Solomon Is: A killer as a pet in Munda

In the afternoon i went for a walk along a sideway and passed a fish shop, where i bought a little one for dinner. Continued walking and some locals started talking to me. Somehow we came to the topic "crocodiles", and that was the keyword that made my sense active again...! I found out that one local family has two crocodiles in their garden. So i went there...

An old lady stood beside the house when i arrived and i told her that i came here to see the crocs. She smiled and took me to a little storage house in the backyard. Beside was some kind of vault and on the top a fence, made of shelves. And down there, these monsters sprawled sepparated from each other in the water. The vault was just about 1.5 meter high so the crocs were just about 1 meter bellow the fence. Soo close - so frightening - so impressive they are...! An awesome feeling watching this billion year old killer in the eye, so close bellow me.

The lady said, she is keeping them in there since 20 years and they feed them once a month with fish, alive chicken or .... yes i heard right - alive puppy dogs! Now the question, how can i make it moving?

Well as i had a fresh fish with me, i decided to feed the croc with it! I hung the fish onto a little stick and held it between the shelves. The croc saw me preparing the lunch and i didnt even pass the shelves, the croc exploded and crushed up to the shelves, which moved away from its position. But as the croc's move was unsuccessfull, i was still the lord of the fish and was able to play and tease the croc with it, before it finally catched it :)! The old lady gave me then a slat, with which i can poke the croc. And its absolutely unbelievable how fast this killers are. I touched it just a little tiny bit, but when it got touched, this beast exploded like a bomb, grabed the slat and shaked it around. Shocking - i never would have expected that it is THAT fast and powerful!! Unbelievable!!


These days are very strong winds and heavy rainfalls going on! Some say its an incomming cyclone from fiji. Hopefully he can wait until tomorrow evening, after my flight back to Honiara. This also will be the place where im going to spend the year change. No idea if people celebrate it here too.

Solomon Is: Getting to Munda by ship? Really?

Since yesterday afternoon im in Munda. As i wrote, i came with the ship from Gizo. In addition to my cough and headache, the trip made my nerves literally running wild and i was in the mood to punch the ship crew members into the eye :)!! Why? They didn't drop me off in Munda. Well, every little hillbilly village in the Solomon Island has a wharf, and especially Munda, one famous and "important" city of the Solomons. So how should i know that the ship doesnt drive to the Munda wharf, but instead stops for some minutes somewhere out in the ocean to give the passengers a chance switching to a little motorboat, which should have been the taxi to the Munda wharf? The ship stoped on every other wharf and also will stop on every incoming little wharf along the way. Except Munda! Thanks ship crew, for letting me, the only white tourist on the boat knowing that - afterwards.

 



Ship to Munda

Finally they dropped me off on the next stop. A little tiny backwoods village called "Ugele" - where the moon is no more far away. From there i had to organize the way back to Munda by myself. Fortunately I found someone who was preparing his motorcanoe for driving the 1 hour trip to Munda in the middle of the early afternoon sun. I didnt ate anything the whole day and just drunk a little bit of water. My nerves - the heat - the cough - it wasnt easy. And as a cream topping of the glourious day, about a half kilometer before the Munda wharf the canoe run out of petrol and we had to paddle the remaining distance.

And today i had to solve another obstacle. My visa was expired on december 23. As i didnt have any chance the last days getting any answer from the immigration department, today was the first time i reached them. One of the 5 numbers picked up the phone after calling them 300 times. Of course they couldnt help me, but as sometimes the irony plays crazy games, I met today the former CEO of the immigration dept in the guesthouse and it seems he can helping me to solve my visa problem. All i have to do now is showing up on monday in the departement in Honiara.

 

Solomon Is: Christmas Stress in Gizo

Over the weekend i went back to Honiara, so that i surely had spare time and dont miss my flight on monday morning to Gizo in the western part of the Solomons. So yesterday morning i arrived with a small airplane in Gizo, which airport more looks like a bus stop, as its just made of a small office and a shelter for about 20 people. Baggage claim is from a trolley right beside the plane. :)



Japanese WW2 Missiles

I got picked up by the dive company and we left the little airport-island by motorboat. After getting the diving gear, some minutes later me and 2 other divers were ready to dive. First dive was a japanese transport wreck from WW2, where lot of tools and equipment like gas masks, ammo, toilettries and so on were still at its place.

 

Departure to Munda 5am

These days i feel little bit sick and i knew that diving can be very painfull with a blocked nose. Indeed, on the second dive i had problems getting down and 20 meters was maximum. But anyway, the second dive was absolutely unspectacular as the visability was for the trash.

Today its the 25th. Its christmas. Shops are closed here and from the streets i can hear the families singing and celebrating. Now im sitting in the guesthouse terrace, overlooking the huge reef and think about my schedule for the next few days. Actually my plan was getting somehow to Gatokae - the place in the east of the western province. Tried to find out this morning, how i can get there and asked many locals around here. But all the people know is "oh, sori, me na save" (no idea). Flight or Shipping offices are closed and in the lucky case the internet connects, it is slower than it was in year 1985.
All i found out that there are some ships with irregular and unannounced arrival and departure dates. And after hours of running around the town, searching for information and connection transports for getting out of Gizo, my decision is giving up that "Gatokae"-plan and instead going with the ship to Munda tomorrow at 6am. There i will try to dive and by the end of the week, im flying back to honiara. Next week Tuesday, january 2nd, i will fly to Vanuatu and I absolutely dont want to risk missing that flight.

Solomon Is: Tulagi, the WW2 island

Since yesterday im on a somehow very lost island called Tulagi.

