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!