Our first stop was the canopy walkway on the Falealupo Rd. It was yet another beautiful morning and we were pleased to find one side of the bridge was attached to a huge 250 year old banyan tree. It was a gorgeous specimen.
The steps were more like ladders in their steepness and the bridge was over 9 metres off the ground. I was very proud of Clairy for making it up there.
Hmmm...the bottom of the bridge itself seemed to be made out of aluminium decorators ladders. The lonely planet assured as it was safe although apparently had a bit of a 'lurch' to it.
Before we got on the ladder I headed up a further 4 flights of rickety steps to the very top of the banyan tree, where there is a platform with some stunning views.
Apparently you can stay the night up here. We were quite tempted, but in the end decided to stick to our schedule and carry on round the island.
The views were stunning.
Looking down on the canopy bridge from the top of the tree.
Back to the canopy bridge. I headed out first so that Clairy could take a piccy. It really didn't feel too stable. I decided to use the picture where I looked the least scared.
Clairy then took a couple of steps out and decided that was enough for the piccy.
I then went down very slowly with Clair, where she took some more pics of the gnarly tree...
Before climbing back up so she could take some pics of me from down below.
'Oh hi! I'm not normally scared of heights...but this may be an exception.'
Climbing down the sturdy tower on the other end of the bridge.
One last piccy of the tree with Clairy propping it up.
Next we headed on towards the site of Moso's Footprint. Here we pulled into an anonymous looking house with this sign outside.
A local woman appeared and after handing over the obligatory fee, she asked us to turn around. The site was right behind us, but didn't really look like anything from the wrong side.
She even took a slightly out off focus little snap of the both of us beside it. A definite footprint aspect I'm sure you'll all agree.
I was slightly more dubious about the next site that we headed to. In our guide it was referred to as the rock house, but when we arrived we found the much more amusing...House of Rock! (Cue thumping power chords).
We liked the way that grannies tomb seemed to be the most sensible place to dry that washing.
I'm not sure if it was his youthful, lithe appearance, rapidly donned towel-sarong or familiarly surly teenage countenance that made Clairy want to take quite so many pictures of our 'guide'.
He showed us to a partially caved in lava tube...
...and pointed to some piles of stones...
..including this skilfully carve stone sofa...
...and mumbled something about the men and the women of the village competing too create a rock house. I really wasn't too impressed. Had I been the judge of this so called contest, they both would have received what I consider to be an over-generous 2 out of 10...tops. I could maybe stretch to a 3 for whoever was responsible for the sofa.
Definitely not sure this roof would pass building regulations.
Having taken our 'fee', the guide ten left us to it and stomped back to his fale.
Much more impressive in my opinion was this cyclone damaged church nearby. Clairy got out and snapped some piccies.
Looking through the door she captured this tomb with a shelter built over it.
Check out the story.
Our drive took as round the Falealupo peninsular and eventually we rejoined the coastal road. On the way we spotted this mass of butterflies. Clairy got some great piccies.
Beautiful things.
Tonnes of them.
She also took a little vid of the action.
Clairy also took this piccy of a yellow fruit we didn't recognise. They looked like they might be related to an aubergine.
Our next stop was the sea arches.
We got some great pics of the huge pacific swell pounding through them. There is no protective reef along this part of the coast.
There was a little fale nearby that provided much needed shade from the savage midday sun.
The island was incredibly lush and green.
Then we headed on to lovers leap. Here the local legend says that something happened that upset an old blind women and her daughter which made them have to leave their village. They came to the top of the cliff with nothing else in mind but to jump off. Because the old women loved her daughter so much (?!), she let her climb on her back before they jumped. On hitting the water, the old women turned into a turtle and her daughter into a shark. Ever since a turtle and shark are often sighted together by visitors in the cove below. Lover's leap, therefore actually refers to the great love of an old blind women to her daughter as they jumped together into the sea (we can only presume the daughter was up for it as well then).
Here we couldn't see anyone to give our small fee to, but eventually I approached a nearby house. A very sleepy Samoan lady eventually took the cash, and shortly after we were informed by a neighbour that we were 'very good people' for endeavouring to pay our way unlike the normal tourists who snap a quick piccy and leg it.
Next we stopped for a quick spot of lunch and were served a surly toasted sarnage. Clairy was very pleased however, with her 80's child's party inspired cheese and pineapple version.
Our final stop of the day was the Alofaaga blowholes. I was secretly hoping this was going to be something rather spectacular, and wasn't disappointed. We drove the car down the bumpy track to the cracked lava rock coastline...
...and the conditions were just right. We were soon totally soaked with a very fine spray, having to carefully shield the camera.
Nice.
Oh hi!
We then drove on round to the next section of blowing rocks, and were quickly cornered by a gnarly old man, who swiftly got some cash out of me without me really understanding what it was for.
We were, however, in for a bit of a surprise. He disappeared off into the bush nearby (for a moment I was sure he'd done a runner), but then returned carrying armfuls of dried coconut husks tied together with string. He promptly headed over to the most lethaly massive blowhole and proceeded to chuck the husks in with immaculate timing to enable them to be fired miles up into the air by the power of sea water.
It was absolutely friggin hilarious as you can quite clearly see in the vid below. Make sure you watch to the end though as Clairy's hysterics are priceless.
I was so enraptured though that I forgot to take any stills of the action at all, so here's a few frames taken from the vids that pretty well capture the moment. The blowhole really was amazing. It shot water maybe 30m up into the sky.
Beware flying coconut-husks overhead!
Top-quality. It really made my day.
The crazy man up close.
All in all a pretty active day, that was great fun and hugely memorable.
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