We completed our circumnavigation of the island on the Saturday by travelling around the western coast of the island. We headed off to Faleolo and the airport. The road was lined with houses with either fences or flower bordering them, sometimes both. There were also metal trays in front of each one, which turns out where rubbish is placed for collection.
We followed the road as it turned anti-clockwise towards the south-east and the town of Samai.
Here’s where the travelling got a little challenging. The road started getting quite windy and steep. We made our way down slowly until we reached a little village of houses. The road was gravel at this point, and was quite slippery and full of water channels thanks to the rain. We took this part of the road very slowly, climbing up quite a steep incline, doing our best in a car that was not well designed for such surfaces.
Eventually the road levelled out and became asphalt again, and we were back to our cruising speed, only slowing down when we encountered another small stretch of gravel (although not nearly as bad as before).
Eventually we reached the Cross Island Road junction again, this time from the west, and we once again turned north to head back to the hotel.