Dana and Roger Travels

We awoke about 3am. It being 10 am PDX time we decided to get up – maybe trip prep overkill. It began a long day of time killing. We skipped breakfast, expecting food in an airport lounge and on the plane.

Our Mercedes SUV limo arrived on time at 7am, too early for our 10:30 flight – guess the limo companies are extra careful. It was driven by Terry, a talkative, good guy Aussie, who asked us if we were Trump voters and when we said we were not, said that that was the answer of 95% of the Americans he encountered here. He thinks it’s because Trump voters are not likely to travel that much. Maybe also less likely to ride in a Mercedes SUV limo.

With our online checkin scanning the passports I expected a quick trip to our gate, but the security folks did a full inspection of my bag – I think mystified by Dana’s medication canister. Fortunately, we were able to get into a lounge (actually two) for a long wait for the flight. Both Singapore Airlines and New Zealand Air are Star Alliance members with United. We had breakfast in the former and had to move to the latter after a flight left.

We finally got to board and took our place in our biz class cubicles. Google Ai confirmed my hunch that there were 60 of them in the United 777. The lounges were also both crowded. Probably the majority were folks on business expense accounts, ie real biz class (true “first class” is disappearing.)

All of the usual bus class gear that used to impress me was there, but it just didn’t have the same appeal. Same had been true on the way over. Have to face it, long air travel is an ordeal, even in biz class, not to mention the eco impact. It did help to discover that the flight was only 12 1/2 hours, vs 16 on the way over (prevailing wind difference I think), but still an ordeal.

Two plusses of biz class are excellent food and attentive treatment by the FAs. Actually United falls behind several Chinese airlines in the latter, but both were reasonably good on this flight. I got in some sleep, and ipad games, but there was plenty of vacant time and we both were more than ready to get off when we arrived. Maybe if I’d watched a movie or two…

We zipped through immigration and customs at SFO, found our way to our terminal for our PDX flight, and got into the United Club there – again jammed with people. Another long wait with a 4 hour layover (not a bad idea – a buffer against an international flight delay). Several of the patrons were doing business on their devices quite loudly – hardly the restful experience it has been in the past.

Text exchange with Janet Harbert re her pickup at PDX, and then a relatively short walk to our gate. Quite lengthy boarding process – big, full plane with everyone filing through the biz section. Quick hop to PDX, a little peek at Crater Lake along the way.

Janet was faithfully waiting for us at the curb with a nice little snack pack for us. Directly home – a brief, cool shower welcomed us, and reminded us of where we live.

We started to unpack and I realized I needed to just sit a bit and enjoy the sudden release from a month of high vigilance – dozed off, in fact, but Dana woke me to help me with my time zone adjustment. Everything looks good in the yard. The azaleas are past prime, but Janet and friend/neighbor Joann Yates had kindly sent us pics when in their prime – the flowers, that is.

Clothes are in the wash – two loads. Effort now to stay awake until late evening.

So good to be back.

With a pickup for a full-day tour of Brisbane scheduled for 9 am we were in no hurry after our usual 5am wakeup. I did a little blogging and a post and we went up to breakfast about 7am, starting the day for the staff there. There was disco music on their system, entirely appropriate for the chrome and flashy decor.

No buffet, but a full menu and I had outstanding crab and pepper scrambled eggs. Dana had an exceptionally flakey croissant. Down in the lobby I couldn’t resist a pan of the intensely contemporary lobby.

We were picked up by the engaging and lively Tony at 9am, in a black Mercedes SUV limo…

and driven to a fine viewpoint that featured Brissie’s super skyline.

A word about “Brissie”. It’s a nickname for the city, obviously, but I believe the intent is to pronounce it “Brizzy” in keeping with the pronunciation of the full name. Interesting web debate about the spelling, with the consensus being that to spell it “Brissy” makes it be pronounced like “prissy”, clearly not the intent.

The city center is located along the banks of the Brisbane River…

where a lot of city planning and redevelopment has taken place, to marvelous effect.

Our next visit was to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where we had taken Adam as a boy.

It has been substantially developed since then, of course. Actually, nearly 100 years old, having been established in 1927. Its mission is to rehabilitate injured animals.

Luckily we happened to be there soon after some koala babies had been weaned from their mothers, and with their curiosity and energy they put on quite a lively show. Tony, who comes here a lot with clients, said she’d never seen them so active.

Unlike the others we’ve seen, they gobbled the gum tree leaves…

they scooted along the floor…

and restlessly explored their assorted trees, even leaping from branch to branch.

