11/2/2026 Swimming with Turtles and Giant clams Upolo, Samoa

I had breakfast with Agata this morning. It was really nice to have company and a chat for a change, it's just a shame that she's leaving on Friday. I was a bit later than I wanted to be but I still had plenty of time before I was picked up for my trip.  We put the world to rights, and I found out a lot more about a charity she's brought donations out for. It's for abused children and women, and when The King and Queen came out in 2024, the Queen spent time there raising awareness for the charity. There are two lads from New Zealand, one of who is a body builder ranked 3rd in Australia's strongest man competition who do a lot of work for the children and provide the centre with a lot of basic things for them. I also found out today that the minimum wage here is 4.8 samoan tala which is about £1.30 an hour. The majority of the staff in the hotel are all on minimum wage so I'll remember to tip them appropriately before I leave here.

My trip provider picked me up at the hotel at 0910, there were 3 others in the people carrier and I had a comfy seat behind the driver. His seat had a grab rail attached to the back of it to help me get in. I don't actually think it was just for me but it was very useful all the same. 

We got on the road and headed for Le Valasi Beach in Savaia, which is where the Giant Clam Sanctuary is located. There was an Indian Australian girl called Sumi, an Italian Surf instructor also from Australia called Marco and an Irish Teacher whose name we didn't actually discover was Neil, until he got out of the people carrier at his hotel at the end of the day. For the duration of the day he was called Tall Irish.

They were all a really nice bunch of people and despite being the oldest I didn't feel that out of place with them.  Our tour organiser is a family run business, the daughter Lua did all the talking and drip fed us so much information throughout the day I'm not sure I can type fast enough to get it out of my brain cell. There will be a lot left out I suspect, which is lucky for you! The driver didn't say a word the whole trip, he just drove the car and kept the aircon going! Which is all good! 

We left Apia and took the aptly named Cross Island Road, there's a clue in the title. We drove through lush green tropical mountains, covered with palm trees and ferns and through tiny little villages until we got to the southern coast road. As we went through the villages, Lua was telling us that every village has a chief and given there are 310 villages on Upolo Island, that's a lot of Chiefs. Apia the Capital is made up of 45 separate villages.  Lua explained about the houses, and that they were all split up, there is a closed house for sleeping in the cooler weather, and the rain, yes they have cooler weather, the outside rooms without doors and windows called Fales where they eat and sleep, have meetings and a separate cooking area. Every village has a meeting house and this is where they have their meetings and deal with any issues in the villages and everything is brought to the meeting. 

Lua did say that even as most things are sorted out in the meeting houses, serious crimes like murder, are not, they are handed over to the police. Good to know right?

Children up until aged 4 are looked after by their parents, after that age the responsibility is taken on by older siblings or cousins. It is now Lua's responsibility to look after her 4 younger siblings, feeding them washing their uniforms and generally parenting them while her mother works full time as a probation officer for the courts her mum is also a former police officer, having served 15 years in Samoan Police Force. Lua is 20, and the eldest daughter hence why its her responsibility to look after the young children. She can't drive yet although she is in the middle of doing her theory application form. Once she's sat that she can take a practical test which doesn't seem to be too much of a test! Like all Samoans she's very religious and everything revolves around her church of which she is on the committee for young people, and her future husband will probably be from the same church too. Her last boyfriend wanted to get married when she was 18 but she likes having money and working in the family business. Once she gets married she'll have to give up everything and bring up the babies and ask her husband for money. I can see why she's not keen. Although she is not in any rush to get married, she is, until she gets married, under her parents rules and has to do what they say, no matter what her age is..  

The Giant Clam Sanctuary is located close to Le Valasi Beach on the south coast of Upolo, the others that were on the trip, hired their snorkels from the family that looks after the entry fees to the site. I had my own and I'm glad I did because Sumi’s snorkel mask broke mid swim which was a bit of an irritation for her. We were advised that we were to take reef shoes because of the coral and also stone fish. The sanctuary requested that you don't wear sunscreen in the water to protect the coral,and also the marine life which I was already aware of, and had Si’s rash vest packed in my rucksack with my snorkel. A quick advisory talk from the people running it to Lua who translate their requests to us all. Basically we aren't allowed to put our feet down on the coral, and also do not step on or touch the clams, because they will close up very quickly and you'll struggle to remove anything you've stupidly put in it. 

We were driven up the road a little way, to a second set of steps into the ocean where we were told we would be able to see the sea turtles. There were concrete steps down into the water with metal handrails which was pretty helpful. Lua told us that the current was going towards the Clams so we would be swimming with it rather than against it which would make it easier for us. It was at this point we discovered that Neill aka tall irish isn't a strong swimmer. Even better news though, Marco is a life guard. I suspect he regrets admitting that because the three of us were like a sort of cling on around him. Where he went we went. In all honesty the water wasn't that deep, the problem was the coral which they are trying to preserve and also regenerate so we were unable to put our feet down.  We were on the right side of the high tide as well which saved our bellies from getting scraped by the corals. 

We took a few minutes to find the turtles and then all of a sudden they were there. I followed them around and was so pleased to be able to get so close to them. It was really magical, they are such graceful things in the water, but ungainly on dry land. One was just lying on the ocean floor eating, it looked at me as if to say, really do you mind? I'm trying to have my dinner here!

There were so many and they were so big. I'm guessing they were used to being around people as they didn't seem remotely afraid of us. I would have been terrified seeing all these weird faces with bulging eyes staring at me ! 

