Bob and I got up at 4:30 and saw that it was overcast, but not raining. We got our gear organized - a little difficult as much of our stuff was wet from hiking in the rain yesterday - and put our checked luggage outside our hut, and went to breakfast. We joined Joe to drive up the road once again - everyone else elected to sleep in a bit! David, Michael our driver, and Joseph our guide, drove us up past Bailey Bridge and stopped at a particular point where we got a good look at Princess Stephanie’s Astrapia, a long-tailed black Bird-of-Paradise with a patch of turquoise above the bill and a coral necklace low on his breast, a real beauty, sitting on a branch high in a tree!
We returned shortly and joined the others, loaded up and set off across the valley at 8 AM to the small town of Tari, which consists mainly of the airport (international!) surrounded by a high wire fence and open markets. We watched a steady stream of people walking by the airport, most in colorful western dress and others with grass skirts, hair wigs and face paint.
One particularly colorful fellow very efficiently helped unload our luggage and process us through. David stood in line for ages with our passports, and finally returned with hand-written boarding passes! No wonder it took so long!
We sat on the bus for about an hour and then went into the waiting area: a lovely open-air thatched hut. After about an hour our Air Nuiguini Dash 8 arrived and we very shortly filed on board, only an hour late. We took off over the Tari Valley and could see thousands of tiny agricultural plots before disappearing into the clouds. It became partly cloudy and the huge flat delta area appeared with multiple winding river channels and a very occasional tiny settlement.
We landed at 2 PM and were immediately shuttled back to our old friend, the Airways Hotel, where we dashed up to the seventh floor for a quick lunch by the pool. David had had our luggage delivered to our rooms and had given us our keys, but we couldn’t get ourkey to open the elevator door and had to walk down a ways to access the hotel where we cleaned up a bit.
We met the others in front of the hotel and climbed aboard the bus for a tour of Port Moresby.
David first took us to see the fascinating Parliament building with its amazing mural of all aspects of life in PNG painted on the front wall. We then drove to an area of coastline where the houses are built up on stilts over the ocean. 
These were the original settlements for Europeans and are still occupied today. We drove along a pretty ocean-front walkway with lovely views of islands in the distance. Traffic was pretty bad, but then, it was Friday at closing time. The New Guineans are very friendly and people were waving and smiling at us throughout the drive; men even picked up their babies and waved their babies’ hands at us! The city has the typical messy tropical feel to it, but with its lovely hilly topography and open space and public art, it’s quite charming.
We assembled at 7:15 for our Farewell Dinner, and with much wine and beer and good food, said our goodbyes and agreed that this was a unique and wonderful adventure, with many thanks to David Bishop for his enthusiasm, great ears and eyes, and ingenuity in making all the complicated logistics work!
One couple is flying to New Britain to snorkel, others are going to explore the Cairns area a bit and we are returning to Brisbane for the night and then visit our friend, Frances, who lives about 60 miles north of the city.
No comments:
Post a Comment