Day #11 New Guinea Adventure

At Sea

Today is another sea day, and once again that means no landfall but lots of onboard activities to keep us all busy.  Personally I’m looking for a bit of a relaxing day, with time to catch up on some much needed backups of my growing photo library and some book reading.

Executive Chef, Stefan Alverman shows us around the Galley

Our path today see us backtrack East with Rabaul as our final destination sometime tomorrow.

Map of the region showing our heading -  Google map link

After a leisurely breakfast we make our way to the Leda Lounge for a presentation by Mick Fogg, the expedition leader, on some of Orion’s future expeditions that will sail in 2011/12.

Mick’s presentation is fantastic and by the time he presents the Camp Leakey – Faces in the Forest – Voyage of Discovery, to be sailed in the new Orion II no less, I’m ready to sign up for it on the spot. It departs on December 29th and Mick is so passionate about it by the time he’s finished I’ve picked up a booking form and put our name down!

Here’s the information on the expedition from the Orion website, “A myriad of exciting destinations await us as we voyage along the southern and western coastlines of Borneo. From isolated tropical islands to diverse National Parks, our itinerary will showcase some of Borneo’s undiscovered jewels. We will be joined by Dr. Galdikas onboard Orion II and at the landmark Camp Leakey in Tanjung Puting National Park, allowing us the opportunity to view the rehabilitation of the ex-captive orangutans. Tanjung Puting is one of the great wonders of Borneo and is a wildlife mecca. We also visit Gunung Palung and Bako National Parks to examine, first hand, the complexity of ecosystems that once covered the entire Island. They now provide a refuge for Borneo’s 15,000 species of plants, 222 species of mammals, 420 resident birds, and numerous other reptile, amphibian and fish species.”

The Faces in the Forest itinerary

After the presentation it’s back to relaxing and we grab a bit of  sun time up on Deck 6. After lunch Justin is giving a presentation called “A Highlands Wedding: one man’s story” which, knowing him, should be very humorous.

At 2:00pm sharp we are back in the Leda Lounge for Justin’s presentation, anticipating a great talk, and we are not disappointed. 
His presentation was an in-depth, personal journey through the marriage proposal process entering traditional Papua New Guinea society. It covered more than 10 of his years in PNG, including marriage to a highlands woman, two highland wedding feasts and an axe-wielding father-in-law!
A young Justin in his new village house [from Orion Expeditions] - For some amazing stories follow Justin as he travells the remote spots of the world on his blog, Global Citizen

Wow these sea days are tough, now we have to go up to the sun deck as they are serving “devious” ice cream sundaes…tough.

After the sundaes, which were indeed devious, we head on down to the Library to meet Stefan, the Executive Chef, who’s going to give us a guided tour of the Galley.

It’s great to see behind the scenes, it’s amazing how they can accomplish so much in such a small confined space. Stefan gives us a great overview of the kitchen and points out each of the prep stations that are manned almost every hour of the day.

Sample of images from the Galley: Expresso Machine, Dishwasher, Work Station, Cookies ready for the Oven

So much for lazing around, after the Galley tour we head up to the Cosmos Theatre for a lecture by Mick entitled, “In Vulcan’s Shadow: The History of the Rabaul Caldera”. Mick takes us through the formation of the Rabaul Caldera as well as the volcanic and significant history of the Rabaul region.

I’ve never been close to an active volcano before and I can’t wait to see Rabaul and experience it up close. For more information on Rabaul check out the Wikipedia entry.

There’s one last event for the day and that’s a recap by the expedition team on our day at the Watam village and the Sepik River and a briefing on our day in Rabaul tomorrow.

Dinners in the Constellation restaurant so Kelly and I decide to head for the cabin and a bit of room service.

So much for a lazy day!

Day #10 New Guinea Adventure

Watam Village/Sepik River, Papua New Guinea

We wake to find ourselves in Broken Water Bay just south of the mouth of the Sepik River. There’s quite a large rolling swell going on and the ship’s stabilisers are working to keep us from swaying too much.
Orion anchored at the mouth of the Sepik River with the island of Bam in the distance

Last night’s sailing from Madang has taken us past some of the most active volcanoes in Papua New Guinea and in the distance we can see the Island of Bam. Bam is located 37km northeast of the mouth and is the conical summit of one of western Papua New Guineas most active volcanoes, with the most recent eruption taking place in 1960.
Map of the region showing our heading -  Google map link

The Sepik region is an immense grassland reserve, surrounded-d by one of the world’s greatest rivers which runs 1,126 kilometres from the mountains to the sea. The history of the Sepik region reflects the influence over the years of the missionaries, traders, labour recruiters and administrators. Parts of the Highlands remain untouched just as they were when first discovered in 1933. In fact some villages have yet to see a white man.

