Smugglers Inn Resort Madang

Early morning – unfortunately, after our late day yesterday. We went to breakfast, which wasn't set up until 6:45am or so. We sat on the terrace and watched the flying foxes return to roost on a nearby tree. After breakfast, our guide, Peter, was waiting for us. We had to take care of some logistics (the hotel didn’t have a record that we had pre-paid), but it didn’t delay us.

We had a real van today (hurray!). Our first trip was back along the road we came down ...

Very noisy night last night: horns honking, people shouting, cats fighting, alarms – not continuous noise, which I might have tuned out, but long periods of quiet punctuated by loud events. Woke up a lot.

No one was feeling tops today – I think I'm doing the best because I rested so much last night. But we were nevertheless downstairs, ready to go, at 7am. It took a long time to check out – they kept adding prepaid items (accommodations, picnic lunch) to our ...

Ja daar zijn we weer met het restant van onze reis door PNG.

We waren gebleven in Tufi. De middag dat ik het laatste bericht verstuurde zaten we te wachten op het vliegtuig van Tufi naar Port Moresby. Dat vliegtuig kwam dus niet opdagen. Iets wat wel vaker gebeurt in PNG. Aangezien wij op de Nederlandse manier gepland hadden (krap dus) kwam onze vlucht van de volgende dag naar Kiunga van 8 uur in de ochtend in gevaar. Met wat bellen zou het ...

Our flight to Port Moresby was cancelled so we had to stay an extra night in Tufi and enjoy our last Lobster meal. As the flight left the next morning early enough to connect with our flight to Kiunga we haven't spent any time in Port Moresby, the capital. As stories go round that it’s not the safest and most interesting place we didn’t mind spending an extra night in Tufi. When we arrived at Kiunga we hoped that Samuel our birding guide would be there ...

PNG 17......Madang Water Life
Madang is a busy port. It has winding
access channels with deep water, then inlets and islands which give
long water frontages and many landing points for a range of shipping.
You are never far from the waterside and cargo or people traffic is
a major business here.
The big boys come in under pilot direction.
There is a pilot boat and two bright red tugs who work the big boats
through the narrow entrance ...

Png.16 .....you'll never believe what I saw!Smiles are part of life in PNG, big smiles as strangers greet you, smiles red from betel , smiles gleaming white . 'The land of the unexpected 'also produces its fair share of smiles and laughter. Scenes to entertain and surprise are one of the joys of a journey. Amongst the scenic beauty and the clear light the human  eccentricity shines through to provide a smile, a giggle, or disbelieving hysterical laughter ...

Of course you will have got the idea that we are a bit like the lost tribe in the way we travel about, so a flavour of where we rest out heads may not go amiss. Starting from the sublime...we were chatting to a lecturer from the Marine College.. turns out he is on a training course to Tasmania, would we like to stay in his flat. Heartbreakingly we have to accept so end up with 3 days of air-con, fans, tele ,house maid, washed and ironed clothes, etc. Its just who you ...

Having just come in on the copra boat from Karkar we thought a wander through the travel situation in PNG might provide an insight into the place. At the top end is the Air Nuigini government airline which is the way most people crossing the country getting north to south journeys done. There are no roads. There are timetables but they change, and the aircraft are the mid range liners .Other small scale flights are done by the missionary support planes ...

PNG 9........ So who is going to be there next term?Week 1 in October and we have just returned from Karkar. Lots of lesson observations, feedback time, talks on assessment with Heads of Department and trying to co-ordinate the development of a school plan which is realistic. We did the same thing but different at Bogia as well. We can also report that the boat ride out to Karkar was superb and coming back was side to side, up and down and wet...and thats in the 60ft boat ...

We are in Madang for one more week delivering the last of the workshops for heads and deputies, this time on the management of change. It could be a disaster. Heads here are not trained for the job and literally walk from the classrom to the new position. We have 3 heads with some experience but it is scary to think of the responsibility they are given without adequate prparation. Yesterday was our anniversary and Bob booked us into Coastwatchers for a lovely meal ...