We headed back to Apia central to try and get us on the ferry that afternoon, but sadly found it was fully booked for vehicles. This meant we had to stay a night in Apia and get on the first ferry the next morning at 10am. This was ok really as it gave us a chance to upload some of our blog entries and generally sort ourselves out a bit. For some reason all the hotels seemed totally booked up and we ended up staying at the Samoan Outrigger Hotel that only had posh air con rooms. Oh go on then...we both slept very well on their super comfy bed.
The next morning we got bitten to buggery eating their complimentary brekky outside next to the pool, but the experience did include me having the opportunity to create a honey and banana panini-type sandwich with their bizarre bread-squashing toasty-machine. A resounding success in my eyes.
We arrived at the ferry port a good 3/4 of an hour before it was due to leave, but somehow this still resulted in us being right at the back of the queue of vehicles. While I went and purchased the additional ticket for my passenger, Clairy snapped this great shot of one of the port officials checking her out surrounded by local kids with big strings of stinky fish that they were waving in everyone's windows in an attempt to sell.
Getting the car on the ferry was quite an adventure, as it required a number of attempts by the crew to fit all the vehicles on. I was initially guided in forwards and then asked to reverse off again and go in backwards. Then a huge lorry arrived late and we all had to move around once more to make room for it. Finally after all this they realised there was no room for the foot passengers to squeeze through so we were all moved out one last time and guided back in again. Clairy misheard my response to her question about how long the ferry was going to take, and assumed it was just 15 minutes and not one hour and 15 minutes. After 45 minutes she was quite concerned that there was something wrong, but eventually we cleared up that bit of confusion.
We swiftly headed off from the ferry port in Salelologa town on Savai'i, the biggest settlement and still quite tiny, and headed straight for the beautiful beach at Si'ufaga for some lunch.
Clairy snapped a few piccies before we got stuck in.
The colour of the lagoon was stunning.
Admiring the view.
It was absolutely boiling and the water looked very inviting, but we were both well peckish so we headed up to Perenzo's restaurant for some food.
In the middle of the restaurant was this brightly painted wooden sculpture. Clairy liked the fishies.
It had a lovely shady view over the lagoon.
After this we kept going north and eventually reached the first of a number of huge lava flows that stretch across the island dating back to the last major eruption of Mt Matavanu in 1905.
It stretches off for miles.
The lonely planet suggested that instead of rushing through this desolate landscape...'It's worth lingering and letting your imagination try to re-create the fiery events that occurred here'...I think I accomplished it pretty well.
It is quite amazing the way the various plants and trees appear to grow directly out of the porous rocks.
Our next stop on the journey to our first accommodation on Savai'i was at the site of the LMS church that was destroyed along with a number of villages in the 1905 eruption. We parked up and found some local women preparing the materials to make some pandanus mats. One of them took our fee and guided us down the path to the church. It was quite a sight.
The way this huge tree had spread its roots through the rear door looked quite incredible.
But once inside the church things were even more strange.
The lava had only entered through the front door of the church.
It was really quite strange. God really had it in for this church I reckon. Our guide was super friendly and chatty.
Huge gnarly cracks.
We then walked on with our guide who was quite taken with Clairy and kept patting her on the arm as she asked about where we were from. She said it was nice that we were able to visit countries like Samoa, but felt it was sad that Samoans didn't really get to go on holiday themselves. Tru dat. This was all said with a lot of laughter.
She took us to the 'Virgin's Grave'. Here the lava apparently went all around but did not cover the grave of an extremely virtuous Chief's daughter.
On the way back she chuckled as she told us that just the women from the village had created the cement path over the lava, and that they had done it all without any tools, and this was why it was covered in hand prints.
After this we carried on to our beach fale at Vacations resort. The place seemed very nice, and our fale was large and attractively built. The only down side to the place seemed to be the insanely enormous stereo system (complete with vast separate bass unit), that was banging out dreadful Samoan pop at full volume for most of the time we were there. It really didn't help to create a relaxing tranquil atmosphere.
The beach looked very pretty, but was very shallow for swimming.
We did manage to get a decent nights sleep here though as the mattress in the fale proved comfier than most and the temperature dropped to a quite bearable level after about 10 at night.
The next morning the sun was up with barely a cloud in the sky so it was time to take some more piccies.
Here's my island girl!
The beach looked stunning.
A nice booom orientated pose for me.
Allright, there were some clouds, but they weren't getting in the way.
The deck on which we had our brekky.
Every time I left Clairy in our fale, when I returned I would find one of the local teenage lads who's job was to sweep up leaves propped up on his rake outside chatting to her. I think he may have been a bit smitten. He would quickly get back to work and pretend he'd been doing nothing of the sort on my return.
For some reason this may have encouraged me to run amok with his wheelbarrow.
There's my lady peeking out the fale.
Right on the beach.
The view from inside. Nice.
After such an energetic photo session, we needed a bit of a lie-down.
What a handsome couple.
'Enough pictures now Clairy!'
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