The Sepik River has long been world famous for the quantity and quality of its wood carvings and for the imposing architecture of its Haus Tambarans – Spirit Houses. Spirit Houses were lined with shields decorated with the faces of ancestors, whose likenesses appear also on the masks.
Shield masks on sale in Watam

The first expedition today, after breakfast that is, will be to the village of Watam. So Kelly and I head off to breakfast negotiating the corridors and walking in time with the swell.

We’d only been on the back deck for a few minutes, Kelly had her breakfast and was looking for a table, I was just getting some cereal, when the ship really started swaying from side to side.

In a second it was mayhem, tables and chairs, with people in them starting sliding on the steep deck, plates were falling off tables and smashing on the deck. From where I stood there was a small gas fired hotplate on my left hand side and large bowls of yoghurt and fruit to my right. Trying to keep my balance I kept and eye out on each side to avoid being burnt by a flying hotplate or slimed by the yoghurt!

After a minute or two Captain Frank made the decision to up anchor and move to a more settled spot to reduce the sway but by that time the damage had been done. Later we found out that most of the glasses in the bar had been damaged but fortunately no one onboard had suffered any injuries. We were especially concerned for the guys in the galley as that must have been a dangerous spot to ride this out.

Our first disembarkation starts at 08:30 this morning and everyone will be disembarking at the same time. It will be a wet landing at the village and we need to stay as a group as the welcome will only start when we are all together.

Justin Friend, is an honorary chief of the village, having been crowned so in 2008. There’s an article and pictures on the occasion in the NZ Herald. Justin gave us the low down on what would happen. After we land there is a processing into the village led by a ceremonial dragon, we need to follow behind this procession and wait until the ceremony is finished before moving out into the village itself.

Our fleet of zodiacs head toward the shore and there’s a bit of manoeuvring to get past a line of waves breaking off the shore, in the distance we can see a low lying boat filled with locals.
Welcome boat

As we get closer they are singing and welcoming us to their home. I hope that the boat doesn’t sink as there are lots of people singing and moving about in what is a pretty small boat.
Dancers and singers on the boat

Once ashore we form a group and follow the ceremonial dragon and dancers up into the village.

Head of the Ceremonial Dragon

It’s another hot sunny day and the village looks beautiful. The village is built on a large flat area of ground with a very wide promenade through the centre of it. On each side are the Spirit Houses and other village houses and lining it are ornamental poles made from local plants.
Ornamental Poles

Once again the dancing, singing and costumes of the villagers are spectacular and we follow along as they move further and further into the village. The age of those in the ceremony varies from the young to the old.
Old warrior

No matter the age they are all dressed in magnificent costumes of feathers, shells, and leaves.
Dancer with feather headdress

Even the kids are dressed up.
Young girl taking part in the ceremony

After the ceremony we are free to walk around the village, meet the locals and view the artefacts they have for sale. One side of the entire length of the promenade is full of beautiful carvings, bags, shields, masks and many other bits and pieces layer out on rugs or hanging off rustic fences.
Selling artefacts

We had a great time in the village, we met and talked to a number of villagers, walked around and had a good look at the houses they had built.
Typical village house

Of course we did some shopping and purchased a number of items made in the village including this intricately carved wooden drum.
Carver with our drum

It was a great opportunity to shoot some photos and Kelly had borrowed the 5D and the 50-500mm lens to try it out.
Kelly shooting with the big lens

Now it wasn’t only us shooting pictures of the village and villagers but at one of the men’s houses they were just as interested in taking pictures of us as we were of them.
Here we are on the other side of the lens

Stopping by the stalls gave us the chance to meet and talk to those selling items and they were very friendly and happy that we would visit them. Some of the women had beautiful tattoos on their faces.
Young woman with t-shirt hat

Everyone we met were happy to have their photographs taken, once we’d asked them and loved to pose for shots.

