Wednesday 29th March We woke up, slightly drugged from all the early starts, and prepped for a day of trekking. Little did we know what kind of trekking we were in for. None of these Australian concrete paths and boardwalks. Bobo walked ahead and as we left the farm and headed up through the bush, he began to tell us about the farmers. About 45 mins up the steep and muddy hill, we saw their plantations. Each day, they carry crops and kava leaves (to make the local "grog") down from the mountainside, on their shoulders, in the heat. As the track is narrow and slippery, they leave their shoes at the bottom and walk up barefoot. Not only that, a couple of hours in we met a farmer who was 72 years old and carting stuff down the hill. Incredible. As the bush started to thicken around us, Bobo would hack bits of it with his machete. This promptly turned into hacking an actual path (as there wasn't one) and hacking down bits of tree branch. He had to help us cross rivers and streams, slide up and down hills and basically hack our way to the crater. I was uber cautious and had Bobo's hand approximately 90% of the time. Tom didn't have that luck and, well, fell over. We had several sections where we were just wading through grass, bushes, leaves and farmers' crops which had been painstakingly planted into the hillside. Paths would narrow to nothing and we would be edging slowly along, watching the river far below and the beautiful scenery above us. We stopped for lunch by the river and plunged into the cool water. We had seen only three people in the last 4 hours. After a bit more of a climb, we reached the "road" into the village. The village of Levoni is stunning and only a few people are allowed by the chief to enter it. It's in the crater, surrounded by rainforest, and the people there have a fantastic time. Every single person raised a hand in welcome or grinned at us, and a family took us to their house to drink kava (it tastes weird). But they also generously gave us lemon tea which was pretty awesome to go with taro and noodles. Lots of kava was consumed by the men present who drank it in little bowls. Although it's not alcoholic, let's just say it makes you rather relaxed. After a while, Lala arrived...and decided to join in! Back at the ranch, we ate like horses (fresh prawns caught from the river), inspected our scratched and weary bodies then fell fast asleep. But Levoni will stay in our memories forever. ~Mandy