| drcleg01:04 UTC19 Nov 2008 | alright,
nearly 4 weeks back from samoa and the tan is fading fast! here's a bit of info for anyone interested in climbing mt silisili, the highest peak in the samoan islands. the lp mentions it but it's very brief.
my girlfriend and i made our way to the village of aopo on savaii. it's one of the very smallest villages on savaii but anyone will be able to direct you to the pulenuu's (mayor's) house. coming from manase direction it's the very far end of the village, one of the last houses on the right. we turned up at the house and he seemed a bit confused, not speaking much english. he sent a young girl and she returned with his daughter in law, a teacher at the village school. her english was perfect and she explained to us that the pulenuu was a 3 year appointment and this one had only taken over a month before so had no experience of foreigners or arranging a guide. she was very friendly and welcoming and all the village kids soon gathered round, excited by our presence. they cleared a room in the house for us to sleep and set about organising a guide for the following morning. we set about sorting our backpacks with our gear. they cooked us a lovely samoan meal (little bit of breakdown in communication as my gf is vegetarian and they served us a big meal of pork but no offence was taken when we explained she didn't eat meat) and then we sat in on their little evening service of prayer and song in samoan which was really nice.
our guide was arranged for 6 am but didn't show till about 6.30, normal for samoa! it had rained heavily the previous day but the sky was now clear. it was a reasonably tough trek due to the heat and the climb being through jungle with no tracks. the guide had a machette and chopped anything that was too overgrown to make it easier. it took about 8 hours to get to the peak, most of this through jungle or grass above waist height, and then another 2 to come back to a clearing of very fine volcanic rock where we camped. the following day it took about 6 hours to return to the village, the fact we were going downhill not really saving much time due to the terrain. being down to the last of our water we went straight to the little village store with dreams of ice cold coke from the big glass bottles they have in samoa. unfortunately with the village being so small they were totally out of any form of liquid refreshment. the woman did however give us a litre of ice cold rain water from the fridge in her house for free, it was so amazing in the roasting heat!
once back at the mayor's house they brought us out a several course lunch along with several fresh coconuts to drink the milk out of. the mayor even had a his granddaughter standing next to us and fanning us to keep the flys away! all in all it was a really great experience, seeing an insight into samoan family life as well as doing a hike that only a handful of people do every year.
tips
- take all supplies from saleloga or elsewhere as the tiny shop may not even have bottled water
- you have to carry all water for the 2 days as there are no springs to refill
- you'll need some food for the guide as well
- we paid 80 tala for the guide and 70 to the mayor as the mountain 'belongs' to the village
| |