Older women with flower umbrella

When buying some of these artefacts especially the wooden ones you need to be careful that there are no borer holes in the wood. If there are you run the risk that Australian customs may require the object to be fumigated upon your arrival back into Darwin. Fortunately we had Mick Fogg on hand to give our objects his trained inspection.
Mick checking for borers in a sculpture

Just before it was time to head out I saw the Orion chef walking up through the village. The villagers were wrapping hundreds of freshly caught crabs in string pulled from local plants and he was going to buy the majority of them for a BBQ on board Orion this evening.
Freshly caught crabs

All too soon it was time to return to the Orion for lunch and we all headed for the beach saying our farewells to the villagers before boarding the Zodiacs. Once we were all on board Captain Frank up the anchor and relocated Orion in the mouth of the Sepik River. As the Sepik River has no delta the water comes rushing down to the sea and stains the sea brown for up to 50 kilometres. So even though we are anchored, when you look over the side the water is rushing by so fast it feels like you are still moving.

At 13:30 the first of the Sepik river expeditions left, we waited until the second one at 15:00 to give us a bit of down time between the village and the river.
We made sure we arranged it so that we would be in Mike Moore’s zodiac as he’s so knowledgeable about the area especially the bird life.
We head off upstream against the rapid flow of the river. The first thing you notice is the large amount of vegetation flowing down the river. There are huge islands of water hyacinths.
Clumps of hyacinths floating downstream

Its dramatic blue flowers and shiny green leaves make it highly prized as an ornamental plant. However its beauty is deceptive. Wherever it has been introduced, particularly into tropical climates, the plant spreads so rapidly that it is now regarded as the world's worst aquatic weed.
Hyacinth flower plucked from the river

The introduction of water hyacinth into PNG more than thirty years ago, has had drastic results. It now grows prolifically in more than 200 locations throughout the country, clogging many of PNG's most important waterways. Its impact disrupts human activities and threatens entire ecosystems. In some areas such as the Sepik River region, its growth has had a huge impact on the health and activities of the local people. Yet people continue to collect and grow it as an ornamental plant.

Another interesting fact about the Sepik River, due to its age and changing course, is that there are no stones or rocks within 50km of the river’s banks. Villages have ‘sacred stones’ that have been carried in from far away and placed in front of village Spirit Houses.

As we head further up river we see a number of bird species, unfortunately I can’t remember the names of them so if anyone wants to comment I’d appreciate it. I’ll see if I can send them to Mike to identify. I think the first one might be a Harpy Eagle.
Harpy Eagle
Bird 2 in a tree
Same as Bird2 but by the waters edge

Mick also pointed out in the trees you could see these strange bulbous shapes (caudex) hanging off branches. He told us that they are the homes for ants! Apparently these ants climb the trees and form a symbiotic relationship with the tree.

The Ant plants provide habitats for ant colonies high up into the forest canopy, protecting them from the elements and also predators because of the spines. Hollow, smooth-walled tunnels form within the caudex with external entrance holes, providing an above-ground home for ant colonies. Ants likewise provide defence for the plant and prevent tissue damage, swarming to defend their home if disturbed. Ant colonies also provide nutrients to the plants by leaving wastes within the tunnels inside the caudex. Special glands lining the tunnels then absorb nutriment for the plant. This symbiosis allows the plants to effectively gather nutrients (via the ants) from a much larger area than the roots ever could cover.
Caudex on an Ant Tree

At a certain point it was time to turn around and head back down the river toward it’s mouth and back to Orion. To this point the rivers edge we had been navigating near had been completely wild with the jungle growing right to the edge.

As we turned to head home we moved toward the far bank where we could see the huts of villages lining the shore.
Sepik river village

As we motored past there were lots of children running along waving to us, excited as we were to see them they were to see us.
Two kids playing on a log in the river

It was interesting to see that the villages had motorised water transport along with the traditional dugout canoes.
Young girl leaning on the outboard motor

Back on Orion it was time to chill with a cold beer, hop in the tub for a bit of relaxing as the sun set.

Sunset on Sepik River

This evening we had a fantastic “Aussie” BBQ and ate so many of the crabs bought this morning in the village that I could hardly walk. We ended the evening sitting on the back deck with friends listening to Fran sing while Gus played the piano and saxophone. Yes we even got up for a dance or two, or three!