“Cute” would not be overused to describe them. Speaking of cute, Tony honored my request see a resident platypus, not easy because it is housed in a darkened tank.

There was a large open field with wallabies lying about and feed for them was available. Tony got us each a bag, and we tried to feed them, but it was not easy.

There were thirty or forty human adults and children doing the same thing and probably had been since the opening in the morning.

They could be coaxed to eat, however, almost as if they were thinking, “ok, if you insist, but just for the photo.”

Still it was a nice feeling to feed them – they’re so docile, gentle, and undemanding – and we managed to nearly empty our bags by going to the ones who were sitting up.

There was a safe haven in one corner of the field for those who needed a break from the demands of tourists, and this little guy clearly needed some time there.

Other highlights were a saltie (usual surprising girth) who managed a one foot salute to us…

a restless Tasmanian Devil…

so named for their stocky build, strong jaws, and disturbing screech during eating and fighting, and a Coastal TaiPan…

whose inland cousin is considered one of the most dangerous snakes in the world for its venom (most powerful of all land snakes, one bite can kill 100 humans).

After the sanctuary Tony drove us around the city, pointing out highlights, especially the redevelopment of old, disused areas, the bold architectural designs, the plethora of tree and plant infusions, the preservation of old buildings and neighborhoods. and the many governmental offices, medical facilities, and educational institutions.

We broke for a nice lunch at Tony’s favorite place, a restaurant in a plant nursery ala Cornell Farms, and then went to a mountain viewpoint that really showed off the city in the early afternoon sunlight.

We then drove back to the city center, parked near our hotel, and walked to the completely refurbished riverfront, pretty much entirely now devoted to beautification and recreation.

Tony said the city’s personality and character changed dramatically after a 1988 World Expo, and that it has had civic-minded energy, focus, and achievement ever since. They are now gearing up for hosting the 2032 Olympics.

We hit a bit of a wall, said thanks and farewells to Tony, and retreated to the hotel for the rest of the day. I managed to complete an on-line checkin, and after finishing this post we retired early, trying to slip back into PDX time.

With a 7:30 pickup we had a relaxed last early morning of packing and then the Airways buffet breakfast on the 7th floor.

Alas, we couldn’t access the plane…- it’s being used, mundanely, as a storeroom.

Reuben was early, as usual and gave us a quick ride to the airport. We had bus class for the flight so checkin was quick, and we did farewells with Reuben (gave him a hefty tip of my remaining PNG money) and headed for the exec lounge.

I’m including these details because there’s not much else to see from this day.

Our Air Niugini flight was fine.

I happened to notice as we started across the Great Barrier Reef and did some short videos.

When we landed in Brisbane we were among the first to deplane and since we moved quickly, were the first into a deserted immigration hall, where we navigated cordoned rows to be the first at an agent station.

Thanks to our properly acquired Electronic Travel Authorities, we went through that in record time, and went on to the baggage claim where our easily spotted red and blue bags were among the first onto the carousel, and then we went quickly through customs with no questions asked.

While we were waiting for the carousel to start, I had noticed a text from our limo driver, Charlie, saying he was waiting. We were out of customs so quickly that he wasn’t expecting us and I found him. His limo was nearby (a little embarrassing, really, to be chauffeured around in those, but hey….), and we had a 20+ minute ride into the city to our hotel.

Brisbane is dazzling to us. Bright, bold, diverse architecture, with gleaming towers, but also a lot of parks and other greenery, extensive modern, well-designed, elevated roadways – apparently dressing up for the 2032 Olympics. Bustling, slick, and noisy – a bit much, really, especially after coming from the PNG bush with its wonderfully calm, kind people. I wasn’t ready for it – I wanted to be back.

The Emporium is part of the show – a major design marvel, albeit over-the-top in several ways. I might have appreciated it more under different circumstances. The elevators are a trip…

and our room is in sync with it all…

but I wanted to linger in PNG awhile, and so I immersed in the blog for the afternoon, catching up, while Dana went out for a walk. She interrupted me a couple of times with texts about how excited she was about things she was seeing…

until I asked her to let me finish.

I did finish one post and then we walked to dinner at a Turkish restaurant she had found – the hotel in the South Bank of Brisbane is surrounded by them, all with sidewalk seating. The food was excellent – the patrons exceedingly diverse and affluent.

We had an excellent gelato at a nearby place and walked back to the hotel.

After going through the entrance and riding up in the elevator I felt I was retreating. In the room I finished another post and retired.

We both awoke at our usual time, feeling quite normal, despite the bizarre last 16 hours or so, thanks to loperamide, generic Aleve, a lot of water and deep, long sleep.