The crew of the passenger ship from Malaita to here definately used the "Solomon time". They left us passengers waiting in the wharf for 2 hours, in the middle of the early afternoon heat without any shelter from the sun! Thanks, "solomon time" inventor!

Even it is just about a 2 hours boat ride from Honiara, it feels like being completely off the world somewhere in the pacific. On this former Solomon capital city is only one mainroad, which is situated along the cost around the island. No real shops exist here and its a nearly all about luck, finding one who sells a bottle of drinking water. Oh yes, there is no ATM on this island. They removed it some months ago because nobody is using it..haha! Why did nobody tell me? Cause then i would have brought the cash from Malaita and wouldnt have to work as pig farmer here for having accomodation and food .. (joke). But actually i really will leave this island with my last cent in the pocket. And also for the accomodation i had to bargain. Not very nice in place like that!
Today i walked along the mainstreet and searched for the WWII relicts. As the japanese and US fought ugly battles around solomon islands, on this island are lots of japanese caves and gunsockets left as used that time. Impressive.

Village inTulagi

On the way back i bumped into some policemen and we talked about their experience as crocodile haunting police officers. As the water around the island is crystal clear and visability is several dozen meters, i asked them if they can take me out so that i can make underwater pics from crocs. So in the afternoon they took me to the mangroves with their police-paddle-canoes for searching the crocs. Well, i really wanted to jump into the water to the crocs, but as soon we reached the mangrove area, the water turned very dirty and i changed my mind pretty fast about the jumping into that water.

One more day here and then i drive back with the boat to Honiara, where i will stay over the weekend, before i leave to the western province.

Solomon Is: Kwaio and the people without iPhones

Arrived today back in Auki in the Malaita Province. After 4 hours of sleep I had to get up at 6am on Saturday to start my trip to Kwaio, a village in the east of Malaita which is famous for its tribe villages and customs. The Kwaio people have their villages somewhere far up in the jungle mountains. Kwaio people are just under special circumstances allowed to leave their village, as their religion doesn’t allow to go to other villages with other religions. That means, just a few kwaio people have ever seen forgein people – black or white. They live isolated and have their own law and rules. For example, unmarried woman are not allowed to walk around with clothes. Money doesn’t exist and wars and fightings are nearly daily business. So no outsider is allowed to go to these villages without any guide and translator. Therefore I hired a guide, who took me all the long way to the border of these villages. 
 

So my trip started Saturday morning. As I knew that there wont be any shop along the way and food is hard to get, I told my guide that I first want get some canned food, biscuits and water. Of course, lots of water and food can become very heavy, but for me, I didn’t see any problem in this. As my guide didn’t have any bag with him, he had two empty hands and was able to carry the big bag of food and the box with 12 bottles of water. Haha! 

After a 4 hour ride to Atori on a common pickup truck and loaded with 36 people (I counted them), dozens of rice-, flour bags and other stuff, the first part was done. Next part was another 2 hour ride with the motorboat, that was also loaded to the “over-the-top” with goods and people. Im not a captain nor do I know much about boats, but even the most undeveloped monkey would have seen that this boat is little bit overloaded. As engines are not stupid, they know that too and stop their work suddenly somewhere out in the ocean. So we had to wait 1 hour until another boat came by to continue the ride. 

Me and my guide were the last passengers in the boat and at 5pm we arrived in the wharf of Atoifi, the last village and at the border to the hidden kwaio villages. At the wharf, 2 fellows with machetes walked towards us and introduced themselves as the sons of “the chief”. My guide told them why im here and they took us for a one hour walk up to the border to the Kwaio Villages. They brought me to the “chief” and I had to talk with him who I am, why im here and what my intention is. So even these people here live in their little woodhouses, without electricity and barely any money, here the people are still “normal” – compared to the hidden kwaio villages. 




The chief didn’t talk much. He just explained me, that im here at the wrong time. As the “chief” of the first hidden village has died last week, those hidden village people are very upset and don’t want to see ANY outsiders from other villages for the next few months. But he told me, that if I want, I can see the second hidden village. The fact that this village would have been a half day mountain trekking away, wasn’t the reason why I declined. The “chief” showed me something like a pricelist, where I had to pay for everything during that trip. That means, paying for his two sons as mediators, translators and guards, and also the necessary overnight stay in the village. Even making pictures is not for free. And the prices are just exaggerated.

 

So the next day we returned down to the wharf and had to wait for a boat back. The grandmaster “chief” told us that a boat is definitely coming on Sunday. But as “chiefs” anyway always pretend to know everything, and after we waited several hours I somehow got the slightly feeling that on Sunday wont drive any boat. Haha.. how right I was! It ended up that we had to wait all day long down there in the old market beside the wharf. In the evening a family showed up there and asked me if I want to stay in their house, so that I have at least a shelter from the mosquitos. The family also told me that a boat is leaving atoifi at 4am and of course I stood up at 3.30am. As at 4am still nobody was visible anywhere, I knew again, that im a victim of the “Solomon time” (when somebody says 4am, he actually means 6am)!

That’s it, today at 6am we finally sat in the boat and afterwards again in the overloaded truck on the way back to Auki.

Solomon Is: Unknown fish in Honiara

Arrived in Honiara yesterday afternoon and found a nice guesthouse from which i can overlook the center point of the city. As there is actually not one building higher than a 3 or 4 floors, Honiara doesnt look like a capital city. Shop opening hours are from 8am to 5pm. Restaurants exist, but i didnt count more than two outside the resorts which have open in the evening. Or maybe i didnt see them behind massive crowds, struggeling around in the one and only narrow mainstreet of the town. Or maybe i was just dazzled by these blonde haired solomon islands people. It litteraly looks like these black skinned people have tinted their fuzzy wuzzy afro american head of hair in to yellow colour.

