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chrischarly

700 Blog Entries
6 Trips
5148 Photos

Trips:

Chris and Charly's Passage through SE Asia
Chris and Charly Down Under
Chris and Charly's African Adventure
Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
Chris and Charly's mini trip to The States
Chris and Charly's Indian Odyssey

Shorthand link:

http://blogabond.com/chrischarly



Buddy List

Jason Kester
Jason Kester
butchop
butchop
chris_j_knight78
chris_j_knight78



A day in the docs

Apia, Samoa

Chris had an early-morning appointment with the docs today and not wanting to wake me he slipped out the door informing me he would only be an hour. Unfortunately over 5 hours later he returned as they were just so busy after doing some routine tests and scans on him. But he did have to fast for the whole day so he could go back tomorrow for some more scans as they wouldn’t show up properly, so Chris was quite weak and tired for the day so again we didn’t do a lot, just generally relaxed.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 30, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Finally finding a bed

Apia, Samoa

Still feeling a bit off today but a great improvement on the past few days, after some brunch Chris and I took a walk into town. Instead of walking the boring road way, we decided to take our chances and go the scenic route.

Our home in Apia
Remarkably after stumbling through a couple of villages we managed to navigate our way to the coast alongside a River linked to the sea.
But OMG it was such a hot day! By crossing roads and paths a few times we did manage to stay mostly in the shade, but when we showed up at the visitor information sight we were sweating hard and appreciated their turned-up air-conditioning. With a bit of prompting the guy was quite helpful and managed to find us somewhere to stay for the night of the 31st for quite a good price, as it was looking like we may have just had to camp up underneath the stars. For such a huge event happening Samoa is so unprepared for the amount of visitor’s it’s going to have. But at least we have a bed for the night. We then continued to walk through town and going to the internet again for a couple of hours before taking a taxi back home.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 29, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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A plan day

Apia, Samoa


The roof's made out of flip-flop remains
Another rough night for poor Chris so we had to take another trip to the doctors in the morning after taking the hire car back but luckily after having another take-it-easy day he felt a lot better but still not perfect. We took a trip into town and managed to finally find some internet! Although it was pricey it was quite fast so we started planning our onwards trip to America. Then after wandering around town for a bit we came back and chilled some more, apologies if this is getting boring to read about…

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 28, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Bye bye Neil xxxx

Apia, Samoa

Got up early with Neil and drove him to the airport to bid him a sad farewell. These 3 ½ weeks have gone by so fast and we’ll really miss him. Chris and I then had a very quiet journey back to Apia in mourning of the departure of our friend…

Hermit crab in a snail's shell
Once back in Apia we drove around some other accommodation to try and find some availability for the 31st as it is Samoa’s 50th year of independence, but we failed to find anything but high end places for ridiculous prices as everyone else except us thought long ahead and booked up, so we’ll have to think of something else. Then went back and did some washing for 2 hours before driving back into town to buy some supplies for dinner. We then relaxed for the rest of the day as Chris was still feeling a bit weak and is unable to eat much else except bananas, papaya, eggs and bread.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 27, 2012 from Apia, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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A nice tasty treat of a meal

Manase, Samoa


Neil cooling off

The cave pool


Fish in the cave pool
It’s Neil’s last day today and the first thing Neil and I did was to drive to the doctors with Chris who was still feeling unwell after a rough night, so after getting him some strong painkillers we tucked Chris back into bed and drove into town to buy him some bananas and do a little bit of souvenir shopping for Neil before returning a couple of hours later still to an exhausted Chris, who sent us back out again so he could get some more rest.


Chris

Neil


Us
So, as the sun was attempting to shine through the thick clouds we headed back towards the east coast and went to a cave pool. It was really nice and full of fish so we had a very cold yet refreshing swim in there for half an hour before we got back out and returned once again back to Apia. Chris was feeling a lot better so we all got dressed up and went out to Paddles restaurant for a celebratory last meal with Neil.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 26, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Keeping Neil entertained in bad weather

Manase, Samoa


Lots of rain
Chris was feeling rough after a bad night, but I was feeling a bit better, so I swapped roles with Chris in entertaining Neil and we decided to go out on a mission.

Waterfall
Although the weather in Apia was not great, we had high hopes that it would be fine the other side of the Island, so we chose to take the cross-country route through the centre of the Island to the south coast and then drive up and round to the east. But the weather only worsened the further from Apia we went.

Neil checking out depth of ford #2
By the time we had reached the bottom of the Island Neil could barely see out of the windscreen so we seeked some brief shelter at a nearby resort.

Would be fantastic views if no clouds
We both felt very under-dressed as this was an obvious honeymooners retreat and we sat in the restaurant dripping wet in our optimistic beach wear receiving unfriendly looks from the staff as we chose to only have a drink and nothing to eat. As soon as we downed our smoothies, we drove quickly away faced once again with the rain.

The ford we didn't pass through
But as it had rained so hard, we were faced with a deep ford and feeling brave decided to chance it and luckily as we had quite good clearance managed to drive straight through, but just a few kms down the road we were met by another, this time fast-flowing which we just made through.

