Samoa Days 6, 7

Thursday in a nutshell was AMAZING! One of the best days of my trip away from America so far, no doubt!

It started out rather normal. Got up, missed the sunset, sat by the beach finishing my book and reading gossip magazines, nothing really exciting. We left Taufua, the beach fales where we’d been staying the last three nights, around 10:30 am. We paid our room and food tab, said our goodbyes to the other guests and staff, and then headed to our next destination. The sun was shining nicely when we woke up in the morning but while we were driving towards our next destination the clouds rolled in and rain started coming down. Heavy at times, lighter at others, but either way it was not turning out to be a beach day – and that was good for us since we weren’t going to be at the beach. And who wants to miss a nice beach day when you’re in the tropics?!

We drove west across the South Coast Road for about 1.5 hours before we made it to our destination in the town of Faleaseela. I’m sure it wasn’t very far, maybe 40 kms, but because the speed limit is low, and because I now feel like I’m out of control if I’m driving anything faster than about 40 kms/hr, it takes us a while to get anywhere. We arrived at our destination, Lalotalie, just after 12:00 and at the exact same time as the only other group of guests, 3 Australian ladies, Cheryl, Samantha, and Jan. Cheryl and Jan are friends, Samantha is Cheryl’s daughter. Samantha has been living/working here for the last 8 months with a program that I believe (although I am totally guessing) is the Australian equivalent of the Peace Corps. Cheryl and Jan are obviously here to visit her, for a two-week holiday.

I originally heard about Lalotalie from the travel Samoa website. They are advertised there not under accommodation, but for their amazing river walk that they offer. I clicked into their website, checked out their hikes and accommodation and thought it would be perfect to do a plantation tour where you learn about the local industry and learn a few local crafts as well. As you can tell from my adventures so far (mussel barge, diary farm, pig hunt, sheep farm, etc.) I really find it interesting to learn about local industries, what keeps the local economy alive. I did chat with Jane & Olsen, the hosts, about doing a plantation tour, but in the end we decided to stay for 1 night and do the river walk as another group (Cheryl, Jan, Samantha) had already booked it.

After our arrival we had a small lunch and then got ready for the hike. I asked what we should wear (trainers, shorts or leggings, something on top) and what we should bring (don’t bring a towel, camera okay but wrap it in plastic or be very careful since you get wet). Now this “getting wet” was definitely not fully explained but I’m glad it wasn’t. It was much more fun to figure out what Olsen meant by this.

When I think of getting wet I would think maybe rain, some splashing, maybe I think more along the lines of “getting water on me”, not “getting wet.” As some preparation, I had read another person’s blog post when I was originally looking into Lalotalie and they had talked about the river hike and how you go through the water and get your feet wet. Well getting your feet wet is understatement if I’ve ever heard one! You don’t just get your feet wet, you walk up river, through the river, for over 1 km (I’m just guessing, it’s possible you walk farther than 1km in the water, not counting all the distance you hike outside of the water), at times in water up to your waist. Had I known this was what “getting wet” meant before I signed up, I’m not sure I would have, and I would have bought better clothes and backpack for the journey.  I went out in my trainers and socks (as instructed), my lulu lemon leggings, a cotton t-shirt, and my North Face backpack from high school. I unfortunately did not bring my new hiking backpack with me, but the other women worked fine, just a bit big for a hike only lasting a few hours. Despite not know at all what I was getting myself into, I had a fabulous time!

Before setting out  for our hike our guide, Olsen, set us each up with a hiking stick, he brought his knife and fishing spear, we had a last minute photo op while we were still clean and dry (we didn’t know this was going to be the last time we would be clean/dry during this adventure) and then we were off. Within about 20 yards we had wet feet, within the first 10 minutes we were wet past our knees. About an hour in I was jumping off a cliff 4 meters high into a rock pool at the base of a waterfall. I don’t know what happened but it was awesome! We walked for hours through the rivers, wet and dirty up to our waist, climbing along rock faces with no safety gear, jumping from cliffs into waterfalls, pushing our way through the bush, it was incredible. I have literally never done anything like this in my life and it was amazing!