Day #9 New Guinea Adventure

Madang, Papua New Guinea

Today we are in for a couple of great adventures, the first will be our scuba dive in the waters off Madang and the second will be my presentation “Shooting, Stitching and Virtual Tours” in the lecture theatre onboard Orion.
Early morning arrival into Madang

Once again it’s an early morning rise and up to Deck 6 for the sunrise and the arrival into Madang at 07:00. The regular crew are already setup and shooting by the time I arrive. Nick has set up his Canon 5D and is shooting a time-lapse of our arrival.
Map of the region showing our heading -  Google map link

It’s an early breakfast this morning and we are really excited about our scuba dive expedition.
We are ready with all our gear at the disembarkation point near reception on Deck 4 at 08:45. There’s a small cultural welcome taking place on the dock below but it’s really not anything like the fantastic welcomes we’ve experienced in the small villages and islands we have already visited. This group’s costumes look a little makeshift as you can see from the headdress worn by this dancer.
Symbolic Headdress

Finally we are cleared to disembark and eight of us head down the stairs to the waiting minibus. The plan is to head to the Madang Resort, where Niugini Dive is located, get our gear and then head out for two dives.

It’s only a ten minute drive to the resort and in no time we’ve signed our indemnity forms relinquishing the organisers of any responsibility for our wellbeing and have had our BCD’s (Buoyancy Control Device) assigned. Now we are walking down to the local dock where the small dive boat is waiting for us.

We climb aboard and take our seats, aside from the eight of us there are three other guys diving today.
Fellow passengers from the Orion

One of these other guys joining us has a very impressive piece of photo kit with him. It’s a Canon 5D Mark2 in a special waterproof housing. I’ve never seen one before so I have a bit of a chat with him and he tells me he’s never dived with it before.  He rented it to try it out and he’s a bit concerned that it’s going to be completely watertight.

We arrive at our first dive site, a reef about 30 minutes from Madang. The chap with the camera doesn’t waste anytime and he’s one of the first in the water.
Young guy with camera
Waterproof camera housing

During our initial setup at the Madang Resort we had spoken to the dive masters and told them that we hadn’t dived for about 17 years but that we’d done a refresher course just before we left Sydney.

Once we reached the reef one of the dive masters made a point of staying with just Kelly and myself to make sure we’d be okay and to gauge how well we could cope with different depths. The other guys in our group had had quite a bit of experience so they went in before us.
Bruce waiting for everyone to join him

A few minutes later we were in the water and descending toward the reef. I was a bit concerned about Kelly as she’d only managed to complete the first day of the refresher course, but I needn’t have worried as she was having a great time and had no issues diving at all.

We spent a great 45 minutes or so diving the reef, the conditions weren’t the best, but it was still a great deal of fun. We’d been told to leave a bit of air in our tanks but I seem to be a heavy breather under water and toward the end of our dive the dive master gestured for me to take his auxiliary regulator and use his air to conserve mine. So the last 5 or 6 minutes while we stopped for decompression he and I were very close!
View back to mainland from the dive boat

After we’d all climbed back on board, there’s quite a bit of discussion as to the tide, diving conditions and dive locations we could go to next. The dive master say well go look at a couple of spots and we head off across the bay. At each stop he puts on some goggles and dives overboard to check out the conditions. Unfortunately it’s not looking good as the tides are bringing in quite a lot of stuff in the water. In the end a vote is taken and we all opt for the B25 bomber dive.

The dive is an old World War II wreck of a B-25D-5 bomber “Green Dragon”. During the war it took off near Port Moresby on a barge sweep and strike against Madang Airfield. It was damaged by anti-aircraft fire and it ditched between Wongat Island and the coast of New Guinea.

Of the crew, the Engineer died in the crash. The rest of the crew swam to Wongat Island where they were captured by the Japanese. The Command Pilot Major Cox was separated from them and flown to Rabaul then transported to Japan where he spent the war as a POW. The other four crew members were blindfolded, escorted to an execution ground, bayoneted, then beheaded!

A chap named David Pennefather discovered the plane in September 1979 while snorkelling off Wongat island.

It took us about 20 minutes to get to the wreck site and we suited up again. The other guys would go first and we would go with our dive master. The main body of the plane is in about  18 metres of water while the starboard wing is at 25 metres.
Our dive master

After the initial group descended it’s our turn and over we go. It’s pretty poor visibility but below us we can see the shape of the plane. We descend down to about 18 metres and follow our dive master as he takes us around the wreck. I have to say it’s pretty cool, the plane has lots of sponges growing on it and there are fish all around. It’s also quite crowded down there with everyone diving around the same spot. At one point the dive master manoeuvres Kelly toward the cockpit, which is completely open and where you can still see the controls and joysticks, and helps her get right into it, very cool. There are some very good photographs in the forum at Scuba.com.

