Although only just over a kilometre from the port of Salelologa where we had departed the ferry before our circumnavigation of the island it felt really quite nicely isolated. The huts and the restaurant are all surrounded by dense tall forest growth. Here's the lady looking particularly gorgeous holding a flower that had fallen off a tree near our hut.
Very pretty indeed, with its voluminous protruding reproductive organs.
Near our hut was a very cute little man made pool that was placed where a river from the island meets the sea. This meant it was pretty cold (very appealing in the boiling hot temperatures), but also had some interesting wildlife in it.
Clairy took the plunge first. You can see her chilly hesitation in this quality piccy.
'Oh hi! I'm quite cold in this tiny pool.'
She made me cut her out of this piccy as she just preferred me in it. Dribbly-wet-like.
Although this one is apparently acceptable for public consumption.
The pool was beautifully clear.
Clairy soon noticed a particularly aggressive yet tiny little fish which would get very angry indeed if you put your feet too close to what he (it surely had to be male) had decided was his space. You can just make him out on the rock in the middle of the shot.
It was just too funny. He would make darting attacks at Clairy's feet including full 180 degree manoeuvres where he would reverse toward her threateningly. We both found it so funny we had to get a vid of it. This proved more tricky than we first thought as it required us to not burst out laughing whilst filming.
Here's it is...
The lagoon was really pretty and also had the quite bizarre sensation that we have come across a few times before on our travels of patches of cold and hot water. The fresh water from the river seems to mainly sit above the (practically boiling in comparison) sea water, resulting in a really quite invigorating swim.
The odd way that the salt and fresh water don't seem to mix properly creates a strange effect on the light passing through it. You have to swim down below the fresh water to get a decent view of the sea bed. You can almost see the different layers of water and I tried a number of times to capture it with the underwater camera, but this is about the best pic I could get.
The accommodation on offer at Lusia's ranged from beautifully rustic (and slightly rickety looking) water front fales to rather flash air con bungalows. We ended up with one of the air con variety as they did us an end of season deal that made it very nearly as cheap as the fales (and it was so damn hot and humid I'm not sure I would have coped without the air con).
Clairy absolutely loved the mahoosive ferns growing around our hut and insisted on putting her best dress on for some top quality photo-age.
What a gorgeous one...the fern too!
Here I am on the dock that you could jump straight off into the gorgeous blue sea. Obviously I did that as soon as I could, and even managed to persuade Clairy to do it too. I was amazed that she did, it was easily 3-4 metres above the water, brave girly. I also later dived in head first and quickly found it wasn't quite deep enough to do that. Fortunately I just got a grazed leg from a large concrete protrusion rather than anything more serious.
Passing us is the 'large' ferry that travels between the islands. We were on the titchy one for both journeys.
There were lots of fish about below the dock. We watched this lot nervously pegging it over to take bites out of a noni fruit that had fallen in the water.
Pretty clouds in the distance.
Our jungle hut.
The view of the water silhouetted through the undergrowth.
Me on the little bridge that took you over to the restaurant. A pretty strange picture, that I felt needed to be zoomed in on.
I have two fingers up and the most bizarre expression on my face. Its either one off those unfortunate pic timings and I'm carrying the hut keys in my hand..or I've just been replaced by an alien imposter. You decide.
Hide that hut in the foliage.
A much more 'stage managed' shot.
We had a lovely couple of nights at Lusia's, particularly our nice chats with Carl and Maureen who gave us lots of great suggestions and got us both very excited about heading to New Zealand. Sadly we had to leave eventually as we had to get our little car back to its home on the other island of Upolu.
We were booked on the ferry for 4pm, so we took the opportunity of heading back to the Afu Aau falls that we had missed on our little tour of the island. It was a beautiful morning and we arrived and had the place to ourselves. Clairy took some pictures on the track up to it.
So lush and green.
Here I am at the main pool. You can just make out the falls on the right of this piccy.
It looked absolutely incredible in the bright morning sunshine.
The water was almost glowing blue.
I went on a quick reccy to check if I could see a path leading away from the falls to the Pulemelei burial mound that was supposed to be near by. Sadly all the paths looked insanely steep so we contented ourselves with the gorgeous pool and falls.
Clairy loved the way this huge rock was suspended in mid air by the roots of this tree.
Bloody gorgeous.
There's the lady. First one in.
But she swiftly headed back out to retrieve the underwater camera case so that some piccies could be taken from within the pool itself. Good plan Stan.
The falls are surrounded by lovely tropical growth.
The lady, looking lovely doing her waterfall posing.
Have we stepped into the set of Emanuelle 4?
No, definitely not...she's just jumped in with all the grace of drowning donkey.
Ahh...but she is gorgeous.
Manly poses for me.
Definitely improved by the water partially obscuring me.
After we had had our fun with the camera I noticed some shrimp-things swimming about in the water. After an awful lot of searching I eventually located their hideout a few feet down on this rocky escarpment. This was another point when a snorkel pipe for our (kindly donated - thanks John Macy) mask would have made the job much easier. As it was I had to swim down and try to take a piccy whilst holding my breath. It must have looked very strange to the various tour groups that had just arrived, but it was worth it as I got a couple of great pics of the big daddy shrimp.
You can see a couple of smaller ones on here as well.
'Oh hi! How goes it with you're one big claw?'
A nice underwater shot of the pool. Clairy said I should look at this whenever I'm hot and sweaty in an attempt to cool myself down psychologically. OK.
Gross! Sorry...she made me put this one in.
The island of Savai'i felt a lot quieter than Upolu, not just because it doesn't have anything like the hectic capital of Apia. It really does feel a lot more remote and that definitely added to its charm in our eyes.
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