We got up at 5:30 and our room service breakfast arrived at 6:00 - breakfast for one which was ample for the two of us. We left our two rolling suitcases with the concierge to hold and packed most of our stuff in two folding lightweight suitcases that we had brought as we are going to have some flights on small planes in PNG. We caught a taxi to the International Brisbane terminal and checked in with Air Nuigini. We saw several other couples dressed in field clothes like ours and figured correctly that these were our traveling companions for the birding tour: three couples from Georgia, Florida and Seattle. We settled down to wait for the flight; I bought some Tim-Tam cookies as I know David Bishop, our tour leader and also our leader on our Thailand trip, loves Tim-Tams! We took off and flew over the land north of Brisbane before starting over the ocean. Suddenly gorgeous reefs and bits of island began to appear and we realized were flying over the Great Barrier Reef! What a treat!
We landed at 1:15 and went through the very slow process of paying for our visas and having them inserted into our passports. I had admitted on the customs form that I was carrying cookies and there were some very severe warnings about bringing any food into the country, so I thought I would have to jettison my present but the customs agent laughed them off and we greeted David who seemed thrilled to see his favorite Aussie treat.
We all piled into a spacious but rather disreputable van which will be our car for the next two days. We got to the hotel, which is on a hill overlooking the airport and is cool and breezy rather than the very expensive hotels downtown. The recent discovery of natural gas has everyone very excited and Exxon and others are pouring into the country to develop it unfortunately, which among other things has inflated prices quite a bit.
We got our room assignments in this very attractive and tropical hotel and were given 30 minutes to organize our stuff before setting out to bird. (pic: mural at Customs)
We climbed into the bus and drove past some rather grubby roadside markets to the campus of a little religious college and started to get down to business. Our New Guinean driver and assistant are very keen birders and really know their stuff, as does David. The birds came thick and fast.
(pic: Purple Swamphen)This was birding on open ground and considered “easy”. We walked around for a couple of hours and finally got a Tim-Tam and water break, thanks to me. We saw some great birds and even the bower of the Fawn-breasted Bower Bird who weaves a complicated tunnel of grass and decorates it with berries…this is just to attract a female…she builds the actual nest if she approves of his work!
We returned to the hotel at 6:15 and David gave us 30 minutes to change and meet in the lobby! Yow! I managed a quick shower and found that I had not packed any trousers except two pairs of field pants…oh, well…
We met in the lobby and David led us on the circuitous route up to the restaurant…up seven floors in an elevator and across a bridge to a platform containing a swimming pool and the fancy restaurant.
You order a meat or fish and then go into a small buffet which actually had so many interesting dishes, sushi, relishes, soups that tomorrow I’ll just eat that! I got a nice piece of fish wrapped in banana leaves to go with my buffet dishes. Then we did The List: David reads off all the birds we have seen that day and we dutifully record them.
David says we are to meet tomorrow at Five! Yikes!
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