We both trudged up the steps to the lodge restaurant for breakfast, and ate normally. Re the “trudge”: one of the cottage inconveniences is that they are about 300 feet in elevation below the lodge and restaurant, so that a stairmaster session is required for all meals.

While I’m at it, in addition to the 300 feet and the wrong floor bathrooms: 1. The bedrooms are on the upper level so that they get the best view through their huge windows during the day when they’re not in use, and absorb huge amounts of solar energy that they hold well into the night, making them uncomfortable for sleeping, 2. The sitting room is on the lower level, like a half -basement, making it dark, dank and depressing, with very little sun, and almost no view, 3. The cottages have no climate control, so that on cloudy, wet days they are too cold and on sunny days too hot.

All seven of us and the cook were shuttled to the airport. We were let off first at the terminal and the others went to the far end of the field to wait for Sam to fly them to Karawari. We got through checkin and security and made our way to our gate, but then actually got to spend a few minutes in the exec lounge after D discovered its existence.

Uneventful bus class flight to Port Moresby…

where we were met by Reuben – nice to see a familiar, friendly face – and driven to the Airways Hotel. Easy checkin for a room on a higher floor with a better view.

Around 1:30 we were driven by Reuben’s substitute, Mike, to the Port Moresby Nature Park, which turned out to be a very pleasant surprise. It was a well-maintained botanical garden…

with large grassy areas where countless families were spending their Saturday afternoons together, several celebrating something, maybe birthdays.

Plus it had elevated walkways…

that not only gave better plant and bird viewing, but also led through aviaries and vivariums (just learned that word – think aviary for non-bird animals).

And where better for those than PNG?

Plus 4 Birds of Paradise.

Back to Airways for the buffet dinner and catch-up evening.

The memorable part of the day started after breakfast when we walked down the road, and then up some steps to the little performance ground the lodge has for its Tumbuna Sing-sing show.

We were advised to come early to watch performers prepare, and to chat with them (likely something TNT requires of them to participate – guessing they are compensated).

In any case that was a good recommendation.

There is some explanation in the vids, but it would be too voluminous to give detailed explanations – only occasional comments are feasible.

In addition to the face painting, Dana got a guy from the Huli wigmen to dance with her. I think I recognized at least one of them from their performance near the Ambua Lodge.

One guy hammed it up by exaggerating the pain of the nose insertion.

The actual show was somewhat loosely organized, so I’ll just include choice highlights from the performances.

And now for something completely different….

the mudmen – of unclear origin, according to one cynic the creation of a publicity guy in the 50s.

Edward Scissorshand or Wolverine wannabes, depending on your vintage.

Dana and I both left the show early, the GI effects of something we ate or drank along the way. Whatever, it was nasty – no need for details. We both slept from the early afternoon on Friday to Saturday morning, except for a truly weird episode on Friday night when I, in apparent delirium, woke up and thought 7 in the evening was 7 the next morning, got Dana up and the manager down to get us to the airport, only to learn the truth, go back to bed, and sleep through the night, thanks to some good meds I’d remembered to bring along.

We started the day with a trudge uphill to the prime birding spot and after a little wait were rewarded with sightings, three of them new. First…

then a prize…

and finally…

It was being coy, behind the tree, and the video is a bit shaky – so some screen shots…

For reference, these are web photos:

My expectations having been curbed, I was grateful for this personal glimpse of one of nature’s most beautiful creatures.

Our itinerary for the day was three village visits, starting at a local farm…

whose owner explained his sweet potato cultivation.

Notice the girl Dana was talking to in the previous picture. She was practicing her English with Dana, and favored her with a freshly picked bouquet as we left.

We then dropped in on an inter-village dispute debate – according to James, our guide, involving an assault by one village’s young man upon another village’s young man.

James said the general court system would accept the agreement reached by the villages in the dispute, unless there was an ongoing threat.

As we left the village, I got this shot of its cemetery – on the hill in the background – obviously a place of prominence.

Along our way we had seen many places where folks were standing at the side of the road with bags of coffee – the biggest cash crop in the Mt. Hagen area. At one such place a coffee buyer was weighing bags for purchase and transport/sale to a coffee mill…

on his truck.

At another, coffee beans were drying on mats…

The man in the blue shirt was James, our excellent guide at Mt. Hagen. The guy in the purple shirt was our host farmer. On the way back to his place he talked with me about the difficulty of passing land and traditional beliefs on to his sons.

The visit with him was especially poignant, as it involved his narration and demonstrations of the calling of spirits, practices still observed in some remote areas.

