Day two of a week long, ~235km cycle around the Samoan island of Savai’i, the larger but far less populated of the two main islands. Organised through Cycle Journeys / Outdoor Samoa, this was a great way to explore this beautiful Pacific country.

The ride between Lano and Manase was quite different to the previous day, with far fewer villages and buildings, and headed inland and up and down a few hills. We passed more churches and freshwater pools.

Samoan’s really look after their country, with very little rubbish, and most houses have well tended and colourful gardens by the roadside. There are men’s and women’s committees in each village who do regular inspections of properties to make sure that no one is letting the community down.

Mauga was an unusual village, with all the houses arranged in a circular layout around a central green area home to a volleyball court and cricket pitch (the concrete strip), two popular sports in Samoa.

Between 1905 and 1911 Mt Matavanu grew, erupted and formed the 76km2 Saleaula Lava Field. Amazingly no one was killed, and the Virgin’s Grave was somehow spared from the lava flows.

The London Missionary Society church was filled with lava, and is an atmospheric place to explore.

It is a little surreal walking over once relatively recently liquid rock.

There is a lookout at the coast where the lava flowed to, now home to rather large schools of fish.

Few photos heading onto the village of Sato’alepai.

This memorial and church commemorate where the first translation of the Bible into Samoan took place between 1839 and 1860.

Lunch was at Savai’i Lagoon Resort, one of the nicest resorts we visited for food.

Before arriving at Regina Beach Fales, our lovely home for the night. This is a popular place to snorkel with turtles but unfortunately the stormy weather returned, leading to poor visibility and no turtle sightings. It was one of my favourite fales though, helped by having the place to ourselves.