A'oloau Bay

Cockscomb off Vatia, from trail down to A'oloau Bay

      Maybe it's getting boring, dear readers, constantly seeing and hearing about beautiful beaches on reef-fringed bays with palm trees swaying gently in the breeze.  Well, bear with me because there's at least this one more to come.  Last Saturday Cyndi and I hiked down to A'oloau Bay.  It's not far from Massacre Bay, essentially the next bay over to the west, and the hike starts from near to where the Massacre Bay hike begins - up in a village called A'oloaufou which sits up on top of the ridge which runs down the middle of Tutuila.  Here's my annotated map:

The hike was rugged, but somewhat shorter than to Massacre Bay and the trail more clearly defined (yet steeper and plenty slippery).  It took an hour to get down through the jungle.  Here are a few photos of the trail, and of the view; Cyndi once again was our official Blog photographer:

From the top, we go down the near ridge.

Trail with overhanging trees & vines.

Sometimes they overhang quite a bit!

Weird tree, common out here.

View from rare opening in the jungle.  Vines covering everything!

That's the ridge we came down.  Banana trees in the foreground.

     At the bottom we came out of the jungle to this beautiful bay which we had completely to ourselves.  Nobody lives down here; there are signs that people did so a long time ago but not recently.  If there is a history of significance to this place I am not aware of it.  It's just a bay, with a beach, and a fine place to swim, picnic and relax.  We did all that.  Here are some photos; just look and dream:

First view

Looking east to the Cockscomb at Vatia

From west to east; Rick is beachcombing.

Cliffs on the east side

Giant clam shell on driftwood

Small rock island out in the bay.

Rick on shore with driftwood.  Who is which?

Low tide.  That's where the trail comes out, at edge of jungle.

Big orchids in the trees.  Not in bloom.  Bummer.

Papaya tree

Closeup, papayas grow right out from the trunk!

Another view looking west

Looking back east.  Trail up that ridge.

     Here's a couple photos of some cool flowers we saw along the way.  The first were blossoms we found on the ground and collected; the other is (we think) a ginger plant forming with its little flower:

     Of course, this was what it is all about:

       The hike up was steep, but at the top the breezes felt cool.  We stopped along the way home for a view from up high to the south.  This looks over the large (well, for American Samoa; its only about a mile wide and a couple miles long!) Tafuna plain.  Here is what we saw, with Tafuna out to the left and our village, Leone, just beyond the hills to the right:

This is a panorama, click to view better.

Tafuna and Iliili area.

      This might be our last major hike here, as we return home on Thursday evening - after a stopover for a few days in Hawaii.  But keep checking, there's more to come.  Next is another installment of American Samoa Courts.