This morning i went diving at a place called Bonegi. It was diving from the shore a few kilometres from the city center. As tourists and divers are rare, i was the only diver and was allowed to choose the spot. I did two dives and each was between 60-70 minutes around the shore and the japanese transport wreck from WWII. The visability was great and the water is crystal clear. The dive guide himself is doing underwater research and is logging every fish he finds in solomon islands. And there was one little strange looking fish he never saw before, nor did he find it in the fishbook he uses for doing reasearch. What a great dive if this really would be an unknown fish.. :)

Gold Coast: And the Surfers Paradise

Now its my third day here at my cousin Yvonne's place. She and her boyfriend Rhett are living in the very nice suburb “Runaway Bay”, just one street from the beach. And on the backyard of the each house is also a pier into the river, from which the ocean is accessible in a few seconds with the boat. So today morning I took the kayak and paddled along the river out into the ocean to an island, a few hundred meters from the beach.

Thankfully the temperatures are much lower than up in the north of Australia and as soon the sun goes down and the wind blows a bit, its getting seriously freezing!!

Yesterday I went Surfers Paradise, the most famous district along the Gold Coast, and watched out for surf schools. So in the afernoon I had my first surf lesson. The briefing was pretty short and already a few minutes later, after walking through half Surfers Paradise with our surfboards, where we looked like a bunch of dumbasses, we stood at the beach and were shown how we had to handle the board in the water. And see there, two hours later I was able to stand on the board! Well most of the group was able to stand at the end, but unbelieavable how many untalented fat people are trying to surf and get disappointed when they don’t catch even just one wave to stand up…haha

So today I had me second lesson out of three. As already yesterday the ocean brought some big waves,  the todays waves were again much more stronger than yesterday and it was very difficult to learn and practice in these conditions. But it makes fun!

Brisbane: Weird Cyclists

After my second day here in Brisbane, I would say, for me its an unexpected nice and clear city and finding orientation is easy like that: just go 5 seconds to the tourist information counter, get a map and roam around like a pro.

As campgrounds are seldom in the city and camping anywhere isn’t strictly prohibited, I chose to stay overnight beside the way up to the scenic lookout at mount coot-tha. So far everythings normal there. Normal "wild camping" conditions, but the normality changed in the early morning. At about 5am I noticed some squeaking from the street and when I glimpsed out of the window, I noticed some cyclists struggle up the hill. Ok, fine, some sport freaks doing their early morning training. But from then on nearly every 2-3 minutes i noticed more and more cyclists driving up there. Whats going on here? So when the sun came up, I knew why they were driving up there that early morning. As soon the sun comes up, its like needles are poking you everywhere.

This morning I had some hard times. I literally run out of money. No money in the pocket. No problem, just go to the atm and get some or pay with visa card. Easy isn’t it? But what if the money is on the bank account to which the atm or the credit card doesn’t have access to? Bad situation! But in todays time, you just can go online and transfer the funds online to the right account. Problem solved? No. As I didn’t have any pre-paid amount anymore on my phone I didn’t have any internet. Well, for that problem we have McDonalds where internet is free and always available! Yes we do! But… like in a movie, I found the probably only McDonalds all over Australia, where these days they have problem with the internet and therefore not available.

So my solution was “ask-somebody-who-has-a-mobilephone,-if-I-can-use-the-net-for-5-minutes-to-access-my-internet-banking”! After hours I finally got again some money in my pocket!

Tomorrow ill drive to the gold coast, where Yvonne my cousine lives! And my plans for the next few days are doing my homework for the Solomon islands trip, which already starts next Wednesday.

 

Hervey Bay: White Shark vs. Frasier Island

Im in Hervey Bay now, which is the so called departure place to the famous Fraser Island – the biggest sand island in the world and, as advertisement says, with some of the most beautiful beaches on the planet. But advertisements anyway always speak too much, dont they?

 Actually I wanted to go there today - with my own car. But when I was at the tourist information to ask for transfer fees over there, I had to hold back my eyes from falling out of the eye socket! So I decided to cancel this plan. And in all objectivity, its just an island – with sun, sand, water, wild dogs! Ok, the 4x4 driving on the sand dunes would have been a lot of fun, but, its anyway just an island and in my opinion definitively too expensive getting there, for just one day!


Intead I went for a 10km morning run along the Hervey Bay Esplanade. Its the first time
Ive been running since departure in beginning of september. As a reward to my body, i went having lunch at a seafood restaurant and had awesome barramundi and chips! Later the day I was in some kind of shark information center. The center is run by the famous Australian shark fisher "Hislop Vic", who is fighting for the legalization of big white and tiger shark fishing! In the center, all the walls are fully plastered with shark ivories from whitesharks, tigersharks, bullsharks and other “weapons” of small and big underwater creatures.

The main attraction is a real dead white shark in an air conditioned glass container! Tha HELL! This beast is huge!!!! I read a lot about white sharks and saw many documentations and reportages, but, I never ever imagined how frightening that fish might be in reality - even it was just a dead one!!!!

Queensland East Coast Roads: Yaaaaawwwnn!!

I left cairns yesterday in the afternoon after I went to the garage to pay the final bill for the repair of the damaged car. Thankfully it didn’t came that expensive as I thought it would be – and finally I was able to get another discount. But in summary its of course just too much. Every $ was too much. However, it was my fault... So now im happy having that topic behind me!

