Oa Camping

For Labor Day weekend Sara spent the first half of the weekend fighting a post birthday hangover/stomach flu. After this much indoor and movie time, we needed to beat the heat that had settled over our little island, so we opted to rally a group together to some paddle-in-camping.

Not having kayaks of our own, the first leg was to track down enough gear for our group. We pieced together enough boats for most of our group from raiding the Coast Guard, Department of Marine Wildlife and some friends who work for the National Park, at this point, not having any more sources for boats, I opted to lead a group to the bay we'd be camping at overland. The map I have of the island shows a path heading over the mountain into the drainage that we'd be camping in, so that should be simple.

With this plan in place we loaded up our gear and headed out to Afono, the village nearest to our campsite destination of Oa. After asking permission from some local villagers we parked out near the bay and unloaded the boats. As the paddlers set off, I threw my pack on my back and four of us without boats started hiking towards the ridge to the east. The first part of the ascent was easy, just hiking up someone's driveway and then up through the banana and coconut plantations that were on the hillside surrounding the village.

Soon the going got much tougher. The pathway we were looking for had become overgrown and we were reduced to hacking our way through with a machete. This is slow, tiring going. We eventually fought our way to the ridge top covered in vegetable matter and sweat. From there we started heading down into the drainage that we'd be camping in. We battled the brush on our descent to the water. Most of the way down was plagued with treacherous footing. The ground was a mix of dirt and volcanic pumice, which was all too willing to slide down the hill under our weight. We eventually followed the creek bed down to the waterline. The waterline in the wrong bay. We'd cut off too

soon and came down on one of the tiny beaches that were along the way out to Oa. Not wanting to brave the hike back up to the ridge, we sat down on the beach and waited for a rescue. It didn't take long until Sara and our bat biologist friend paddled by. Seeing us on the beach, they came in and started to shuttle us out by kayak.

We paddled over to the next beach north and portaged across the point into Oa Bay. The portage was just a short walk overland through the jungle. It did save us a long paddle around the point and past some treacherous breakers and reef that lined the coast. The portage ended up in a long sandy beach over looked on three side by tall volcanic ridges.

It was a pretty spectacular beach with little sign of humans. We picked a spot on the east side of the bay and made camp. I was impressed since the Samoan guys who came camping with us, only brought out sleeping pads and a tarp. Quite a little compared to my backpack full of gear. Once in camp, they borrowed my machete and started building themselves a fale from the little trees in the rain forest and roofed it with the tarp. Before I could even finish gathering wood for the fire they had built themselves some shelter and were out in the water spear fishing for dinner.

We set up our tents on the beach and enjoyed what little afternoon

was left. We were able to do some excellent shell hunting and enjoy the water on a lonely beach in a tropical paradise, as far cry from our day-in day-out life in Pago Pago and Tafuna. Sometimes getaways like this are necessary to remind ourselves why we moved out to a small island in the South Pacific.

Once it got dark we started working on dinner. Sara and I had

brought a few left overs, once we'd ate on those for a little, the main entree made its appearance. The Samoans who joined us managed to catch a coconut crab. These monster terrestrial crabs are a noted delicacy in Samoa. We were stoked to roast the catch on the coals next to our fire. Pounding the crab open with coral and rocks off the beach was quite a change from the dungeness crabs I've eaten living in California and Oregon. That said, without a sauce and just roasted over the campfire, this is quite an excellent meal. I'll make certain to learn the ways of the islanders so I can catch one of these on my own.

After waking up on Monday morning with a upset stomach, I realized that I'd managed to pick up Sara's stomach flu from earlier in the weekend. A few vomit sessions later I was ready to head out. Problem being that out required a long paddle and portage of kayaks and gear. Add to that the coral we'd pitched our tent on had done a number to both Sara and my backs and we were in sorry shape that morning. Compounding these issues, we didn't have enough kayaks and had to make sure that someone could shuttle the boats back. Thus began one of the longer mornings I've had in awhile. We managed to get back to the cars after several trips back and forth int he kayaks, waiting for people to ferry the gear and even after snagging a towed kayak that come loose in transit. Not an ideal way to end an otherwise awesome weekend. Next time I'll be sure not to let sickness derail us.