Monday, Nov 7 - Flying to Tari

We were able to sleep in late this morning until 5:15 and joined the other at the bus at 6 for a quick run up the road to KM 17 again. We immediately started walking into the forest on a nice raised stone path lined with big river rocks, that Sam had had constructed to lead birders to a bird-of- paradise lek (an area where some bird species males gather to display in dance and feather movements for females). The birds return year after year to the same lek, but these birds-of-paradise had been disturbed by people trying to photograph them and had found a new lek. Sam led us there and we managed to get good views of the Regganio B-of-P strutting and waving his gorgeous russet tail feathers and some got views of the Great B-of-P, which is similar except his tail is pale yellow.

We had to leave as we have a charter plane to catch at 11, so we returned to our Guest House, had a quick breakfast, returned to our rooms to pack and clean up, and got on to the bus with our luggage at 10:45. Ten minutes later we were at the tiny Kiunga Airport. It was very hot - in the high 90s - and very humid, and we sat there sweltering for an hour watching planes land and take off again. Finally our ten-seat single engine plane arrived. We had to wait while a large load of mattresses was unloaded (seems as if the charter company was double dipping). Then the seats had to be installed - we brought out our luggage and we sheltered under the tail to be in some shade. Our pilot, Kevin, an older, very thin Brit, loaded our luggage and hand luggage and then we got on….but the seat nearest the door wouldn’t sit in the grooves in the floor. Kevin, assisted by David, who was standing with the sun full on his back, struggled to get the damn thing to work. Finally it seemed as if it was attached properly, and Barry gingerly sat in it and promised not to move very much, at least, until we took off! We zoomed upwards and over the lovely serpentine Fly River and her tributaries, the town of Kiunga and then miles and miles more of unbroken, undeveloped jungle forest. The plane’s interior gradually began to cool, but we were still all soaking wet from our ordeal at the airport.

Kevin steered us around the many clouds and suddenly we were in the foothills of the southern highlands. The forest here was a lot more cut over as most of PNG’s population live in the highlands. We flew over our next hotel and curved around and came in on a gravel uphill strip, expertly landed by Kevin. We hopped off and onto a small bus and drove five minutes to the lovely Ambua Lodge, set on a hill side overlooking the Tari Valley and the home of the Huli people. The hotel has a main dining building and 40 small huts built of reed and split bamboo with modern conveniences inside. We had a late lunch and went to our rooms to settle in. The spacious huts are circular with conical roofs and have 180 degrees of windows set so everyone’s view is private.

We heard drums beating and returned to the dining room to see a SingSing, greeting dance, of some of the Huli men. They were dressed with woven bands around their waists with leafy branches inserted into the bands. Their faces were painted bright red and yellow and, most distinctively, they were wearing elaborate wigs made out of their own hair! As young unmarried men, they live apart from the other villagers and grow their hair for the purpose of making their wigs under the instruction of “wig masters”. The women do the practical stuff of everyday living while the men concentrate on their elaborate costumes, growing their hair, property disputes and some tribal warfare still.

A very noisy helicopter landed very near our cabins - turns out there are three landing sites near the hotel as the resource extraction interests are being catered to by the hotel- unfortunately more than eco tourism. Very clean-cut guys in uniform blue shirts seem to be all over about the hotel, and the Lodge is building a large addition to house them.

We birded a little from one of the ‘copter pads, overlooking a deep lovely valley where we’ll walk tomorrow, and saw a spectacular black and bright red Red Collared Honeyeater.

We had a pleasant dinner of carrot-ginger soup and roast pork and went to bed.