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Piccie of our fale.
It’s now 7pm-ish Thursday evening 16th July. I am sure of this as we fly at 6.40am tomorrow. We are back at the Outrigger after 3 nights at Taufua Fales. This place feels like luxury compared to the fales. We are in the main building, upstairs. The rooms are much nicer compared to downstairs, quite colonial looking. The bed is hard as rock so I’m glad we only get to kip in it for a few hours. We have a taxi booked for 4am to take us to the airport. I was sick last night. We had lobster among other things for dinner. Within a few hours I had taken to the loo and although only sick once it was a long and miserable night. Dashing to the loo meant extricating myself from the mossie net, climbing out .JPG)
of bed without squashing the girls on the floor right beside us, literally no floor space, then a dash through the other fales on the beach and across the road to the loos. I was so dehydrated this morning that I nearly fainted when I tried to shower and had to give up. When the kitchen opened I got a cup and mixed some rehydration fluid which certainly relieved the muscle aches and stopped me feeling like I was about to pass out every time I moved around. It was all a bit of a repeat of the last night in Tonga in Feb last year!! I haven’t eaten today and the tummy feels quite delicate but I am certainly over the worst of it.
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ore getting ill last night we watched a display put on for us on the deck of the dining area of local dancing, music and fire eating/dancing. The Samoan ladies dance in a very similar way to the Maoris and where dressed beautifully, but the men’s dances are quite different, lots more clapping and far less aggressive. As usual they called up spectators to learn the moves and, as ususal, Eric was called up. What is it about him that he always gets picked? True to form Eric applied himself and really got into it. Quite amusing knowing how much his legs were hurting. Both legs. The one with the hole in and the other one because he had tried to use it to protect the injured one. All very enjoyable the dance display, not watching Eric suffer - as if!!!
This morning after checking out we headed back to Apia by a different route to the one down, heading west then cutting up the only road across the middle of the island. About 20 minutes out I said to Eric “You did collect the stuff from the safe didn’t you.” The look on his face was answer enough and did not require the “Oh Shit!” confirmation. Thank heavens I asked then and not 3 hours later back in Apia. After heading off for the second time I found navigating a challenge, which you would think impossible with so few roads but it was. We stopped at one of the few T junctions and had a conflab. Matters were not helped by the signs only being given for 2 of the possible 3 directions and not being able to find any of the places on the map! We agreed on a route and after 15 minutes decided we were going the wrong way. Harriette then chipped in and we got back on the right track. Saw a stunning and very long waterfall on the way back, Papapapaete we think. If the photos come out I’ll add but the falls looked lost in the mist. I think this was the
highest waterfall I’ve ever seen, excluding Victoria Falls. Actually, we’ve just discussed that statement (Eric is now sprawled across the bed next to me, under the fan, reading) and we think that they were even higher than Victoria.
We got back to the Outrigger at about 2.30pm and after a much needed cup of tea, Eric and I checked out Sliding Rocks. Well that was after we found it! We drove round in circles for ages. None of the roads have names and nothing seems to follow the map! Now bearing in mind that Eric was struggling to walk at this point, we arrived, paid out 2 tala each and headed towards the rocks. Only to look down well over a hundred steps that we needed to descend to get there!!! Bless him, Eric pressed on but we decided not to swim when we got there as the pools and rock slides meant an additional lot of climbing. I also, was feeling far from energetic. Very pretty though and I think worth the effort.
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of bed without squashing the girls on the floor right beside us, literally no floor space, then a dash through the other fales on the beach and across the road to the loos. I was so dehydrated this morning that I nearly fainted when I tried to shower and had to give up. When the kitchen opened I got a cup and mixed some rehydration fluid which certainly relieved the muscle aches and stopped me feeling like I was about to pass out every time I moved around. It was all a bit of a repeat of the last night in Tonga in Feb last year!! I haven’t eaten today and the tummy feels quite delicate but I am certainly over the worst of it.Bef
.jpg)
ore getting ill last night we watched a display put on for us on the deck of the dining area of local dancing, music and fire eating/dancing. The Samoan ladies dance in a very similar way to the Maoris and where dressed beautifully, but the men’s dances are quite different, lots more clapping and far less aggressive. As usual they called up spectators to learn the moves and, as ususal, Eric was called up. What is it about him that he always gets picked? True to form Eric applied himself and really got into it. Quite amusing knowing how much his legs were hurting. Both legs. The one with the hole in and the other one because he had tried to use it to protect the injured one. All very enjoyable the dance display, not watching Eric suffer - as if!!!This morning after checking out we headed back to Apia by a different route to the one down, heading west then cutting up the only road across the middle of the island. About 20 minutes out I said to Eric “You did collect the stuff from the safe didn’t you.” The look on his face was answer enough and did not require the “Oh Shit!” confirmation. Thank heavens I asked then and not 3 hours later back in Apia. After heading off for the second time I found navigating a challenge, which you would think impossible with so few roads but it was. We stopped at one of the few T junctions and had a conflab. Matters were not helped by the signs only being given for 2 of the possible 3 directions and not being able to find any of the places on the map! We agreed on a route and after 15 minutes decided we were going the wrong way. Harriette then chipped in and we got back on the right track. Saw a stunning and very long waterfall on the way back, Papapapaete we think. If the photos come out I’ll add but the falls looked lost in the mist. I think this was the
highest waterfall I’ve ever seen, excluding Victoria Falls. Actually, we’ve just discussed that statement (Eric is now sprawled across the bed next to me, under the fan, reading) and we think that they were even higher than Victoria.We got back to the Outrigger at about 2.30pm and after a much needed cup of tea, Eric and I checked out Sliding Rocks. Well that was after we found it! We drove round in circles for ages. None of the roads have names and nothing seems to follow the map! Now bearing in mind that Eric was struggling to walk at this point, we arrived, paid out 2 tala each and headed towards the rocks. Only to look down well over a hundred steps that we needed to descend to get there!!! Bless him, Eric pressed on but we decided not to swim when we got there as the pools and rock slides meant an additional lot of climbing. I also, was feeling far from energetic. Very pretty though and I think worth the effort.
(Post Script back in NZ). Here endeth the story of our trip. Taxi arrived and got us to the aiport. Uneventful return but I must say I was impressed with the planes we flew on. Either new, or newly re-fitted. I was expecting the bottom of the fleet planes for flights to a remote island but no, very plush planes and heaps of seat room (or maybe that's because my bum's not so big these days!!!)
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