First, the calling of the spirit of a deceased victim of a wrong caused by another person, starting with a fire to attract the spirit’s attention.

then an attempt to call…

setting up stakes and a wire to allow the spirit to show its presence…

then some wind and movement of the wire showing presence of the spirit (no idea how they did it but there was movement and a little sudden breeze), capturing it with its full weight…

and carrying it to the village where it is buried in a place of honor…

for the elders to implore the perp to identify himself, confess, and apologize, or face being responsible for calamity visited on the village by the wronged spirit. If the perp confesses, there is no punishment. They apparently usually do, thereby appeasing the spirit.

Next were demos of group calling of spirits for help with harvests or healing sick.

We were offered a Q and A, and I asked the tall guy, second from right, why he participated. He said it made him feel strong and proud of his heritage.

At the next village we saw a reenactment of a tribal battle. First a man is gathering a crop on his tribe’s land.

He is attacked by a man from another tribe wanting to steal the land and crops.

The man drives off the intruder, whose village then attacks and drives the residents off of their land.

But then the ousted residents counter-attack and regain their land.

After which they have a funeral to honor their dead…

Due to approaching rain, we continued well into the afternoon, before stopping for lunch in the van at the side of the road, and then headed back to the lodge.

Not much else of interest for the day.

Busy start, packing, a visit by a yellow-helen swallowtail butterfly…

breakfast, checkout (put a general tip on the tab) and to the river.

On the way to the airfield (literal), our last look at real Karawari sago production.

Dana did a little entertaining for the kids who’d come for Sam’s takeoff.

Sam arrived on time…

and we were soon airborne with a group of five divers…

headed for Mt. Hagen in the Western Highlands…

and its premier resort, Rondon Ridge (part of the TNT chain, where its Australian owner has a retreat).

On the shuttle ride there we stopped at a local supermarket in Mt. Hagen – a sharp contrast with where we’d spent the last three days.

Mt. Hagen has a population of ~40,000.

Like the others, the lodge was impressive in its appearance…

as was our suite.

In the latter, however, function was sacrificed for form. More on that later.

We quickly set off for a little birding. No BOPs, but on the way we passed several wild orchids and others…

and we did see some interesting birds:

Dinner in the lodge was quite good, and familiar (the cook flew with us from Karawari).

On retiring, I discovered the suite’s first dysfunction: the toilet is down a flight of stairs from the bedroom – inconvenient for an octogenarian bladder in the middle of the night in an unfamiliar setting.

Early birding, breakfast, and then back to the river, this time turning off into a small channel and past a mangrove…

and then a family or small clan group likely headed for a market or other gathering…

and then some kids honing their canoeing skills.

We stopped at a community where a war victory dance was performed…

ironically by people least likely to have been called into battle.

Chris gave us gave us a graphic capsule version of his Yokoin tribe’s martial success…

after which we received a decidedly non-martial farewell.

At the next community we visited a men’s house where carving was being done and displayed.

Chris used a stool there to describe an agenda of village dispute resolution.

Dana did an impromptu tap dance…

and we were off to the next place, where we dug a little deeper into sago cooking, starting with a demo of the initial bark peelback and pounding out…

and then the sedimentation of the essential sago the original way…

and use of the resulting flour to make a flatbread – easily transported for hunting or other travei.

Then another surprise…

dreidels in PNG? Actually found in many parts of PNG, used in cult ceremonies and kids games. Kudos to Dana for getting it right on the first try.

It was a full day (I omitted the lunch on the boat). Chris had mentioned that he did his own carving, and when we got back to the lodge he showed us one of his creations.

At dinner, Reuben did a grande finale flower decor for us…

and after another Karawari sunset…

We packed it in.

Birds of the day:

After breakfast, Reuben gave me a quick demo of a village drum, housed in the lodge as an art piece…

and then we were back onto the river.

Our first stop was a fishing village, where we were greeted by women in historic dress and appearance, fishing in the traditional ways.

We began a little tour of the village…

stopping first at a house that accommodated three families…

where a woman was preparing the sago staple that is crucial to the village diet…

Next was a spirit house, or men’s house.

Then a stop at the village drum…

before we moved on to another village that had a special greeting for us.

and where Chris gave a detailed explanation of some of the adornment.

We stopped at a nice spot for lunch on the boat…

and then had a demonstration of sago processing.

the drying of fish…

and a fish trap.

Sago pulp is thrown into the “V”, a gate at the base of the “v” is opened, fish are drawn in and the gate is closed behind them.

Throughout the day I got various shots of birds, which I’ll include here.