After PNG and the "nice" Cairns, im back on the road and first, I have to acclimate myself to the road and the driving again. The scenery is completely different than it was up until Cairns. Until there was a “very special” landscape, made of desert and a kind of a mystical emptiness all around. Along the east coast, it always remembers me driving in Europe. On the route are famous locations like Townsville, Airlie Beach, Rockhampton, Gladstone and Hervey Bay. Famous, but the connecting roads are too european and too boring - its green, has trees, narrow streets, houses beside the road and cows on the willows everywhere :D

Cairns: Great Barrier Reef

On friday and satruday I was on the road, driving north to Cape Tribulation and Cooktown. Drove about 300kms along the coast and Cooktown was actually pretty nice! After passing Cape Tribulation, the road turned into something like a rollercoaster which huge gradients up and down for several dozen KM’s. I never saw the Pajiero sweating and suffering like today. On the road I passed another car, which winked me to stop. He asked how far it is to the next city, cause his car lost the “turbo” and doesn’t have the power anymore to climb the severe hills. He stucked there in the jungle (haha) and thankfully i didnt face the same circumstances, when I drove back to cairns on the same road.

 

Just came back from the two day dive trip at the Great Barrier Reef and it was much better than expected. As I reduced my expectations to exactly zero point zero, which means dead corals, a few disabled annoying fishes, and a bunch of beginner divers which destroy left and right beside me the reef like typhoons under the water and reduce the visability to 2 meters. So based on this, the trip was an absolute success J.

Well I guess diving in Australia is compared to other countries anyway different. Here, a dive boat with 100 or 200 divers on a boat is average. Thankfully I found a boat that was limited to about 50 divers, which were reduced to about 30, when we were transferred to the liveaboard (the boat that has facilities for overnight trips). So since the transfer to that boat the space per person increased and the feeling, being in an overcrowded prison somewhere in Afghanistan disappeared. And even underwater there was very seldom the situation seeing other divers except the buddy.

The main difference is, that the divers here were allowed to dive without a guide. So they can make their own buddy teams and dive the own route and speed. I teamed up with another swiss guy, Johann. He was there with his wife, who was on the boat for snorkeling. He had about the same amount of dives and therefore the diving was great. We always hurried on gearing up the dive equipment, so that we were the first divers in the water and therefore had the best chance seeing the bigger fishes.

The last years I have heard and read several times, that the corals here are about to bleach out more and more. And it is acutally really like that. Huge fields have already completely died and look like a coral disposal area. But there are still big areas, where the corals are awesome and the especially the diversity and amount of small fish is great.


Now im sitting in McDonalds somewhere in the middle of cairns and some minutes ago I booked the a one way flight from Brisbane to the Solomon Islands. This means, I have time to drive down the 1800km to Brisbane until December 12 and I guess I will leave Cairns tomorrow or on Wednesday.

Cairns: Is it malaria?

Today I prepared all the pictures, sorted them and started uploading. So I think by tomorrow the most of them are all available online!

All day long I felt somehow sick! I didn’t have real pain in the stomach, but there was a little pain. Also I had to visit the toilet many times today! Beside this I felt also some kind of dizziness, tired eyes and little bit of headache! By now, I feel alright again, had dinner and don’t feel anything anymore like i did during the day! When these symptoms are still there tomorrow, I think I will go to the hospital. Cause after being in East Timor and PNG the chance having malaria or dengue fever is quite big. Hopefully its just some normal kind of “sickness” – im actually not so in the mood spend the next two weeks in a hospital. But if anything is wrong, then thankfully im back in Australia and do not have to say hello to a PNG hospital somewhere in the jungle beside the sepik river..haha!!

Cairns: ByeBye Papua

Im fine but tired :D And my eyes burn still little bit from the boat drive on Wednesday.:)

I finally arrived in Cairns today during midday, after a delay of 1 hour by the plane in Port Moresby. In the plane I created a things-to-do list and the first thing on it is getting the car from the service station. Thankfully the car was still there and not stolen or anything. And… tada.. its is also everything alright with the car. A regular service was done and nothing else seems to be wrong.

Right back in the campground, the first thing I did was getting out the bbq grill. I couldn’t await to have the first bite of the delicious fresh bought T-bone steak :D! Now its 10pm and my list of things to do didn’t get much smaller, but im on the best way to achieve it the next days. For example there are tasks like “contacting the crashed-car-man”, “planning-the-next-days-and-weeks”, “washing clothes”, “sorting pictures” and other small but time consuming things.
Im on the same campground as last time,but the amount of campers has increased by nearly 100%. Most of them are japanese campers that look like hippies from 40 years ago :)

Port Moresby

So today morning at the airport in Port Moresby (PNG) I went to Muriels travel agency and showed her the pics ive made the last weeks and months. I spent her a coffee for saying thank you for all the assistance the last two weeks. The informations and help i got from her was incredible! She also told me about her future projects, where she is going to build a guesthouse in the highpotential tourist area "Tufi". I really like that idea and I believe that project is going to be an absolute success!

I also called Samuel the Pastor from Mount Hagen. He was little bit sad about my news that I didn’t have enough time to make it to his place in Mount Hagen. But he said, when I come to PNG next time, Im very welcomed..

One thing i missed in PNG was eating croco meat. I really wanted to taste the croco, but I always forgot to ask the people there, if they have it around. Just yesterday, in Boroko (Port Moresby), I tried to find a store where they sell it. But I didn’t have luck…! Maybe I can do it another day and on another place…

PNG: Back in Port Moresby

The diving in Loloata was nice, but compared to other south east asia spots very cold. Just 26 degrees. So therefore i had to put on a rented short sleeved neopren, which looked so old that it nearly fall appart while even touching it. The diving brought some nice seasnails, a huge seasnake that looked like a phyton, an eagle ray and nice corals.

On my last day here in PNG, i roamed around Port Moresby and went with the public buses to Boroko and Ela Beach area. While walking up to "Paga Hill", i passed some seriously strange looking people and finally i got approached by some security guards, which told me strictly not going up there alone, cause up there live the shelterless people. So i offered them 5 Kina, and those 4 guards brought me up there with their fenced-window truck (incl a guard dog).

