little fan at the end which you spin the coconut around on to get the flesh out. Then, while Tui laboured away with the rest of the food his mother was wheeled in and sat with us while we plucked spinach leaves and played cards. She struggled to communicate but was happy to smile along as I sat next to her and played my hands with her. She picked up the game extremely quickly and corrected me on a few occasions!

Unfortunately, for a brief moment her left jubbly draped out from beneath her loosely fitting vest and I had to gentle eas it back in and cwcth her vest in a little more snuggly. Thankfully, she seemed quite unabashed and my red face seemed unecessary.

Eventually, Tui brought food out, it was a feast! Chicken, potatoes, spinach, aubergine, pineapple, passion fruit and mango juice and of course that bloody huge fish. Just looking at it made me shudder, thank God I had Chelsea there to hoover up the bits I didn't like!

After food we had the luck of seeing Kava made in the traditional way. First, it is rolled into a paste with small amounts of water added at regular intervals until a dense ball is made. Then a whole jug of water is added and the ball is mixed in, making a light brown, muddy water. A long length of hibiscus root is then used to sieve out the pieces of Kava and rung out tightly to ensure that all the Kava is returned to the bowl. The Kava is made in a special wooden bowl that is passed down through the family and is a treasured item. Our kava was very strong and made our sleepy minds even sleepier.

When we revisited our dorm ready for bed we found that the place (which reminded me of my grandparents' garden shed where the infamous 'Black Hand Gang' resided, because of its smell) had been taken over by insects. There were thick yellow and black caterpillars everywhere that crunched when you whacked them with a flip flop. There were mosquitos the size of house bricks. There were ants on the beds. I whimpered as I brushed my teeth whilst standing on one singular toe as not to touch too much. And later I wrapped myself in my sleeping sack so tightly I resembled a twix and finally got around to wearing my mosquito head net, I looked a right picture. Sleep wasn't going to come easily.