Top Turret Machine Guns
Kelly framed by a window in the fuselage

After another 45 minutes diving, this time I was much more careful with my breathing so I didn’t need to use anyone else’s air, we made our way back to the surface. As we talked about our experience on the way back to the resort we both realised that it had rekindled our desire to do more scuba diving.

Arriving back at the resort we dropped the gear, thanked the dive guys and headed back to the Orion. Now my presentation is at 14:00 and we had only arrived back at 13:00 so Mike Fogg was a bit concerned I wouldn’t have time to set up but I assured him everything was okay and Kelly and I dashed off to get all the gear ready for the presentation.

I’d prepared a presentation and all the files the night before so I was in pretty good shape. It was primarily a matter of setting up the laptop and having everything ready to go.

At 14:00 I had an audience of about 27 and was ready to go. I’d planned the presentation to cover the three main areas that creating 360 Panoramas require you to work in. That is shooting panoramas, stitching panoramas and delivering those panoramas in Virtual Tours.

I talked about what a 360 Panorama is and showed examples taken while in the Tufi Village tour. The different types of Panorama images such as Circular or Cubic and the equipment you need to shoot them.

The next step was to discuss composing Panoramas to maximise the effect and I followed this with a real-time shoot within the lecture theatre.
Lecture Panorama (everyone was paying attention except the old guy asleep in the front row!)

After the presentation, there was a two hour break until Peter Eastway’s presentation “Photoshop and Layers” at 17:00. One of the guys from the dive shop who was working on the boat had been showing some artefacts that we really liked. When the boat got back we couldn’t find him and we were a bit sad that we’d missed out on them.

There was still a shuttle bus running between the Orion and the Madang Resort so Kelly, Peter and myself decided to catch the last bus back and see if we could find the guy from the boat.

At the resort they told us he was actually down by the docks where the Orion was berthed hoping we would see him there. As we had plenty of time before Peter was on call next we decided to walk back to the ship.

In the resort there was a sad sort of zoo with some caged animals including some very sick looking tree kangaroos. Not a great spot to visit.
Black Cockatoo at Mandang Resort
The weather was beautiful and being a Sunday the town was almost deserted.  We walked back along a wide avenue flanked by trees past an old club and back to the dock where we caught up with the guy from the boat and bought our artefacts.
Avenue of trees
Coca-cola stand

Near the docks is the ubiquitous Copra works and the large silo that contained the refined Copra.
Copra Silos
Stack of bags in the Copra works

Back on board we had time to grab a coffee and get settled in for Peters lecture on Photoshop and how he uses layers to bring the image back to what he saw when he was shooting it. Once again a great presentation and more grist for the mill.

The day wound down with another recap from the Expedition Team and we finished the day with a bit of room service.

Day #8 New Guinea Adventure

Tami Islands

Overnight we have travelled north from Tufi and have have arrived quite early, 07:30, at the Tami Islands.
The Orion anchored off Tami

The Tami Islands are a small group of islands, located about seven nautical miles off the Huon Peninsula, in the Solomon Sea. The islands include four atolls,  two very small and one not much larger than a strip of sand.

Map of the region showing our heading -  Google map link

Today we will be doing a wet landing at one of the islands for a welcoming ceremony, a chance to meet the villagers and the opportunity to take a walk through the village.
After breakfast, at around 09:00 ,we assemble in the Delphinus Café for our zodiac ride ashore. As in other landings like this we must all arrive at the same time, or within a few minutes of each other.
We make our way to the shore and then walk from the beach about 500 metres into a large clearing in the village. There is a shaded area with bench seating and an esky or two full of bottles of cold water. It’s only early but the sun is high and it’s already very hot.

From the bush we can hear the sound of drums and into the clearing come a large group of men and women dancing and singing.
Welcome Ceremony

As in other welcomes the performance is fantastic, with rhythmic drumming and the movement of headdress, grass skirts and feathers combining to create a visually rich experience for all of us.
The performers make their way from the jungle further into the clearing. Peter and Nick take full advantage of the welcome to film and photograph the performers.

Peter and Nick

After the initial welcome one of the young women, beautiful in her traditional costume, comes forward from the group to address us and formally welcome us to the island.
Welcome speech

After the speech, the drummers were back and the performance really began.