Its a pitty, that "Paga Hill" is so dirty and home of shelterless people. Its probably the nicest viewpoint to see Port Moresby Harbour. In addition there is a historical WW2 tunnel, which served as protection and base for the japanese soldiers. As of today, its occupied by the shelterless people.




View from Paga Hill over Port Moresby Harbour



PNG: Meeting a real Crocodile Hunter

Sitting now in the plane from Madeng to Port Moresby. After the trip from Angoram to Wewak during the night with a public bus, i first slept for several hours in an old run down guesthouse. After waking up i noticed some pain in my eyes, which have turned red. I think it was some kind of infection from the sepik river water, which splashed in my eyes while driving with the boat from Tambunun back to Angoram.

Yesterday i walked around several km's in Wewak. There was this japanes WW2 memorial site, based on the edge of a hill. The machine guns are still there and were used to attack the australian planes. In the afternoon i walked around in the town, in the middle of the crowd inside the market area. Very busy and smelly. Ugly betel nut chewing and spitting people everywhere. And the market seems to exist only to provide those people new "ammo" to chew. Betel nuts are literally everywhere and the ground all around the town is turned red from the spit.



Sava "The Croc-Hunter"

In the guesthouse I met another guest - or better said - patron of the guesthouse. It was Sava Maksic, an 75 year old crocodile hunter who is originaly from europe, but moved to PNG in 1967. He told me interesting stories about the live in PNG from those days. He also wrote a book about crocodile hunting and he is a notorious crocodile hunter and well known as Master Sava in the Sepik River area. Also he told me the stories from the highland fightings he experienced personally, where the tribes fought each other with spears and bows.


Today, after arriving in Port Moresby, i will reside in the same guesthouse as two weeks ago and tomorrow i go to Loloata Islands for diving.

PNG: Stranded at Sepik River

The other day I went fishing and they showed me how to fish with the spear. And the little boys had their slingshot, with which they were hunting for birds. Unbelievable how good their aim is. Even if they missed the most shots, the stone missed the target only by few cm, which is 30 metres away. In the village ,i was allowed to walk around and make pictures of the houses, the sculptures and the famous carvings.
Actually i planned to leave the village on monday. But plans dont have any meaning in the Sepik area. Cause finally i left the village on tuesday evening. The reasons are the lack of communication possibilities in the villages. There is no mobile connection and just a few of those people have cellphones. The houses are scattered for several km's along the sepik and the boat, the driver and the passengers are all long distances away from each other. So organizing a fully loaded boat is not that easy. Also they have to organize the poorly available petrol, which is so expensive that it only makes sense to drive in a fully loaded boat. Beside this, the people are not familiar with timetables. It seems, their timetable is their mood.

Well, it was said the boat is running on sunday evening. Then cause there was no boat, it was obvious that it will be some time during monday. As there was no boat on monday, cause they had some troubles and fightings in the neigbour village, the boat was rescheduled to tuesday early morning. So i packed all my things again and looked forward to finally leave from there that morning. But all the waiting didnt help and after a son of Raymond went with the canoe to the boat driver, for finding out what the problem is, it was said that the boat is definately driving on tuesday afternoon. And so it did. We left Tambunun in the late afternoon and had to drive up to Angoram, the final destination. The trip is bit more than 3 hours, but as we run out of petrol 4km before angoram, we had to flow with the water for some 100 meters to the next tribe village and get some more petrol. By night we arrived then in Angoram and i had to wait there until after midnight, when the bus arrived to pick me up for the next 6 hours long way and super rough road to Wewak. So today by 7am i arrived in the guesthouse here in Wewak and first went to sleep for some hours.

Actually i planned being in Mount Hagen today. But as i didnt have a chance to get on the flight yesterday, Im no more able to go there and stuck here in Wewak until Friday. I will fly back straight to Port Moresby.

PNG: The Sepik River Village

After i arrived with the ship in Wewak, the family already organized transport to their village. We drove with a people and goods full packed 4wd on a dirt road with lots of waterholes and muddy ground, all the way down through the jungle to a village called "Timbuke". The drive lasted for about 4 hours and we arrived in the dark night. From Timbuke, we changed to a motorboat and drove for about 30 minutes along the sepik river to the final destination "Tambunun". The boat dropped me and the father of the family at the families house, right beside the sepik. And there i was, in the middle of nowhere, with a 7 headed tribes family, some chickens and a dog with 5 puppies which were born the day before i arrived. The family owned two wood houses and a wood canoe. One house was for cooking, eating, served as sleeping room for the children and now also as accomodation for me. The other house was the sleeping room for the parents. Per house there is one room. So cooking, living and sleeping is all in one. No lights, no electricity, no beds, no toilet. Thankfully i had my sleeping bag and the mosquito net with me, which i was very lucky of. When i arrived, it was actually a bit scary, cause in the dark there were just the black skinned people and i didnt have a clue where i gotta have to live and how i gotta have to live. Raymond, the father, speaks little bit english and mother Christine, a few words. My challenge that first dark night was try to come across as a friendly person and finding the right words or gestics to keep the tensioned atmosphere calm. Just not make any mistake.

