Afu Aau Waterfall, the Blowholes and Canopy Walkway

Heading around the southern coast of Savaii we stopped at the Afu Aau Waterfalls which are quite picturesque and feature in the Lonely Planet guide. The falls are made up of a number of smaller falls. We could have dived in for a swim but were't quite ready to don the togs and sit in the car wet so carried on to the Alofaaga blowholes.

Amazing - I could have stayed there all day! What a noise as the waves roared through the rocks and blasted up through the holes sending fine mist floating through the air. A number of photos had to be taken here and you might notice we begin to look more and more like drowned rats!! We turned down the kind offer to purchase a coconut for $5 that the Samoan guide would put down one of the holes so we could see it blasted up into the air!

We were circumnavigating the island in a clock wise direction and wanted to make it as far as Manase for our night's accommodation so kept on trucking around the south coast past Lovers Leap which is not, as you would at first think, the place where lovers leap off the cliffs to their death together but more about an old blind woman and her daughter who had to leave the village. The old woman loved her daugher so much she allowed her to climb on her back before they jumped. When they both hit the water the old woman turned into a Turtle and the daughter into a Shark who can now often be seen swimming in the bay.

Next stop on our whirlwind tour of Savaii was Cape Mulinuu where you can see tomorrow. The international date line is just out to sea. It had started raining quite hard by this point though so we did not get out of the car but continued around the peninsula. The locals are quite keen here to get money out of you for any reason so when we pulled up on the side of the road to dig out the lunch someone came paddling through the rain to ask if we wanted to pay $10 to park our car there - of course the answer was "no" and we moved on!!

The rain eased up a bit so we stopped to have a look at the ruins of Cyclone Ofa, from 1990, where the village of Falealupo was completely destroyed. There were a couple of churches on opposite sides of the road along with a tomb complete with skulls and bones for all to see. That was pretty spooky actually so we left there and carried on our journey.

Next stop was at the canopy walkway. There had been some debate as to whether this was open but they were there taking our money so we assumed it was! After walking through some lovely Samoan bush we got to the base of the walkway and climbed up the stairs to the 24 metre long swing bridge 9 metres above the ground. The bridge finishes with a 20 metre high stairway up into an ancient banyan tree. Now remember I said that it had been raining? Well Mum promptly took a step out onto the bridge and the (not particularly health and safety compliant) wooden boards and slipped straight over landing on her backside. I tell you it was the dress she was wearing as that had also been the one that caused the fractured wrist! After some careful manouvreing to get back up on 2 feet while pulling herself up with said fractured wrist we all decided we had better go carefully and slowly! No more pooh hooing of the Australians who had done just this ahead of us! We made it across in 1 piece and climbed up into the banyan tree for a great view down over the canopy. Well worth the visit and the $10 each.

After this, we had been on the road most of the day and had visited some great sights so we made a beeline for our accommodation at Janes Beach Fales in Manase. Got to say we were not overly impressed with the state, or again non health and safety compliant, fales, the dinner that was served up or the flood that was otherwise known as the womens bathrooms but when the sun shone brightly the next day we soon got over these things and enjoyed a nice relaxing day swimming and reading on our balcony.