Drummer Man

One of the most fascinating features of their costumes were the large and distinctive headgear they wore.  I was interested in the symbolism of it and found out that they represented the Eagle. Once I knew that it was easy to see the shape of the eagle’s tail, wings and head.
Eagles symbolised in the Headdress

It’s been amazing to see the different ornaments and adornments the dancers and singers wear and the colors of the skirts and flowers make the opportunity to experience these welcomes unique.
Intense colours of the costumes

A number of young girls also took part in the welcome carrying their small woven baskets.
Young dancer

We weren’t the only ones interested in the dancing and there were a lot of villagers watching from the wings including this young one.
Young villager watching the performance

After the performance we had about an hour before we were due to leave so we left the performance area and headed back into the village. The village seemed to be built out of every imaginable type of material salvaged by the villagers. This results in a textural landscape of rusting metal, netting and palm fronds.
Building textures

We were fortunate to be taken in hand by an elderly woman of the village who took it upon herself to be our guide. She took us on a private tour of the village, down past her house, showing us where she cooked, and through to the cemetery where her sister and brother were buried.
Our guide
The Kitchen

What we saw when walking into the cemetery was quite unexpected. There were quite a few graves and most of them were defined by simple wooden grave markers but what was unusual was that most of the graves were defined by upturned bottles pushed almost flat to the ground. She told me that the bottles had been left on the island after the war by the Australians and Americans.
Island graves
I found this lone grave marker and bottle in the roots of a large tree not far from the cemetery.

Isolated grave marker
On the way back to the beach I spotted a lizard scrambling up the trunk of one of the large trees planted throughout the village.
Lizard (type unknown)

Just before we went down to the beach, we talked to some of the kids that were interested in us and gave them some of the bubble blowers we’d brought with us. For the life of me I couldn't get it to work but this young girl managed it first time.
Young girl blowing bubbles

The Orion team has arranged a special treat a “sumptuous” beach BBQ lunch at the small coral cay not far from the island we are on. Before we head over there I want to head back to the Orion so we can pick up my Panorama gear so I can shoot a pano on the island and our snorkelling gear.

We hop into a zodiac and push off from the island for the trip to Orion. Just as we turn who should we see but Justin, in all his New Guinea finery, driving his own zodiac!
Justin (the new zodiac driver)

We arrive back at Orion, collect all our gear, slap on some sunscreen and are back on the Marina platform ready to board a zodiac for the beach bbq in under 15 minutes. We head out for the short trip to the island and we haven’t gone more than a few metres from Orion when all around the zodiac we can see dolphins tracking alongside just under the water. Suddenly they are leaping out of the water and zipping back and forward in front of the zodiac. What a sight. They swim along with us for quite a while until the water becomes too shallow for them.

The ride into the cay is beautiful, the sky an iridescent blue and the water crystal clear. Because the reef is so high in the water we have to navigate through some buoys set up by the scouting team so our prop doesn’t hit the reef.

Riding the zodiac to the Coral Cay

The beach itself is tiny and leads you up to a rock wall that frames the whole beach.  Just in front of the wall the guys from the restaurant have set up their beach bbq. They were right in calling it sumptuous,  there are two canopies set up, one with a bbq and the other with salads and accompaniments. Strung along the wall there are strands of flowers and everyone is having a great time.
Orion Restaurant Team

After lunch we head for the water to do a bit of snorkelling, we also try a bit of kayaking but the current between the islands is really strong and basically we end up going around in circles.
It’s almost 13:00 and the last zodiac is set to leave at 13:30 so Kelly and I head for the water to cool off. It’s quite shallow so we walk out quite a way into the channel. There’s a young boy in a dugout hanging out just around from the beach area where the bbq is set up and the view down the channel is beautiful. There is a lovely overhang at the end of the island with a palm tree perched right on the end.
Island Silhouette

We spend the last few minutes just enjoying the beauty of the scene around us before heading back and catching, once again, the last zodiac back to Orion.
Kelly loving the moment

Back on board we headed up to deck 6 to wash out our gear and spend a bit of time in the Jacuzzi. Once again it’s just the perfect thing to relax before our next event at 17:00 a lecture by Peter Eastway entitled on ‘Rock Hopper – Islands of the Southern Ocean”.

