Shady Rest Hotel Port Moresby

... but apparently you're not allowed as its a protected site. Nevermind. In between dives I swam across from the boat to a small island with an aussie guy who was on the dive to do some snorkelling and we were watching from the surface whilst a little kid and his dad were spear fishing below - pretty close to the perfect afternoon. Even though the islands are so close to the main town, they're all traditional villages on them ...

... that village – we’re guessing transporting geologists who are searching for new mineral resources. Maybe even the guy that we met in Lissenung. In any case, they said, "This country would die with helicopters!" [Editor’s note: just learned that my parents’ ex-caretaker’s brother has been flying helicopters in PNG for the last 10 years or so.]

After dinner, we returned to the room to chill (literally!), then went to bed around 10pm.

... rouges et passent leur temps à cracher. Du coup, où que tu ailles, les magasins, les marchés, les bus, tu as une odeur particulière, c'est la noix de Bétel (J'ai réfléchi à en importer en France mais pas évident à lancer comme mode) Donc, 3 heures après mon arrivée, avec le pasteur Clarence de l'église United Chuch (jamais entendu parlé... et il y a une palanqué d'églises différentes), et 2 personnes de sa famille (de toute manière quand un papou te ...

The rain had cleared - but the track was wet and muddy for the final leg of our journey. The first part of the day was the other half of the Ua-Ule Creek crossings - so it was reef sandals at the start. Then it was boots on for the long, hard ascent to Imita Ridge. I found Imita Ridge (where the Aussie soldiers made their last stand) and the walk down the other side (the golden stairs) very emotional for some reason. On ...

... s group and claimed the guest house for our group. GOOD EFFORT. The down-side was that Daniel had overheated and given himself heatstroke and was quite dehydrated - so we spent much of the evening getting him rehydrated. Chris was the last one in at 1900hrs after having some exhaustion problems on the way up Ioribaiwa Ridge - but had recovered after some extra rest. Then the heavens opened - it absolutely belted down for a few hours.

... and got the shuttle to the Holiday Inn. The barricade, security gate and razor-wire were a bit of a culture shock as we arrived at the hotel. Met up with the rest of the group - Shaun, Jesse, Shaz and Daniel - and had an awesome buffet tea. Also met our trek master - Josh - and had the briefing. All fired up now!

... and it only cost us about $9 each. We could have stayed all day for the exact same price! Sunday I went to Gama church and ate lunch out there because they had their monthly members meeting to talk about church related issues like buying a clock for the church and a women's camp in September. Monday started our "village stay" and three days of SO much stuff! Rachel and Bethany stayed at Rabe village. It was a village hundreds of years ago and then it was a USA base ...

... just hoped that the hospital would not have too many patients! We were supposed to pick up Daisy, but thankfully she walked to the market and saw our truck. She helped us at the hospital and when we got to the hospital one wing was entirely empty! That was so nice because I was really afraid that we would not have enough food for everyone. We gave it out and it came out exactly right! We had one pineapple, 2 coconuts and a popo (papaya) left, so we just brought it back to the ...

... but when you are this close to the equator they don't make an SPF high enough! After the Fords went home, we went to a village near the beach and got one of the locals to take us to this cave full of human skulls! It was awesome! We walked back into the jungle, but still close enough to the beach to see the water a lot of the way, for about an hour. After climbing up some volcanic rock hills, we were able to look into this cave and see ...

... ZASTONJ :) Ne morem verjet! (niti na polovici nisem!) No, k pridem k misijonarjem - se izkaze, da je to lustna Guesthouse, ki je sponzorirana in edina stvar, ki je malce moteca je kolicina krizev, sam majo pa praying room z velik knjigami, med katerimi sem odkrila Zlata's diary (za nevedneze, tko kokr dnevnik Ane Frank sam iz Sarajeva - velik pove o vojni v bosni). in moja soba gleda na vrt in imam fan in omaro in fotelj in mizo z biblijo in lucko in velko postlo in JA, kul je ...