River swim claims life of young Fijian

FIJI – Simione Naduva remembers the hour after 10.00am on Tuesday as the most terrifying and chaotic of his young life.

For half-an-hour he fought to keep his head above water as strong currents tossed him and three of his cousins around.

Among the group that battled to stay alive in Fiji’s choppy Rewa River that morning was Suliasi Tavicaracara, who did not make it to shore.

When the young boys went to relay the news to his father Nemesio Bakau that his 23-year-old son had disappeared while trying to swim from Lomanikoro to Laucala Island, he sensed something terrible had happened.

On any other day, they could swim the 50 metres in about 10 minutes.

“When these boys came home without him, I knew there was trouble even though they hadn’t relayed what they came to say,” he said.

“Right now we are still in shock over what has happened and the priority is finding Suli.

“What’s hard to accept about all this is that he was used to swimming across the river each time he returned or left home. No one expected this to happen. His mother is devastated and is still trying to come to terms with the news.”

Naduva, 21, said the river was so rough the young men could not see one another while in the water.

“The waves were choppy and big and even when we were sharing a log we weren’t able to see each other,” he said.

“We looked across and we were so near and I asked him what his thoughts were and he decided that we let go of the log and try to swim across. He said he was really tired trying to swim against the current.

“When I got across to the shore, I saw my brother and cousin but there was no sign of him.

“We searched for several hours and it wasn’t until the evening when we were sure that there was a high possibility that he drowned and we went to his home to relay the news to his father.”

Search teams later found Tavicaracara’s body along the Mataisuva shore between Nukui Village and Laucala Village.

- Fiji Times/PNC