Tambunun is a tribe village with catholic background. They have something like a church and a school on the other side of the river. But there are no shops. Just some families are selling fish or a couple of packages of bisquits.
On the second day Raymond wanted to go to church and wanted to take me there too. So we left the homestead with the 40cm thick, 5 meters long wooden canoe and crossed the 150 meters broad Sepik river. Actually it is a very uncommon feeling driving with this tight midage canoe along a strong flowing river, which is filled with crocodiles and snakes. We were 45 minutes to late at the church and so we waited infront until the the people came out. Its a little bit a strange feeling, being the only white person between all these tribes poeple who havent seen a white one for weeks. Everybody stares at me and i didnt know what expression i should put up on my face. Smiling, starring on the ground, greeting them? But then some of them came over and welcomed me with shaking hands. So from then i knew these people are all friendly and somehow civilized.

 

Raymond guided me through the villages and introduced me to all this relatives and friends. And im impressed how big these families are. Everybody in the 1500 people village is somehow with nearly everybody in relative. Later the day we went to a spot somewhere along the sepik, where the people kept the catched crocodiles. They keep them there, grow them and when they are big enough, they eat them. I also was able hold one of the small crocs and its impressive how strong these little things already are.

After arriving with the ship in Wewak i stocked up with corned beef, biscuits and some water. This was my dinner in the village and i was thankfully, that i bought that stuff before i went here. Cause now i have a impression of what it means to be poor and not having always enough to eat. Cause when i didnt have bought my food, i would have eaten the family the food away. They only had some parts of fish and a dish called "Sago", which looks like pizza without anything.

PNG: Active volcano

The diving in Madeng was actually awesome. I just had two dives, but there were wonderful things. For example the huge swarm of barracudas, which was hunting circling around the tuna's. Or the two big sepia which werent shy at all - unlike other places, where i have seen them.

Cargo Ship

The trip with the boat to Wewek with the cargo ship took more time than expected. We left the wharf two hours too late and the trip itself lasted for about more than 20 hours. While waiting for the ship, i met different local people. One of them, Isaac, is a betel nut mover and travels this route every month. He was something like a vip and was able to get on the ship as the first passenger. Somehow he managed that i didnt have to wait in the line with all the other passengers and could enter the ship as the second passenger right after him. The ship had a dorm with about 30 bunk beds. So the first 30 passengers were the lucky ones who had a bed. The other ones had to sit or stand in the cargo plattform beside all the containers.



Volcano

In the middle of the night i woke up and suddendly saw something curious. There was far away some kind of orange, red stripe visible in the dark. The locals told me that it is the active living volcano. For about 1 hour i was able to see the lava pouring down on the side of the volcano and it was very nice to watch that.


The next morning on the ship, after i slept very well, i left my camera for some seconds beside me without watchig it. And "zaaasch" - yeah it was gone. I reported it to Isaac, the mister betel nut, and he immediately went somewhere i couldnt see. Suddendly he showed up with a group of guys. They introduced themself as the captain and some of the crewmembers and they will do everything to get my camera back. So they said, they will call the police and when the ship arrives in the warf. The police will search every single bag of every passenger until the camera shows up!!! People on the boat started talking and it went quite nosiy around there. 15 minutes later, suddendly one guy from the crew came along and asked me how my camera looks like. I explained him and then showed me my camera - i got it back! Unbelievable!!!

I asked the guy who saw the robber of my camera, if he can tell me which person it was, but he didn’t find him again. Maybe its better that way. Otherwise I probably would have seen that this gangster looks like a normal person, and my trust in other, friendly local people would have decreased.

On the boat i met different other people and there was this familiy, which lives beside the Sepik river in a tribes village. As i mentioned that i wanted to go to the sepik river and visit one of these villages, they invited me to come with them and live with them in their house. For me, of course totally unexpected, but an incredible chance to get easy and cheap access to the sepik. So i decided to go with them.

 

Acutally, i didn't have any hesitation about going with them without knowing them. Probably it was because I just trusted my feeling I had about these person and the family. I saw very good and friendly human beings in them. But it was indeed little bit strange the first night, when I was with them. As there was no light in the house, I just saw some strange looking faces sitting around me and wanted to hear me talking something – even they didn’t understand it …hahaha.. and pantomime was not possible in the dark ..:D!

PNG: Lae & Madeng

Diving in Madeng: Barracuda's

After a 6 hour rough busdrive, where we passengers were squeezed into like chickens, i arrived in Madeng. Compared to Port moresby or Lae, its a more laid back and little bit cleaner city (even when clean is the wrong word). It has a few supermarkets, one restaurant, one bigger resort with dive facitlities and lots of unemployed locals. Since i arrived here i just was working on my itinerary for the next few days. Cause there is so less information about anything, collecting and puzzeling information were the main parts of my activities here. Tomorrow morning i will go diving and im excited how it will be. But the dive instructor himself didnt make a very positive and enthusiastic impression. I think he doesnt like his job. Hopefully im right about that and hopefully the dives will be awesome.

And already tomorrow evening, i will take the ship to Wewak. Its a 15 hour trip along the coast upwards.



Welcome to Papua New Guinea

Lae

Arrived yesterday in Port moresby and went to the tourist information where met the Muriel, the lady who runs the tourist agency. I spent about one hour there and asked so many questions, which she probably gets asked during one week. It was her office and she closed it earlier, so that afterwards she was able to drop me off at the lutheran guest house. The prices in port moresby are very high compared to other poor countries. I mean even in the supermarket the products are nearly the same price as in australia sometimes, but the people here are 100 times poorer. Also the prices in simple restaurants (which particulary doesnt exist) and take-aways are too high - not to mention the prices of accomodation. So i really wonder how the economical system can work, when the locals have to pay the same prices. But on the other side i dont wonder why there is so much negative energy against the government and sometimes between the locals. The PNG locals i have met until now are unbelieavable friendly. Seriously, i never ever expectet such a friendlyness like that. Especially cause Port Moresby is said to be one of the most dangerous cities in the world. In the guesthouse i met Samuel, he is a pastor and for some days in port moresby. We talked and he invited me to pass by in Mount Hagen, in the Highlands of PNG, to visit him and his family next week.

