We hiked up to the NOAA observatory the other weekend. It’s perched at the peak of a mountain right on the coast, and is a steep climb up the road. The mountain is on the far east side of the island. We actually passed it and ended up at the end of the road. The main road doesn’t go around the entire island, so once you reach the last village to the east, you can’t keep going around to the north side. In fact, the north side of the island doesn’t really have a road.
We had to park the car at the bottom of the mountain, as the road was chained off. I was told it was a short hike to the observatory, but nobody realized it was almost completely straight uphill. I had gone through a bottle and a half of water by the time I reached the top, and I only brought two bottles for the whole day.
The observatory comes at you with a shock. You come out of a road surrounded by tropical jungle, and suddenly there’s an open field of freshly cut grass and well-trimmed hedges. Coming from the east side of the island, which is very old world Samoan, the ultra modern equipment seems like something out of Lost.
The building was, of course, locked, but it was easy to roam around the area. There was a tall radio tower, and a powerful telescope. After all, it is an observatory.
As we explored, we discovered a steep staircase with a sign across reading, “Danger: Do Not Cross.” We crossed.
179 of the steepest stairs imaginable led us down to a rocky mountain area. We skipped across the boulders until they collided with the ocean. From there you could see the entire east side of the island, with an excellent view of Anu’u, a small nearby island.
I was about to climb down to the tidal pool near the ocean, but a few high waves crashed into it, flooding it with a heavy current. It seemed like a bad idea after that.
When we were done looking around we headed back. The stairs were much more formidable on the way up, and to kill time, we raced up them. This was a bad idea. By the time I reached the top I had to collapse under the shade of a tree and lay down for a while. Magically, there were no bugs on the ground. Nowhere else on the island can you go and not be inundated with ants and spiders. More on that later…
As we drove to the next adventure, we passed a ship wreck along the ocean. It was some small fishing vessel or cargo ship that ran ashore years ago. Nobody ever bothered to clean up the mess, so it still sits there like something out of a movie. This giant hunk of rust, laying for years on the beach rotting out, just begged for someone to climb on it. So me and another guy did. And it was awesome.
Our next stop was Masafau. This little village is on the North side of the island. As noted above, the main road doesn’t go to the north, so you have to drive over the mountains. I was driving the government Explorer, and was definitely feeling the drag as it struggled to drive at a 45 degree angle. But when you start going down the other side, it’s all you can do to keep the brakes down.
The views from the mountain are incredible. Untouched beaches, open jungle, and tiny villages are all around you. The mountains are generally uninhabitable because the terrain doesn’t allow for houses to be built, so it’s mostly open jungle. Where the beaches are too short or too rocky, nobody builds there, so they are completely deserted. Most of the north side of the island is like this – too beautiful and pristine to be tampered with.
On the other side, there is the small village of Masafau. Masafau is one of those outposts on the island that seem like they shouldn’t even be there. There is one road over the mountain that goes there, and it seems strange that people would live so isolated. I’ve been taking pictures of the various bus stops here, and was kind of surprised to even see one here. It was as if they set up this camp and figured if they built a bus stop, then surely somebody would come along and get them out of there.
We parked the car and asked someone there if we could use the beach. Then we set up right along the ocean and pulled out our picnic food. There were sandwiches, salsa, chocolate, and all kinds of treats that I don’t normally get to eat.
Then we packed our bags and jumped in the water. In order to get to the beach where we would hang out, we had to hike through the water around the mountain. It took about 15 minutes. On the way I looked ahead and saw a sea turtle about five feet away from me. But when I called for others to come see it, it swam away.
The beach was actually very small. Just large enough to put our stuff down and pull out the box of wine. We sat in the water sipping wine out of plastic cups.
There is a small island just off the coast there, and I wanted to go out and explore. However, the tide had begun moving in at that point. I hiked out through the water, but about halfway there, the waves were coming around the island from both sides and crashing into each other. The current was river strength and it was all I could do just to swim back to a different beach.
Then I had to hike through the jungle to find our little camp. Jungle hikes here are pretty amazing. You actually feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere exploring uncharted lands. That is, until you find a beer can or styrofoam.
We stayed on that beach all day, until the tides were sinking our area almost completely. I sat under the shade of a tree and was instantly covered in small spiders. Clearly, it was time to go. However, with the tides that high, it wasn’t easy hiking back through the water.
I went back to the jungle and hiked towards the car, but about 2/3 of the way there, I ran into somebody’s back yard. I know this because they had built a wall out of tin and old car doors.
Instead I had to climb back down into the ocean and join the rest of the crew. Everyone marched through chest high water, with our packs held above our heads as if this were some sort of military training exercise.
We did make it back, though we lost some items, and many people got some cuts and bruises from the waves banging our feet into rocks, but that’s not too bad.
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