Creating Friends Biking

Creating Friends Biking

When I left Nancy’s village, I knew I was in for several hours of biking.  I had planned on making two stops-one to hopefully visit someone, and the second a lunch break at the Blowholes. 

The bike ride was pretty nice, with not too many dogs chasing after me.  After my hour and a half bike ride it was nice to stop and see my friend.  While I was there I heard the rain coming from a distance and tried to outride it…and failed.  I rode through the downpour for ten minutes, before it stopped.

My next stop was the blowholes in Taga, which is in my district, so I was looking forward for knowing I was about 2/3 of the way home.  I stopped at the store nearby to purchase crackers, water and tuna fish and walked my bike down the rocky road to the blowholes.

I sat there for about two hours just admiring them.  They shoot up so high, it is magical, and reminded me of Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park.  The waves were so strong that they were pounding the lava rocks.  The water was creating such an explosion, that it was simply striking.  It was so nice to relax as I had the place to myself for about an hour.  I talked with some of the people living there, and they tried to get me to stay for the entire day.  Then someone showed up riding a bike.  It was a girl named Paulia from Poland, and she was riding around Savaii.   You never see anyone riding their bikes by themselves, and so we immediately have something to talk about.  She just finished riding around New Zealand, and was planning on riding her bike in India in the next few weeks.  I am so jealous, and would love to experience what she has one day. 

We ended up riding our bikes together, giving each other strength through the hills during the heat of the day.  It was a lot of fun to have company riding.  We ended up spending time together for the next day as well. 

It was a lot of fun riding by myself, and even better when I met someone new to ride with.  Hopefully one day, I’ll be meeting her in Europe.