The two days im now here in PNG, i didnt have once the feeling beeing in a dangerous country. Everybody says PNG is dangerous and you will get robbed and so on, i wondered who PERSONALLY ever got robbed or was in a violent situation here in PNG. Until now, i didnt meet one. To me, those people are some of the friendliest and welcoming people ive ever met.

As there is no road connection from port moresby to another city in png, i took the plane to Lae. Its a city in the eastern province in the mid of PNG and a so called gateway to the further cities like madeng or mount hagen. Here im staying at the lutheran guesthouse and as im a "proud" "catholic church member", i tried to apply for the special rate - and it worked.

The next destination will be Madeng, where im going to dive and afterwards i probably will go to Mount Hagen to visit the highlands. It all depends how fast im able to move on. The buses are not running on fixed times, they just run when a bus is full packed with people - and it can last for several hours.

Cairns: Arriving in Cairns

On thursday evening i finally arrived in cairns. On the way to here it was so very hot and I also passed the hottest area in Queensland. They had about 43 degrees in the shadow!! ^^! Even I had 3 days full of driving, the time and the KM’s flew away like nothing. And there were in particular very very very few cars that I have crossed along the way. I would assume there weren’t much more cars than about 50, all along the 2400 km’s in the outback.



Cairns City Centre

Sitting now in the campground somewhere close to the cairns city centre, and drinking my ice coffee. Actually this campground is completely different than the one in Darwin. Here are about 200% more campers around …:)! Yes, its somehow too much! Beside the parking slot, I just have a few meters to the next camper. As I don’t have much stuff and cause im sleeping in the Pajiero anyway, I don’t bother much. The more annoying thing is, that here are so many german speaking people, that you might think “why the hell am I back in europe?”

These days im just trying to get as much information as possible about Papua New Guinea. On monday I will leave there for two weeks (until November 19) and I have to read a “small” book until then. As they are poor developed, I think I will have probs to find internet when im there. So I need to get it all before. Also it seems that I wont be able to just get a motorbike in port Moresby and drive around like a mad one. Cause there is, as it seems like, no street that connects the capital city to the rest of the country. So I first have to figure out where exactly I wanna dive and where I wanna travel there, and then, if I need to get another domestic flight.

Oh before i forget (which would probably be better), I had a crash with the Pajiero yesterday…. It was a light signal and I drove into the car in front of me. As my car luckily has a bullbar mounted, it didn’t damage anything. But the other car… was little bit damaged. Dam it.. !!!:( I have to pay it!

Mount Isa: The roadtrip seems endless



Mount Isa

 I am now @ Mount Isa. Which is the “biggest” city on the route between Katherine and Cairns, but without any mountain. Also very exactly in the middle, speaking of KM’s, between these two cities. Only 1200 km’s left to each place. However, I will finish them the next two days! The last two days I only made the most important stops, like eating, sleeping and make some pictures. Even there is absolutely NOTHING to see except desert, grass and sand, the scenery is magnificent. The roads seem so long lasting and never ending. They reach until the beginning of the horizon and as far the eye can reach.

Easiest way to drive so long was ,when I put myself in some kind of autopilot, without thinking anything and just existing in a basic shape of a human being – and the hours flew like minutes ..haha!

Just some minutes ago I stopped at a roadhouse, having a foot bath and booked the flight from Cairns to Papua New Guinea. I will depart on Monday next week. Actually, I already searched for a way to change the flight dates, cause Monday is so very soon. So I think I will contact the customer care of the airline, to see if I can change it.

Kakadu: The last day



Gunlum Lookout in Kakadu

This last day in Kakadu I got up at 5:30 and made my way to the Gunlum lookout. That was indeed the nicest place I have seen all over Kakadu. Its a 1km hiking trail up to a mountain and on the top there are several natural pools, a few footstep above the edge and the waterfall, which falls down about 100 meters! So when I was pissing into the water, it flew with the waterfall all the way down into the bottom pool!

Now im in back in Katherine. The place where the zombies are alive. Seriously, now im the second time in this place and these aboriginal people here scare me.  I dont have anything about aboriginal people and actually its very interesting to talk to them. But here in Katherine, they are different than in other places. They seem to be drunk all day long and always walk the same routes around the mall and on the streets. And they are shouting around all the time! Then they stop and talk to their zombie friends before continue their slow drunken-style walking to the next corner!

However, I will leave here tomorrow (Sunday) and put myself on the savannah way, which is probably the shortest way (in KMs) to cairns. The negative about it is, that most of it is gravel road and there aren’t many food courts or similar in that area :D! Also im not sure if there is cellphone signal….! Also im not sure how many days I will need until im in the next bigger place. Oh and its not 3000 km anymore – just about 2400 until cairns …:D!! 

Kakadu: Is it overrated?

Huuuhh! Finally I found a campground in kakadu, where im able to sleep, shower and have internet connection. But it’s a very godforsaken place here. Theres absolutely nobody else on the campground – not even something like a reception or so – nothing. Just a ranger passed some hours ago to collect the camp fee. Around me its pitch black dark and I just can see my computer monitor and from time to time, I hear in the bushes some kangaroos hopping some meters away from me.
But I think all campgrounds are basically safe. And my conclusion is, that the official campgrounds are probably more dangerous than any unofficial wildcamping spot. Cause if I would be a robber, then I would first roam around the official camp grounds to find any things to steal, before searching somewhere beside the road in a remote place…  

Kakadu… yeah, ehm, actually I expected little bit more and honestly, I am a little bit disappointed. The “jim jim falls” waterfall is nice, even there was no water falling from the waterfall..haha! Kakadu is nicer than the Nitmiluk or Litchfield NP, but … anyway.. tomorrow is another day here (the last one) and then i will again hit the road for some kilometers. Next big destination will be cairns, which is about 3000 km away..!!