An early rise and a bird walk with Steven – saw a few birds but no BOPs. We jammed everything in our bags (no proper packing anymore), had another breakfast served graciously by Vanessa, and got on the bus with Steven, Paul (manager), and our ever-present security, and rode to the Tari airport for our flight to the Karawari Lodge.

We skirted the terminal and went to the end of a runway where a guard opened a gate for us. After waiting a few minutes our hosts heard a plane and quite soon this little commuter came in, landed and taxied toward us.

It was a TNT (Trans New Guinea Tours) plane. Five passengers – the next guests at Ambua, got out and were greeted by Paul.

Our bags were then wheeled out to the plane…

were loaded, and we got in. Our young pilot, Sam, helped Dana strap in, climbed in to his seat off of the wing and through a cockpit window (ala Errol Flynn), did some checks, started and revved the engines, and taxied out onto the runway.

I mentioned to Sam that the plane reminded me of the Air America Pilus Porters that flew civvies like me around in Viet Nam (in addition to their CIA duties), and he said he knew about the Porters – nicknamed the “mystical Porters”, likely for their ability to land or take off in their own length. I was told that they had been developed for use in the Swiss Alps.

We gained speed and quickly lifted off. I went a little overboard with videos, as we rose from Tari and started into the mountains. The broken clouds made for interesting aerial scenes.

As we headed toward Karawari, we climbed over ridges, followed valleys, and swung around to open spots in the clouds. Most of what we flew over was PNG rainforest, but there were also wide grassy valleys,

rivers

and lakes

The flight lasted about an hour, but for me it didn’t seem that long. There were times when Sam let the ordinariness of what we were doing show.

We circled the Karawari landing strip once and then went in to land.

The lodge folks were not there as yet. We learned later that they had not known the time of our arrival because of the poor cell service at the lodge (more on that later). Didn’t know we were coming until they heard the plane. So we hung about with the huge unofficial reception committee, leading to the inevitable hokey-pokey

that was a big hit, mostly with the spectators.

That only happened after they had done what they had come for, standing in the draft of Sam’s plane as he started his take-off.

The older kids in the mob followed us to the boat that would take us to the lodge.

We passed several river scenes that would become familiar over the next few days

We knew we were arriving at the lodge when we saw the Sepik Spirit…

a floating hotel that we had originally been booked on but that was out of service due to too few guests. We disembarked and were escorted onto a platform to board an ancient, bush transport truck,…

for the short ride up a wet-season-ravaged road (its only route) that they are waiting for the dry season to repair.

We soon learned that we were the only guests. We were greeted at the lodge by Reuben, the head waiter, with a plate of cold towels adorned by fresh flowers – Reuben’s specialty, we have them at our set places for every meal, I saw him picking them later.

The lodge manager, Augus ( he lost the “t” at the end of his name somewhere over the years – his words), gave us a briefing while we shared a very tasty welcoming lemonade

the lodge made quite an impression…

not least because it is essentially a gallery for the extraordinary art carving of the Karawari people.

representing spirits in their complex, shape-shifting pantheon. Woefully simplistic and cross-culturally clueless to call it animistic or pagan.

The layout of the cottages and grounds seem to be photogenic no matter what angle they are viewed from.

We were shown to our cottage, which shares the lodge’s grand view of the Karawari River and Sepik Basin.

We had a quick lunch and then at 2pm started a river outing, with Chris and Brian,our boat captain for the next few days.

We went downstream and soon came to Chris’s village, Kundiman, where he showed us a large dugout transport boat under construction, with a flat transom for a motor.

We saw very few motorized canoes,and even fewer boats that were not dugouts. The canoe is black because they burn leaves on the surface as part of the finishing process. We walked about in the village, the footing tricky in spots…

seeing our first bloodstone…

a vertical stone smeared with the blood of conquered enemies, and placed in a prominent spot. Some villages we saw have up to 3 of them.

There also were interesting juxtapositions, here the ever-present mini solar panels with some small fish traps.

This close-up shows the cane of the royal vine, with its spikes that stop fish from escaping once they get into the narrow end.

There was laundry drying…

together with cocoa beans – a new crop for the region – increasingly cultivated due to the skyrocketing price of cocoa.

Some guys were repairing a house…

with a young kid straddling the top to place the heavy log pieces that hold the roofing sheets down in strong winds.

This is a pretty typical house, raised for flood protection, coolness, critter and bug protection, etc.

This is a canoe in the early stages of construction – the collected water is from a recent rain.

We’d had a full day, and so after dinner our main activity before turning in was to watch the phases of a spectacular and incredibly long-lasting sunset….

followed by an hour or more of dramatic lightning displays.