Wow! what a fantastic presentation. Peter showed incredible images that reinforce the beauty of the Islands of the Southern Ocean. He showed us images of snow capped peaks, deep blue glaciers and minke whales. These images definitely show why Peter is one of Australia's leading landscape photographers. View all of the images on Peter’s website and if you are in Sydney between the 19th and 30th May make sure you head down to Gaffa Gallery to see his exhibition.

I walk out of Peter’s presentation really inspired to lift the values of my images, I’m so thrilled that both Peter and Nick are on this trip.

Kelly and I finish off the day with a bit of room service and another episode of Breaking Bad.

Day #7 New Guinea Adventure

Tufi, Papua New Guinea

Ooops, missed the sunrise this morning, now I’m going to have to be ostracised by all those who’s alarms went off. But never mind it’s a beautiful morning and we are out on deck having Eggs Benedict, thoughtfully provided by Donny and a Latte courtesy of Emil and we can see the coastline of Tufi and once again the sky is filled with towering clouds.
Approaching Tufi Coast

Apparently the Tufi area on the south east coast of Oro Province is one of PNG’s best kept secrets and is a spectacular place to visit. Cape Nelson, jutting out into the Solomon Sea, was formed by the eruption of three volcanoes, whose fast flowing lava created the rias, or fjords. Unlike the fjords of Scandinavia, the water is always warm and the bays are home to stunning coral formations and tropical marine life. The fjords are over 90 metres deep and rise vertically out of the water to over 150 metres. The vertical cliff faces of the gorges are covered in moss and orchids and waterfalls cascade directly into the sea.

Map of the region showing our heading -  Google map link

 It’s a pretty busy day today with a number of expeditions taking place. There’s snorkelling at the outer reef, a Tufi Village Tour and a Suicide Point Walk.
We had initially put our names down for scuba diving but unfortunately there were only three of us and they had to cancel it. In hindsight, if we had been smart we would have just paid the extra and done the diving as we realised at the end of the day what an experience it would have been.

However we are scheduled on the Tufi Village Tour in the morning and snorkelling at the outer reef in the afternoon. I’m hoping we will have time for a quick bite of lunch between expeditions.

At 09:30 we are assembled for the departure to the village and there are about 4 zodiacs leaving at the same time. To get to the zodiacs you descend a stairway from the Delphinus Café to a small loading platform, there they have a large board with hooks and a plastic counter with all of the cabin numbers. There’s one for each of us, one side is blue the other white. As you head down to the marina deck you turn over your counter so it’s displaying white. When you come back you turn it back to show blue. That way they can quickly see who’s back and who’s not. Low tech, love it.
Zodiacs waiting at the marina deck.

So we are all on the zodiacs and heading down one of the fjords and the faces of the gorge is thick with vegetation. It’s hard to imagine how the towering palm trees can find enough earth to anchor themselves.
Fjord vegetation

In the distance we can see a number of outrigger canoes and young Papuan natives dressed in their ceremonial gear. I’m not sure how many of us get to sit on each canoe but the platform area looks pretty small.
Outrigger Canoe and Crew

Well on ours we have three of us and they gave us implicit instructions not to move around! I don’t think the outriggers are all that stable. Once we are settled and happy all of the guys start paddling the outriggers into a narrow channel leading into the jungle from one of the fjords.

The vegetation on either side of the channel is rich and green and the trees overhang the channel so it feels like you are heading down a green tunnel. There is the occasional outrigger that has been hauled up onto the bank. After about half an hour we approach our landing spot deep in the jungle.
Heading up into the jungle
Outrigger on the bank
Approaching our landing spot

At the landing point we all “gracefully” hopped off the outriggers and waited until everyone had disembarked. Before we could head up the trail into the jungle the village elders came around and put a dab of coloured paste on our faces to show we were welcome. We had only walked for a couple of minutes when we heard shouting and these three warriors came running out of the bush leaping and yelling, brandishing spears and challenging us for walking in their territory.
The Challenge

Of the three one was just a young kid but he looked the part with a painted face and spiky headdress.
Young warrior

I guess we must have looked suitable chastised for entering their territory because after a few minutes of spear rattling we were allowed to pass and enter into a clearing where there were a large number of villagers and a welcoming committee.
Welcome to Tufi Village

At the village we were shown a number of crafts and activities they perform on a daily basis, one of the most interesting was how they harvest, prepare and cook Sago.

