Final three days 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.

For the first time in the trip there wasn’t torrential rain overnight, making my stay at Falealupo Beach Fales even more pleasant. It is a lovely spot, from which it was a beautiful ride out to Cape Mulinu’u, under a canopy of palm trees to the westernmost point of Samoa.

By the cape is a star mound, one of a number of mysterious spiritual rock piles around Samoa.

Some typical sights from the bike ride, though the road photo is from the Falealupo road, rather than the main sealed road that runs around Savai’i.

Getting a decent view of this sea arch was tricky but cool to see the waves crashing into it.

Lovers Leap was more interesting for the story behind it, than the views.

Samoan villages are generally very tidy and well maintained, particularly along by the road, marked by painted stones and flags. Usual mix of colourful village buildings.

The number of fales, traditional Samoan meeting places, are incredible with seemingly every house and building having an accompanying fale out front.

Tonight we stayed at Satuiatua Beach Fales, another beautiful place to stay in Samoa. We arrived on a Sunday when basically everything is closed in Samoa. Samoans spend the morning at church before a huge family lunch and an afternoon nap. The owners of the Beach Fales were very generous and welcoming, including us in their family lunch with delicious food and interesting chat.

Metres from the beach is a sizeable reef, which makes for a great drift snorkel, floating over a recovering reef.

I took a short walk around the village, and along the lovely beach.

The next day was the longest of the trip, over 50km of riding. The overcast weather wasn’t great for photos but made cycling more manageable, though it was still hot and humid.

Unfortunately dogs are a major issue when cycling in Samoa, much more so than the traffic which is generally respectful of cyclists, despite their rarity. I saw about a dozen locals on bicycles in nearly a month spent in Samoa, and 4 other tourists on bikes. The two main dog situations are when they are already in or by the road, and when they run out from houses. In the first situation through trying different approaches the best appeared to be go slowly, give them as much space as possible, and talk loudly and calmly. In the second situation, particularly on an eBike, speed seemed to work. If they come at you shout ‘alu’ (stop in Samoan) and wave the handy stick provided by Outside Samoa. They seem more bark than bite but it is still a stressful experience, which happened 1-3 times every day I spent cycling on Savai’i.

Another somewhat stressful, if rarer (only happened once) experience, was a herd of cows running down the road toward us. They seemed to have been spooked by something before they saw us, so it wasn’t an intentional threat, but a group of large animals approaching toward us fast felt uncomfortable. We crossed to the other side of the road, the cows did the same, and thankfully a truck came along as we returned to the other side and watched the cows run by us.

There are so many palm trees in Samoa, good for coconuts, though care needs to be taken walking underneath them.

I saw so many churches in Samoa, but today I saw a few new church designs / branches of Christianity, including Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Even on a calm day the Taga / Alofaaga Blowholes are super impressive, with huge spray against the coast and through the blowholes.

Next to it was impressive freshwater pool leading out of a cave, next to a church destroyed by cyclones, and a hard to capture kaleidoscope of butterflies.

We were cycling on a public holiday that followed Mother’s Day in early May. It seemed like the whole of the village of Gataivai was out enjoying the day, with various activities including cricket on a concrete strip, using the main road as part of the pitch.

This was an unusual river mouth flowing into the sea.I thought this was an unusual river mouth flowing into the sea, but it turned out to be Mu Pagoa Waterfall, but I didn’t get the right angle to see it.

More sights from the road – a bright local bus, a large school (less common that I expected to see), another freshwater pool, an interesting church, and typically colourful roadside village gardens.

Afu Aau Waterfall was understandably popular with lots of swimming opportunities in the main pool, or along the cascades.

Vailoa Palauli had an elaborate freshwater pool, beautiful fales, and river views.

Aganoa Beach Fales had a spectacular setting at the end of a rather rough road, and flash beachside fales. Sunset brought some impressive colour to the sky.

It had the best reef and snorkelling I visited in a week spent on Savai’i, seeing turtles, large schools of fish, and varied coral. The currents though are very strong and a freshwater streams runs into the sea here so the visibility suddenly changes at times, quite disconcerting!

The final day was the shortest, riding onto Salelologa, with a few more dogs encounters, and 10 minutes spent at the side of the road sheltering from heavy rain. Salelologa is a spread out place, with a sizeable if underwhelming market on a Tuesday morning.

The second floor of the markets was home to an unexpected series of offices.

We caught the ferry back to Upolu just in time to avoid the worst of a severe weather warning, though it was a rough crossing!