Thursday evening after dinner I had a chat with Olsen about the trip and he asked about the safety aspect, if I felt safe the whole time. And the answer is yes. On our tour there were two young Samoa guys with us as well, Alex and Yale (I’m unsure of the spelling but it’s pronounces like Yaa-Lay), and their bodies are solid muscle. They were there to help us through tricky parts if needed and show off their amazing skills. They were climbing around on shear rock cliffs in flip flops, jumping from one rock cliff to another over 15 meters drops, jumping off waterfalls 17 meters high. After seeing how confident and capable they are I had no concerns about their ability to keep me safe.

But knowing that they are capable of keeping me safe didn’t always make it any easier. It’s a big mental game, trying to convince yourself that you can do something you’ve never done before, in a situation that could be quite dangerous, with no safety equipment. Your mind is telling you that you should be scared or that you body won’t be able to do what you need it to. But doing this tour really makes you see how capable your body really is. Your body is so much stronger and more capable than your mind gives it credit and doing activities like this (and like the Ocean Trench on Wednesday) really prove it to you. You can do way more than your mind thinks you are capable of! And what an awesome experience it is to learn this. (And 2 days in a row to top it off!)

The land we were hiking through was conservation land, being replanted with UN grant money, we hiked over 15 waterfalls, jumping from a few of them, swimming in the water, doing things I would never had thought I would do. And what I mean by that is we were doing things I never thought would be “my kind of thing”. It’s not that I would think I couldn’t do it, it’s that I would think I wouldn’t want to do it. But I did it, it was awesome, I want to do it again, and I think I should take up this kind of intense hiking/rock climbing for a sport. It was just so fun. Anyways, there really is no way to describe how incredible the river walk was, or what the walk truly entailed – you’ll just have to do it yourself.

Between Wednesday and Thursday I pushed myself to do so many things I thought I couldn’t do and I feel so accomplished. It is such an amazing feeling to accomplish something you didn’t think was possible because you just forced to mind to stop all it’s doubting and just made your body do it. Jumping off the cliffs into the water was much easier than climbing down the ocean trench ladder on Wednesday. The big obstacle on Thursday was climbing across wet rock faces with limited space for you feet, very few handholds, and no safety gear. (This would never happen in American, and that makes having this experience even that much better!) It was real rock climbing, and it was just so awesome. I know I keep using that word, awesome, but everything about the river walk was just so awesome!

Now before I end this I am just going to do a quick timeline of events during the river walk so I don’t forget later. In total, I believe we were out there for about 5 hours and this was the progression:

We hiked into our first set of waterfalls, this took maybe an hour. We were apparently going very slow here because Olsen kept telling us we were on track to set a record for the slowest group of all time! We were all just enjoying ourselves and busy taking photos and looking at the scenery.

Upon arrival at the set of 3 waterfalls, Olsen talked up through our activity for this area, jumping from the rocks into the pools at the base of the waterfalls.  There were 2 places our group members jumped from,  (1) a small jump from about 4 feet into the pool at the base of the middle waterfall and (2) a 4-meter (just a guess) jump into the pool at the bottom of the lower waterfall. Jan and I enthusiastically went up to do the small jump which wasn’t too hard. We then both went to the second jump. Jan went first here. I struggled a bit, but once you’re in position to jump there isn’t any turning back. And since the water is deep enough that you won’t injure yourself you know all will be okay. After getting over a few nerves I went for it and ended up having to do it 3 times just to get a good video. Samantha also did the first smaller jump as well. The thing with the jumps is that from the bottom they don’t look too tall, but once you’re standing there, you’re eyes are another 5 feet in the air making it seem much taller.

We hiked out of this area via the “death walk.” That’s not really the name for the rocky wall we climbed up but that’s what Olsen was calling it that day. Along this area we were climbing up wet rocks, looking for foot and hand holds along the way and with a rope to grab onto a points. This part here really reminded me of rock climbing in a gym, trying to find a hand hold and sometimes thinking this won’t do, but in the real world it has to work!

We continued hiking until we came to a small waterfall where our activity involved us all jumping in and swimming out under the waterfall. Once we were under the waterfall Olsen took a nice group photo of us with his waterproof camera.