Choppy sea
Thinking we had finally crossed through the worst of the roads, we saw one more and there was no way we could risk driving through as it was really wide, even more fast-flowing and this time ended up in the sea, so we sadly turned back around and drove back to Chris for a relaxing evening and a quick bite to eat at a Chinese which unfortunately made Chris feel even worse even though he just ate clear soup.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 25, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Sick sick sick

Manase, Samoa


Neil

Inviting bed

Chris was feeling much better in the morning, but I was not, so after a lazy morning for all I let the guys go out and explore. They went out for a nice breakfast then up to the Robert Louis Stevenson House/museum before returning to check on me.


Neil about to have a nap

Table in the Robert Louis Stevenson Museum


Old photo in Robert Louis Stevenson Museum
I was still feeling rough so expedition 2 was to the point, and then to ‘Cocks on the Rocks’ for a few beers and pool, before returning to check on me again. The last expedition they went to McDonald’s and then the cinema to watch a blokey movie. Chris returned with acid reflux so took a few pills and had a pretty uncomfortable night, think the sickness followed by a day out eating badly may be the cause!

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 24, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Pulemelei Mound

Manase, Samoa


Banana flower
We checked out this morning and left after a nice breakfast.

Check out how long the grass is!
The useless staff at the hotel managed to get our bill wrong and ended up not charging us for half our food, their loss! We then drove a little way to find the walk to the Pulemelei mound. After taking LP direction we arrived at a ford that we didn’t want to risk crossing so went around to the village to ask some locals for assistance.

Random bit of tarmacked road
They setup a guide and Neil and Chris went off for the walk, which was pretty tough so I was glad I didn’t go, instead staying behind keeping an eye on our car. The boys took lots of nice pictures though, and their guide was really nice and explained to them some of the history of this strange mound in his very basic English.

Rock hopping
He climbed for coconuts on the way back so Neil could watch with admiration as he’d never seen it done before. The walk had taken longer than planned, so we had to rush to get fuel and a quick bite before getting on the ferry. The ferry itself was a rough trip and we were pleased to get off the other end.

Chris having a little break
Once back on Upolu Island we met a Kiwi couple we had met at Lanu, and offered them a ride to their accommodation as we were going past it. On our drive the weather got worse and worse with torrential rain. After dropping off the Kiwis and stopping for a drink with them, we got on our way to find a beach fale in this horrible weather. A little way on Chris said he was feeling unwell, and offered an alternate plan to detour across the cross island road to Apia for a guaranteed good room out of the weather.

Neil and the boy's guide
We were pretty glad we agreed, as Chris got worse, and Neil did a great job driving in the dark rainy conditions.

We fed the hungry dogs whilst waiting for ferry
As we entered Apia, Chris told Neil to stop and got out of his system whatever it was that upset it, which we suspect it was the fried chicken for lunch. We got back to our original accommodation and got Chris rested up, while Neil and I went out and grabbed a take-away pizza. Later that night I got struck by the same as Chris only as it was later in the day and not so immediate I was up all night, only Neil was saved!

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 23, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Awesome Blowholes

Manase, Samoa


A natural pool

Lovely day


Blowholes

Coconut man

Reluctantly we left our lovely beach and drove along the south coast to check out some other places. But unfortunately the place where we wanted to stay was closed due to a private function so we continued on and went to see some blowholes which were in fact amazing.


Blowholes

Blowholes


Admiring the blowholes

Huge blowholes

Chris and I weren’t that bothered to go out and see them as previous ones we’ve seen were pretty disappointing, but as Neil was keen we both tagged along and I’m glad we did. Then after watching a guy throw some coconuts inside the blowholes we drove further on and ended up in the main town by the wharf and found a nice resort and after some super bargaining by Chris we managed to get a bargain room for 100 tala, 50 tala cheaper than the original price.


Our fale

We then chilled for a while, went to buy some tickets for the Ferry tomorrow and then went for a swim in the natural fresh water pool before having dinner and an early night.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 22, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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Mt. Matavanu Crater

Manase, Samoa


Pidgin English
Checked out this morning and drove to see Mt. Matavanu Crater which is a Volcano responsible for the devastation visited upon North Eastern Savaii a century ago.

Warning
We were greeted by the famous Gr8TRMan (Crater man) and drove on a rugged 4WD track and took a short hike to the top to take in some impressive views and read some signs written by the Crater man himself in his funny Pidgin English.

Neil
We then continued on to find somewhere to stay for night after our first choice was fully booked and stumbled across a deserted amazing beach with an old resort on.

View from the crater
Luckily the family were still taking customers but due to the reputation this part of the Island has for car break-ins we had the whole place to ourselves which made it simply paradise!

Old church affected by tsunami
After we had settled in, the sea soon started calling us so we grabbed our snorkels and went for a swim.

Sunset
It was in fact the best snorkelling we have seen so far in Samoa and we saw a big puffer fish and amazingly a HUGE shark!

Nice sunset
It was by far the biggest Chris and I had ever seen and we would like to think it was merely a harmless(ish) black tipped reef shark, but by judging the size and shape of it (it had a huge belly and a few black stripes down the side) I’m not so sure, so we got out quite quickly just in case!





View from Neil's fale

Our beach fales

We then had a couple of drinks and some tasty dinner and relaxed watching the stars.

permalink written by  chrischarly on May 21, 2012 from Manase, Samoa
from the travel blog: Chris and Charly's Pacific Island Pit-Stop
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