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.

Aoloautuai Camping

With no weekend plans, we jumped on a friend's suggestion on Friday to go camping. After some Saturday morning debates on where exactly we should go camping, we opted for one spot that a number of palagi went one of my first weekends here: Aoloautuai. It's a remote bay on the north side of the island that is known for having good fishing and snorkeling. There are only two ways into the bay, either hike down from the end of the ridge road that goes to Aoloaufua Ridge or to boat in. Our friend who owns a boat is off-island, so we were packing our way in.

We loaded up the boat owner's pickup truck (he left the keys with another one of our fellow

campers) and headed out to the trail head. We managed to pick up a friend on layover. She'd been travelling around the South Pacific after her contract was over and had a day and a half layover in American Samoa, so she joined in our hike.

We drove to the end of the Aoloaufua road at the top of the ridge. There are a few houses there. We knocked on the door of the nearest one and got permission to leave a car there and take the hike down to the bay, a few, uninhabited miles below.

We then started the hike down. Most hikes I'm used to starting at the bottom and working your way to the top and back. It was a little disorienting to start our hike at the highest point and then head down.

The track followed a ridge line down through the rain forest. It followed a double track road for the first several hundred yards, which ended into a roughly built fale that overlooked a few bays. From there the track quickly became overgrown with grass and vines. Sara was able to pick out one of the vines that the Japanese students at her position in Australia called Kuru Kuru, something that roughly translates to curly, which is what they nicknamed her for their month there.

The trail continued to descend along the ridge line. The further down we got, the taller the forest canopy got. We even started to develop an under story, which is unusual here, since the forest is so thick, little light gets through to breed another layer of flora. Other than a few spider webs and terrestrial hermit crabs, there wasn't much wildlife to see. When the brush would open up we could occasionally catch views of the west side of Cock's Comb. I'd never been on that side of the peninsula, looking at the rock formation from the other side I realized there's starting to be only a few spots I haven't been on this island yet.

Eventually the steep track started to take its toll. This was the roughest hike that Sara and I have tried on Tutuila thus far. It started to beat up her still healing leg. The steep and slick track also took its toll and near the bottom her legs started to give out a little bit. Luckily, before all was lost we hit the flat lands and the banana

and coconut forest that led up to the beach. Once we worked our way out of the brush we found ourselves on an open beach that was made up of coral and sand.

There was some evidence of people using the beach for fishing, but it saw very little recent use. We made our camp a little upland for the high tide mark and then set about exploring the beach. I made it a point to gather up some drift wood for a bonfire. We'd had such good experiences with that at Amalau, that it was worth repeating.

While gathering up the drift wood, something on the beach caught my attention.

There were a number a blue jelly fish left drying out by the receding tide. Recalling some warnings about Portugese Man 'O'War that I had read somewhere along the way, I pointed these out to the rest of the group. Enough of us shared my suspicions that these were the dreaded stingers of the South Pacific that we didn't end up getting in the water that afternoon. Better safe than peeing on a friend's leg to try and neutralize a tentacle sting.

In lieu of swimming and exploring the reef, we made camp and went hunting for seashells. Eventually, one friend had to hike out on her own, as it was her second to last night on the island. The four of us that remained feasted on pasta salad and beans. We then spent an evening enjoying the camp bar staple of whiskey and Crystal Lite. Only the finest for us tropical campers. A bonfire carried us well into evening and we retired at a somewhat reasonable hour.

We woke up the next morning to another round of jelly fish washed up on the shore. So, again, no water time for us. After some leisurely tuna sandwiches and fruit we broke camp and started hiking back out. With only an up hike, the going was pretty easy on my knees. We made it up to the car without too many issues. The hike up ended up being easier than the hike down. Now I just need to get my legs in shape for some of the longer hauls on the island.

Aoloautuai was pretty great, but I am eager to go back and explore the reef with a snorkel mask on. We just need to hope the invertebrates will cooperate.