Togitogiga

"I'm in and I'm out
Alien from somewhere else
Dont know what the hell, I be on about
But from here and there, I belong nowhere"- John Butler Trio

John is a landscape architect from Christchurch. He's a volunteer here like me. One of his tasks and passions is to recommend maintenance and development of natural resources which may hold tourist value...like finding prospective walking tracks.

I love to walk in the bush...and there is a lot of bush in Samoa. But, there are not very many marked bush trails. Most people here don't walk for leisure and it's difficult to explain that simple walking tracks will hold attraction for foreign visitors.

I want to walk across the island of Upolu sometime during my stay. It's somewhere between 25-30km. The cross-island road, as I've explained previously, has elements which reduce the fun. What was surprising to me is that there didn't appear to be a feasible alternative to the main road...or at least one which didn't involve tramping randomly through peoples properties or plantations, and trying to explain stuff to them, like “I like to walk in the bush...” or "that's a nice machete"... in broken Samoan.

Then John found a brochure.

The brochure shows a 12km track beginning within a few km of my place at the top of the island, circling a pair of high mountian craters, and descending to a National Park at Togitogiga on the South Coast, where there's a waterfall and picnic area.

Looks cool.

However, the track hasn't been walked by anyone John spoke to in the ministry, or at the park, or in the tourism authority...well, just anyone. There was in fact some doubt the trail existed- until John showed them their own brochure.

So- on Saturday we went for a walk with a couple of other keen volunteers.

There are a couple of archiological features marked on the mystery brochure- a stone mound and fortifications....a stone wall over 100m long, which could be 5 centuries old- or older- based on a couple of other stone construction sites in Samoa. The wall sounds unique. It might be a great attraction- if someone knew where to find it...

It wasn't our intention to walk the whole track- the mountian peak is about 800m high, and the bush is thick. So we followed a river up from the bottom end at Togitogiga.

We didn't go too far- a few kilometers at best (a 3 hour return trip). Progress was hindered slightly by the deep muddy fields either side, home to a smattering of cattle at low end of the river. The river, and the scene is much like a mountain river at home in Summer- shallow, crystal and cool- braiding small islands as we ambled up stream. Heavy grey cloud cover took the heat from the day- but kept us conscious that we may need to make a hasty exit if it rained.

Ivy laden ridges on either side, rose until they were no longer feasible to climb- “a wee bit gorge-y” was the phrase used. We predict the old “brochure track” follows one of those ridges... (constructions at height would be consistent with what I've seen elsewhere).

We settled for simply wandering; enjoying the bush and criss-crossing the riverbed, staring at high waterfalls dropping into small clear pools while ula (yabbies or kura) shot away from beneath our sodden shoes...the occasional colourful bird departing and decrying our approach.

There were 4 of us - and Charlie. We met Charlie in the carpark. Friendly, well cared for and frankly, rather forward in her affections- she's the antithesis of the dogs I wrote about just a week ago. Charlie trotted with us all the way upriver and back again, even allowing herself occasionally  to be carried through deeper parts of the river. Once we got back to the carpark- we had a swim, and watched Charlie stretch out to sleep, and sun-dry on the pebbled bank.

I wish I had more to say- pleasant walk, nice bush, relaxing morning followed by a beer at a nearby beach. Next time I'm going to try walking in to find the track from the top. Maybe over a few months and a few walks we might find or create a track, find the stone sites or identify something which other people might enjoy...