Sago is a starch extracted from the pith of sago palm stems, Metroxylon sagu. It is a major staple food for the lowland peoples of New Guinea and the Moluccas, where it is called saksak and sagu. It is traditionally cooked and eaten in various forms, such as rolled into balls, mixed with boiling water to form a paste, or as a pancake.

Step one is to cut down the palm and carefully remove the outer layer of the main stem. This can be somewhat dangerous as the Metroxylon sagu palm has thorns on its stem that are six to eight inches long and VERY needle-like and sharp. The section of trunk that will be worked for starch extraction is about seven to ten feet long.

The second, and probably the most energy consuming, task is to chop-scrape the heart "pith" of the palm. This is done with a special hand crafted tool that is designed to shave off a bit of the pith with each swing. The object is to end up with sawdust like shavings. I was worried the guy was going to take his toes off with that axe!
Shaving the plant
Sago axe

Once the pith material has been thoroughly shaved and beaten it is then soaked in water. This has the effect of helping the starch separate from the non-starch part of the pith material. A filter is used that allows the starch through with the water that is channeled into a tightly woven bark bag. After the starch powder is filtered it is mixed with water and kneaded into a sticky dough.
Kneading the sago

To cook it they took the dough and  put it in a split green bamboo stem, then built and lit a large fire of dry palm leaves over it. The heat was intense and the fire burnt very hot and very quickly, in a matter of minutes it was done. After the fire died down they cleared the charred palms, lifted out the sago and prepared a bag for it using banana leaves so they could carry it home.
Preparing the fire
Stoking the fire
The fire at it’s most intense
Removing the cooked sago
Wrapping it to carry it home

They came around offering a taste of the freshly cooked sago, they call it Papuan chewing gum. I tried some it definitely was chewy but it didn’t really have a taste. Some of the kids told me they cook it up as a pancake and have it with banana and sugar which sounds pretty good.

After the sago presentation we were treated to another cultural dance and song performance which was different again from the others we had seen and very dramatic amongst the dappled light coming in from the jungle canopy.
Young woman dancer
Young male dancer

After this we talked and took pictures of the villagers and eventually made our way back to the landing point for the outrigger trip back down the channel to the fjord. This time we have some motor boats waiting for us, we climbed on board waving goodbye to the outrigger paddlers as we headed back to Orion.
Kelly on the boat back
Some scruffy fellow she is with

Wow, what a great morning, Tufi is a fantastic place to visit. We’ve just got time for a quick lunch, then we are off to grab our snorkelling gear for a trip to the outer reef.

At 13:30 we are assembled for the departure to the village and this time rather than taking zodiacs there is a motor boat waiting for us.  Apparently the trip to the outer reef is about half an hour so I’ve got my Kindle with me so I can have a read on the way out to the reef.

I’m reading a very interesting book called “The Ghost Mountain Boys” by James Campbell.

Here’s an overview of the story, “Lying due north of Australia, New Guinea is among the world’s largest islands. In 1942, when World War II exploded onto its shores, it was an inhospitable, cursorily mapped, disease-ridden land of dense jungle, towering mountain peaks, deep valleys, and fetid swamps. Coveted by the Japanese for its strategic position, New Guinea became the site of one of the South Pacific’s most savage campaigns. Despite their lack of jungle training, the 32nd Division’s Ghost Mountain Boys were assigned the most gruelling mission of the entire Pacific campaign: march 130 miles over the rugged Owen Stanley Mountains and protect the right flank of the Australian army as they fought to push the Japanese back to the village of Buna on New Guinea’s north coast.”

You can get more information if you are interested at the Ghost Moutain Boys website.

Book/Expedition Trailer

We arrive at the reef and it’s spectacular! The water is so clear you can see the coral and the fish swimming below you. We waste no time in getting our gear on and hopping overboard. What more can you say but it was a bit of heaven on earth.
The reef
Nemo
Parrot Fish
Fish (unknown)
Reef from the boat

They had to almost physically drag us from the water, I don’t think anyone wanted to go back. But all good things must come to an end and once again we headed back to the Orion.

As we came in sight of the shore there was a beautiful cloud formation building up over the fjords and some isolated rain falling. This is a shot, inspired by the work of Peter Eastway, of that scene.
Clouds over Tufi Fjords

By about 16:30 we were back on board and time for a beer and a plunge in the jacuzzi. Dinner tonight was a island buffet under the stars in the Delphinus Café. What a way to end the best day yet.

Tomorrow, the Tami Islands.