I wish it would rain here little bit too. I didn’t see rain for about 1.5 months.

Have to get now in to the Pajiero. The mosquitos are getting wild all around me!

East Timor: Best BBQ ever

Im back now in Darwin and on the way already to kakadu. It’s the most famous nationalpark in Australia. This morning I had the early morning departure from timor and I felt all day long so tired and powerless! Some minutes ago I finished the bbq beside the Pajiero and feel now much better.

Its very hot here in darwin and in East Timor I bought mozzie net, which I hung around the paji, so that I can sleep with open windows. Otherwise I would die! I also bought a mosquito killer badminton racket. The rackets which are electrical loaded and when a mosquito or other insect flies into, it get killed by a lightning! :D! Im using it right now while writing and there were already a few dozen insects sent to heaven… ! Of course I was excited if it does anything to human and touched in it – I can tell now, YES, it does “something” to human…hehe

 

Back to East Timor. Some people in the campground asked me if East Timor is dangerous? East Timor WAS a very violent place. But as of now, as the soldiers said which I have talked to, it seems to be safe. Unfortunately the UN is leaving East Timor by the end of this year, and lots of locals are afraid that the Indonesian underground terrorists come back to fight again against east timor.

In East Timor i saw these houses on several villages along the road. All i knew about the little houses in the picture is, that it is for those people like a church, as they have their own religion.

 

Very nice also was the beach promenade in Dili, with all these people sitting and eating. Every evening the locals build up their BBQ grills. They sell many different grilled fishes, chicken and porks to anyone. Beside they just serve some kind of yellow rice with a special herb. Mmmhh, it tastes so awesome and I ate so much of it, that there was no millimeter more space in my stomach..:)!!

 

The diving was great! Those corals are very healthy there and untouched by mass tourists and divers. I put some pics in attachement. Just the dive guide was an idiot! He has chosen a divespot, where we divers all had to walk into the water above sharp stones and corals. As I didn’t have any neoprene (just the dive-shirt, swim shorts and was barefoot), I got probably more scratches that day than anybody else and looked like a street dog with all the scratches! And even these corals there weren’t poisoness, they left back very itchy parts and scratches on my legs and arms. Arrgh, such a stupid, uneducated and useless diveguide :D. I want go back and punch him !!!

East Timor: With motorbike on hiking trails

I came back today from the motorbike tour and it was awesome, but very exhausting! These roads are more worse than those in the Philippines :)! Lot parts are sealed, but even under that circumstance there could be every meter a huge whole in the road, which becomes visible ten meters before. I said hello to a lot of them, but thankfully I didn’t fall. And seriously, some parts of the road were literaly trekking trails where I had to wheel the motorbike beside me! Its like a wonder that the motorbike is still working.. haha!! The distances itself was just about 450 Km one way, but with these road conditions being always concentrated to the highest was the hardest part.

Baucau

The overnight-stop I made in Baucau. Its the second "largest" city after Dili and has a about 3 guesthouses in poor condition and one luxury accomodation. So infront of the hotel i parked my motorbike and one second later a group of small boys stood around me and the vehicle. They asked questions, acted very nervous with an obvious intention to grab anything that is not observed by myself. That was finally the point where my watch got robbed. Well, at least they didnt steal the motorbike...

Jaco Island - east corner in East Timor

Anyway, I spent just one day in Bacau. But somehow I had the strange feeling that white people are either very welcomed and people were very friendly to me, but on the other side there were a few groups that shouted bad tand agressive things to me while I passed them.

My main destination was in east East-Timor in the corner. The name is Tutuala and the island beside is Jaco Island. I met two guys from spain there, which were professional photographers and gave me some cool insights in their technics. Tourists are so seldom here in east-timor. I guess I saw about 5 of them, since im here! Instead there are many UN-soldiers everywhere. These guys are driving like mad ones along the streets with their 4wd’s. And on the same day I was on Jaco Island, there was this group of Portuguese UN soldiers, having their days off. Those guys behave like animals with drinking and shouting – but in a friendly way :)!


Tomorrow I’ll go diving. Im excited, cause East Timor is said to have some of the nicest and widely unexplored dive spots in the world!

East Timor: Dili

Arrived in Dili today and a taxi driver took me to the first best cheapest guesthouse. It was in the backyard of a indian "somthing-like-a" restaurant. But surprisingly the room was clean and didnt have any insects.

Dili is a ugly place and the centre is particulary one long main road which ends suddendly, cause fallen rocks covered the road and cut it in two pieces. Then there is a second road along the coast and the beach. The promenade is actually very nice to walk and has lots of small restaurants and places to get a coke.

The most civilized  place i detected in Dili was the shopping mall, which opened this year. There are not much shops yet inside, but at least a food court, 5 Telecom Shops (all from the same provider), two coffee-shops and a few supermarkets. Also there is a tourist information in the mall. I went there and worked together with the two ladies on my itinerary for my week here in East Timor. They were helpful and provided me with a bunch of phone numbers and maps etc.

I knew there are two motorbike rental stations in East Timor. But I spent most of the day searching for them. Finally I found them, but the choices of bikes they had was  marginal and my impression was like "do you maybe have another one?" :). The first rental station had one bike - full of scratches and with a missing clutch. The other one had 3 bikes - one streetbike, one 50cc and one 125cc. So i took the 125cc cause I knew from hearing saying about the road conditions in East Timor.  The streetbike is here definately in the wrong country. Tomorrow I will start my trip across East Timor.