I had to keep popping my head up to keep an eye on where I was swimming as I lost all sense of direction. It was a good job I did so because I was swimming out a lot further than I was entirely comfortable with. It was rather nice to not be the worst swimmer in the ocean for a change! 

Having changed my swimming direction towards the clams, I was delighted to see a big blue star fish and felt so much better about being in the ocean. Si was with me. At least that's what I took the star fish to be, my boy keeping an eye on me. No one else saw one and we were all swimming close enough together.

The clams are roped off and there are buoys so you know where to go to find them. I love that they make it easy for us. There is also a large flag close to where the biggest clams are located. Some people don't want to swim with the turtles and just want to go straight to the clams which is why they are marked I guess. There were quite a lot of brightly coloured fish swimming about but they were too fast for my camera, i did manage to get some photos of them, but not as many as id have liked

I was a bit underwhelmed with the clams to start with. They were small, going up to rugby ball size and then they just started getting bigger and bigger.

But oh my goodness, the big ones were breathtaking. I floated over them for ages just trying to commit to memory the colours and the shapes. They were all different colors and shapes and sixes. And when they closed around a passing fish, it was so fast, it made me jump.

I need to practice more with the photos underwater, I'm still at the stage where I take a million and find one or two good ones out of them, it's just time consuming going through the photos afterwards looking for the decent ones! 

The coral was disappointing, a lot of it was broken off and bleached, similar to the barrier reef corals. I do think maybe I have been spoiled with the Fijian corals and fish.  But i wasnt there to see the coral i was there for the clams and the turtles and they didn't disappoint, not at all. I went on another turtle hunt after a while watching the clas because they were more interesting . quell not more interesting, but once you've seen the clams you've seen them. 

I swam back to the shore as i was getting tired, and the water was crystal clear and so warm, the sand pure white and just waist deep.

There were steps to get out of the ocean which were a small challenge because they were deep , i had a bit of assistance from Lua and Sui and eventually got back onto dry land.

The sun was burning hot and felt beautiful on my skin. We dried off and got changed and once everyone was back we got into the car and went off for lunch. 

Our lunch stop was a surprise, we were driving down this narrow track, full of pot holes with construction work going on in the fields. Due to this we were stunned to see that the road opened up to the most beautiful beach, lined with coconut trees.  Maninoa Beach is a really sheltered lagoon with shallow waters, no currents and really safe swimming.

Along the beach were Fales that you can rent out for the day and use for a shelter, you can also spend the night anthem, but i dont much fancy that as they are completely open, and I don't think I'd feel particularly safe sleeping in them. Sumi is staying on one at the resort she's in, and she does have a mattress, and a mosquito net, and sides that drop down if she wants it. It also has a metal roof. Which given the amount of rain we've had since I've been here, hasn't led to a good night's sleep for her at all. But for me, its the safety aspect i like a lock on my door thankyou very much.

We ordered out lunch from a good menu selection, mostly westernised food with a few samoan dishes, oka the raw fish in coconut. And some chineasre dishes. I had fish and chips which was nice but i couldnt finish. So i ended up leaving half of it. Lua asked if she could finis h the left overs, i haf no problem with it at all, and given that the minimum eage os so low, the 30 tala it cost for the fish ad chips was a weeks wages for her.. If Si was here he would have finished up my food anyway, and it made me smile that she asked. As I say I'd rather her eat it than have it go to waste. As we were finishing up our lunch, the former Miss Samoa arrived at the beach with members of the tourism association. They were going around the resorts on the island taking photos for promotional material. She was stunning ,and Lua was in absolute awe of her, she felt her to be someone to aspire to. 

I went for a swim with a cute dog nd it was amazing, no current, just gentle waves lapping at the shore, waist deep and the most perfect turquoise water.  I dont even know who i am now with all these water activities! I can see the bottom so it's ok I guess, and there's the fact I just don't care anymore, which I think is more the reason behind me doing it. 

Our lunch consumed, we headed back to our respective accommodations, the schools had finished up and the kids were all walking home,  the little village shops were doing a roaring trade in ice lollies, and almost every kid had one.

The next resort along from where we had lunch is where the king stayed when he came here, while Camilla was staying in the resort I'm in. At the top of the road from the beach there is a brand new meeting house that was built specifically for king charles visit.

Also because it was a commonwealth visit, each village adopted a country from the commonwealth and erected flags EVERYWHERE! The Samoan flags are still up in the villages that hosted the king, they're a bit bedraggled now but they're still up.

During that time, you couldn't get a samaoan flag in the country for love nor money.

We went home through pretty villages, all the houses having immaculate front gardens which are down to the women.   Lua repeated the fact that the gardens are all checked by the chiefs. And a fine or feed the village as the punishment. 

Before I came I was told that Apia was really dirty, but I'm not sure that the person who told me this went further than the capital itself. Because the country is immaculate and well looked after, what I have seen of it so far. Which admittedly isn't much as yet. 

We got back to Apia and dropped the others off. Numbers were exchanged so we could swap photos of the day, once we got back to our accommodation. I was a bit tired when I got back, but wandered through the hotel for a dip in the pool to cool down before heading back to the room, dropping off my wet towel and swapping it for a dry one on the way through ready for tomorrow's tour to Savai’i.

The sunset was very nice and I was able to sit on the decking and admire it.

Much love 

Mrs Leonard

X