Day 40, Pacific Sojourn, May 26, Manase to Falealupo, 58km
What a great day. After another delicious breakfast, we were on the road just after 9. We wound our way along the coast before starting the climb up into the hills. Our first stop was the Peapea Cave. This Lava tube was created during the 1905-11 eruption and passes directly under the road. Peapea are small birds that nest in the tunnel, using their chirps to echolocate their nests within the cave. We only saw one Peapea but the lave tube itself is interesting in the way it was formed when the Lava flowed down the mountain leaving behind the tunnel as it went.
From here the road was undulating through to Asau where we stopped and picked up a fresh loaf of bread for lunch. Just around the corner was a large fresh water pool where we stopped to eat. Within 5 minutes we were completely surrounded by children getting out of school (finishes at lunchtime on Fridays) coming to see who we were and have a swim. With a lot of laughs we enjoyed nearly an hour of chatting and playing. Gordon let one of the older boys take his bike for a ride. Luckily he brought it back although I wasn't sure for a moment there. Turns out he just couldn't do a u-turn.
After lunch there was one more climb before dropping down to Falealupo. We stopped once to buy some oranges and made it in time for a quick snorkel and wash before the rain began. Good timing! We are now sheltering in our fale while an umu is prepared for dinner. There is a big group here tonight from Outdoor Samoa; 23 17 year olds from the USA. They are quite noisy but having fun so we can't really complain!
Thoughts on our first big day with hills on the e bikes. Once again we rode the flats, downhills and small uphills with no power. We quite like this as the pace of the bikes with no power suits our approach to touring where we have time to really absorb our surroundings and not zip past everything. When it came to the hills, we popped the power back on 1 and moseyed on up. So in the 60km, Gordon used one bar of his 1700 battery and I used 2 bars of my 1300 battery (that's out of 5 bars) and we climbed 750m. The best part is that Gordon is nowhere near as fatigued as he would be riding that distance and climb on a non e bike. Remembering that we are still carrying a load on each bike (no tent, sleeping or cooking gear but with the addition of masks and snorkels as well as battery chargers). So, in summary, we're quite enjoying the e bikes!
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