While I went to the rather run down toilet block, Wiji had been engaged by a local man who wanted to prepare some green coconuts for us...he also wanted Wiji to take his picture.
Posing with the knife and a slightly mad grin...
I was happy to watch from afar in the shade of one of the open sided fale's.
It was such a scorchingly hot day, the colours were truly amazing, and perfect for our visit to Return to Paradise Beach. Apparently the beach featured in the 1951 Gary Cooper film Return to Paradise.
Gorgeous boy considers taking the plunge, but it was low tide...
I however did really want to get in!
Beautiful sand ribs.
We spotted an eel in one of the many rock pools.
I had an idea for some textured glass, perfect for a down stairs bathroom...Mmmm...
It was a great place for beach combing and generally poking about...
I was spotted!
After a bit coconut man returned with his mad grin and machete. 'Take my picture!' Lol.
This rock pool was totally amazing and full of reef fish darting about. I was totally mesmerised. When the wind turned it was crystal clear...Coconut man was stood just behind me, little did I realise...
He had cut down and husked a coconut each for us to drink, it was surprisingly cool and very refreshing.
He told us that he had four children and was cutting down coconuts for the village. After drinking ours he cut the coconuts open so that we could use the lid slice as a scoop to get out the jelly-like flesh. Handy that they fitted in the glove box! We took them on our way.
At our next stop no one was about, which was a surprise because the guide book suggested that the place would be rammed. We did see some chickens who rushed up to the car and I decided to feed the rest of the coconut to them. This caused chickens from all directions to come running from miles around, grabbing a bit of coconut, and then pegging it off. It was quite comical.
We wandered through the tropical gardens of the Togitogiga Recreation Reserve.
We were expecting to find a series of waterfalls and swimming holes. What we did find was a completely dry lava river bed...Wiji mimed what we both needed...A SWIM! Where was the water? The guide book had suggested a tropical oasis...
The grounds were beautifully planted...
Wiji spotted two parrots in a tree, they even let him get quite close to photograph them while they squawked about in the flower heads.
This one looked like it was pulling up the leaf to hide behind!
With not a drop of water or any sound of it to be heard in the distance we decided to drive on. We asked the first local that we came across on the road, about Togitogiga, he laughed and said that it was the dry season...later we asked other locals who claimed water had been diverted for so many other things that the river had run dry.
I can never have enough pictures of lush green meadow's under coconut groves. I just love the space. I would really like to run naked through here...a risky business considering the likelyhood of being hit by a coconut!
The village communities generally had really brightly painted fale's set in green mowed lawns with thoughtfully planted tropical gardens. Many Fale's had fabric trimming on the inside of the leaf roof's. This one had a gorgeous linear pattern that caught our attention.
A less imposing church...Religion features heavily in Samoa.
An open sided communal fale...
This plant was in flower in lots of gardens.
Next on our list of places to visit that day was the Sopo'Aga Falls. We were met in the garden entrance by one of the family members who owned the land.
He showed us through the garden to the lookout view of the 54m high waterfall.
He told us that it would be approximately an 11 hour walk to get down to the gorge.
He was kind enough to take our picture (novel). It was a sheer drop over the railing.
He then showed us around his garden...
A Samoan Lailai drum.
Wiji had a go too.
A bamboo drum.
There was also a cooking area in the garden that we could look around, known as a Umukuka. A small pit was smoking, it was used for the stone baking umu oven where food (fish, meat veggies, coconut flesh) is wrapped in banana leaves and covered in hot stones for an hour or so to cook. He also had the coconut flesh shredder that we saw in Fiji.
I was intrigued to see the Indian Mulberry, also known as the Noni. The juice of which is drunk and marketed in the west. In Samoa it is used as a traditional medicine to treat cancer.
A close up of the fruit just starting to grow, and flowers.
In the background his female relations were weaving pandanus mats in the shade. I was trying to capture the tiger orchid, but missed them in the breeze.
He happily showed us around his garden pointing out the Kava plants, yams, pineapples and traditional Samoan medicine plants, and thanked us for choosing to visit Samoa, asking us to 'make' many photo's.
After looking around the garden we headed back through the village to the other side to look back from the waterfall to the garden in the distance.
Then we nipped off, continuing south on the coast road to find Vava'u Beach Fale's, our last stop for the day. We were kind of surprised to find no one else was staying there. It seemed a shame. Consequently we got the pick of the fale's and a massive stretch of deserted beach to ourselves.
Chillaxed and ready for more snorkelling!
Some gorgeous view's from the fale...
The coconut washed back up on the beach that Wiji tried to throw at me in the sea.
He was in no hurry.
Dribblers!
Oh hi! Sans coconut challenge.
Just opposite the fale was a beautiful volcanic island rising out of the sand that we could swim around...
And a sheltered cove...
Both of which had quite a strong current, that pulled us out, it was fun, kinda. We decided to leave the current to the locals who had turned up to do some shore line fishing with nets and snorkels.
Looking back down the beach with the island on the left.
The island also had some small caves that were exposed when the tide was out.
In the fale, we had already got the washing line up! The curved wooden panelled roof was lovely...we were hoping for a decent nights sleep on an actual bed, yay! Wiji was ready in the kitchenette with the kettle on for a cuppa. Nice work, love.
A view from the fale.
'Come back in!'
Later the room was surprisingly insect free!
Wiji had used pledge and a duster on his pegs for this shot!
As the only guests our host cooked a meal for us as we sat in the open restaurant. He did a mean beef steak, according to Wiji, and I had a tuna steak that was also delicious. He even found some more beers for us!
Looking out of the restaurant at breakfast time after a great nights sleep.....Pigeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
Pipe cleaners?
It was a beautiful beach and the owner invited us to stay on for the day, and said that we could check out when we liked as there was no one else staying...how cool? We did some more swimming and went for a walk and had a look at the beach further down. Later in the day it really started to rain as we were swimming, the colours became very muted and we shared the beach with some locals who had to put their picnic undercover. They stayed in the sea fully clothed (the Samoan way) and continued to swim as we packed up our things and said our goodbyes.
1 comment:
Just lovely xx
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