Continuing up the river we stopped to eat raw fresh water shrimp that Alex and Yale were busy catching with the fishing spear.

Farther along we stopped at “hole in the wall waterfall’.” By this point we’d been going for at least 2.5 or 3 hours and we were all quite tired. None of us did the activity here with consisted of climbing up the waterfall to see a cave behind the waterfall (the hole in the wall) and then jumping off. Instead we all had coconut and other treats for a snack break.

More hiking up river followed by a different activity consisting of sliding down some rocks into the small pool at the top of  a large waterfall.  The pool here is maybe only 8 feet long and the rock you slide down brings you half way into the pool. Looking at this activity it appears it would be rather easy to lose control and go over the waterfall. But no worries, Alex, one of the young guys helping Olsen with the hike was at the edge of the waterfall in case any of us started to head like we were going to go over. Once safely in this pool (none of us even came close to going over) we climbed one by one into another small pool just above the one we were in. In this pool you could but put your head back behind the waterfall and breath in the air pocket that was under the rushing water.

We left here and set out on our last upriver hiking segment. This brought us to our last and largest waterfall for the day that is 17 meters or 50 feet high. None of us jumped off this one, I’m sure I can safely say no one in our group even considered it, but the offer was there. This waterfall rushes over a very steep rock cliff. Alex and Yale climbed up the wet rock cliff in bare feet while water was pounding down on them from above and then jumped off at the top. They did this multiple times; I think they’re crazy! The activity for our group here was to swim to the base of the waterfall, climb up on the rocks behind the base, and then jump through the waterfall. This was all well and good until Olsen jumped first and a piece of rock about the size of a soccer ball went with him from under his feet. When Samantha saw the rock tumble into the water she turned and went back. I believe Samantha’s reaction more than the actually rock falling off freaked me out so instead of following Olsen and jumping through the waterfall I jumped off to the side. I’m not sure how these two events are actually related (the rock falling and jumping through the waterfall vs. off to the side); I think I was just looking for an excuse not to jump through the waterfall. The force of the water was so amazingly strong I was worried I wouldn’t make it I would get pushed down under water by the waterfall and would get stuck. Probably a bit dramatic, but it could happen. Following our jumping and swimming here we took a great group selfie  (Ellen/Oscars style) and then headed back to Lalotalie via a plantation road. What an afternoon!

The hike was just amazing. I took the challenges head on as they came. I did more than anyone else in our group and I’m proud of that. I’m sure I could have pushed myself even harder, I mean when can’t you, but I am very proud of being able to face my fears and do something that is just so scary to me.

Our final moments on Friday were nothing like the excitement from Thursday but just one nice thing to share – Jane, our host and Olsen’s wife, had looked at my blog during our earlier e-mail exchange about tours/accommodation etc. since it is in my e-mail signature. Jane writes children’s books and she told me that my blog had inspired her to spend more time writing, and just make herself do it. She showed me some of her work that has been published and to think that my blogging has inspired her, a published author, to do more writing, what a compliment! I’m not saying it speaks to the quality of my writing, because I’m sure it doesn’t (and I’m not trying to be negative here), but rather to my ability to make myself continue to post, day after day, even when I’m tired or don’t feel like writing. It’s just really nice to have a stranger compliment me on my hard work, someone who has no reason to say anything nice if they don’t mean it.

Oh and one last thing, Thursday night into Friday it rained and with this our wet clothes didn’t really dry. We had to pack them to bring them back to NZ but there were really wet and who wants to pack wet, stinky clothes in with their dry and,  possibly, still clean items? No one! Thankfully we arrived quite early at the airport so we had time to sit in the car park with the clothes laid all across the car drying them with a mixture of the heat from the car and the rays coming through the clouds. We got almost everything dry (or dry enough to bring back to NZ). Moral of this story? Don’t do a super wet activity only hours before flying. Or make sure you have access to a dryer if you do.

That’s all from Samoa. It was a wonderful trip, I hope to make it back one day, and would encourage anyone who is looking for a beautiful, tropical, and rustic place to visit to consider Samoa as a destination.

Best!

P.S. Pictures and Videos from Samos to follow shortly. Should have them up in the next 36 hours. Hope you're excited!!!!