God, minerals and mud: thousands flock to Fiji's 'miracle spring'

The crowds begin to gather before dawn, snaking along with dusty backroads of Tailevu district in eastern Fiji, humid jungle pressing at them from every side.

Ambulances and open-topped trucks bearing stretchers are allowed to pass first, then those who can walk, and finally the healthy arrive, loaded up with empty water bottles to carry home to sick relatives and friends.

All have descended upon a remote spring in the western division mountain range, a spring reputed to have extraordinary healing properties: “miracle waters”, it is said.

For Menausi Druguvale the magic began two years ago when he was afflicted with conjunctivitis and he tramped into the mountains seeking a rumoured spring his father told him could cure his eyes.

“When I went