Across Upolu Island to where the tsunami hit.

We only booked into Aggie Greys Hotel for 7 of our 14 day stay on Upolu  in Samoa, after that we intended to stay on the other side of the island, where there are nice sandy beaches and also where the tsunami hit a couple of years ago causing much destruction.
So, we checked out of Aggies and headed off on the Across Island highway to find accommodation for the next few days. Another lovely day in Paradise it was sunny and calm, rather too hot in fact, as Samoa is!

Pleasant drive it was too, over the other side is very nice, the beaches are great but the tsunami really did do a great deal of damage to the villages and the resorts, we found a lovely nice new resort called Sea Spray where we stopped for a coffee in the new cafe, but there accommodation which looked great was completely full, so we drove on, called into a couple of small villages but there were conferences being held and they also were booked out.
This fat pig was wandering around at one of the villages we called into, it was very tame.

We were not as all sure we really waned to stay in a village in an open Fale - a small raised building with a roof but no walls except for the poles that hold up the roof, so no privacy at all and also no bed, though we were told they would bring us a mattress, and no where to secure to put our luggage and belongings, we are too old for that kind of lark. I believe, that in bad weather a screen of matting is put along the sides to keep our some of the wind and rain, but very little protection.

Eventually we got to Tautua Beach, a great spot lovely beach and sparkling water, very inviting, and so it had been to many others too, they also were completely full.  A bit sad because the  bungalows were brand new and lovely we liked them

. So we stopped for lunch in their nice new cafe. I watch 2 ladies arranging beautiful tropical flowers, and then asked to have a swim on their beach, no problem as we had bought a meal it was free to us, but fist they had to give us a long lecture about the nasty Crown of Thorns starfish that the tsunami had brought in from outside the protective reef around the island, very nasty poisonous things.

We got a bit frightened about them so only swam in the shallows where we could see where we were putting our feet, a nice swim but not as nice as it would of been before that dreadful tsunami.
We looked at the big rocky cliff faces that the poor survives had to climb to escape the raging waters that just kept coming in at them destroying houses and trees and everything in it s path including people, I seriously doubt if I could have climbed those cliffs and how very dangerous for those that did.  We saw lots of houses with roofs ripped off and all windows blown out and many concrete pads where other homes were, empty villages, some folk had moved their whole village up on to the top of the  of the cliffs for safety in the event of another disaster a long way from the lagoon that they get food from.
Very pretty area with small islands around this part of the island, we had a nice drive.

So, unable to find a bed for the night we had no choice but to head back to Apia and look out another place to stay.