A Day out at Crystal Rapids, Sogeri River, POM, PNG

I called in at the Weigh Inn for a few beers after work on Friday. I met some young PNG National school teachers there, one of whom went to school in a village called Sogeri, about 40 kms from POM at an altitude of about 800m.

After chatting for a while and asking them if there was anywhere outside of Port Moresby worth visiting for a day trip, I was invited to spend a day out with them on Sunday at Crystal Rapids, a lovely picnic area not far from the village of Sogeri.

We set out from POM about lunch time and traveled past the airport, past Bomana cemetery where the ANZAC dawn service was held and then began climbing on some brilliant winding roads through the most amazing scenery.

We eventually passed Sirinum dam where POM gets its fresh water from, and which has a Hydro Electricity generation plant.

We traveled past the Kokoda lodge, where many Australians stay before venturing out to walk the Kokoda track, something I have absolutely no desire to do. 90 Kms through steamy jungles, infested with malarial mosquitos, interespersed with leg jellying climbs and descents of mountain peaks that are almost at 45 degrees to the vertical, does not sound much like fun to me.

But I do have the utmost respect and admiration for anyone who is mad enough to have a go, and succeed, as my good mate Ray and his son Jacob did last year.

From there we stopped at Sogeri market to pick up some fresh fruit and some vegies for a salad.

We bought some Banapples, which are bananas that are apple coloured. Absolutely delicious, and some fresh paw paw - and it just doesn't get any better. A full paw paw costs about 2 PNG Kina, which is about 80 cents Australian. The bananas are even less.

There, we met three great young kids playing with a home made toy. It is a car tyre, half filled with water with a good dose of muddy clay, and propelled by two sticks. The kids fight over whose turn it is to have a go. These kids were genuinely happy. They have almost nothing and they are such a long way from the spoiled, over indulged children that the western civilisations are turning out in their thousands.

We carried on up a really rugged track and off to our rights we could see Sogeri River and the crystal rapids far below us. Another 5 minutes of bumping and crashing along the track and we entered the most serene and peaceful place I have been in in PNG thus far. There are beautiful fig trees overhanging the river which forms a huge "U" around the lush picnic area with many Wind Hauses set up for use for you to BBQ and eat your lunch. No fancy gas or electric BBQ's here. Just good old fashioned wood fires with metal plates on legs to give your snags that unique woodsmoke flavour.

The kids here were having a ball. Jumping off the rocks into the deep pools or lying in the shallows with the rapids running so fast that they have to hang on for dear life.

After a lunch of snags washed down with some excellent cold SP lagers, I ventured into the water. Now my feet are not as tough as the locals and I found it difficult to stay upright, what with the water sucking at my legs and the rocks digging into my soft expat feet.

I sat down and was promptly washed downstream by the fast flowing water. I turned and swam for about 10 minutes without getting anywhere. (The best pool jet I have ever swum against). I then let the current take me downstream to the main rapids and whilst hanging on to a log to avoid being tenderised like a steak as I bouncer down the rapids, I watched the kids jumping off the high rocks at the edge of the river.

There are no warning signs here that having fun can be dangerous, and if one of them was unlucky enough to get injured, there is no way they could sue the local council for damages (I was remembering Cottesloe Beach a few years back)

I wasn't game enough to risk life and limb by jumping in as I had checked the depth and it was only just over 6 feet, but the kids were having a total ball.

After a while it started to rain, and being concerned the little Honda CRV we were in would not handle wet slippery roads too well, we headed off back to POM.

On the way back we stopped at a lookout over the falls near the Hydro scheme. The only downside was the torrential rain that was now falling that had us soaked in minutes flat.

The view is just spectacular. Steeply sloping mountains with a twin waterfall dropping hundreds of metres to the river below.

Another 15 minutes and we were down the mountain and back on the flat.

No sign of rain here, just the very steamy and hot city we had left just a few hours before.

So if you find yourself in POM on a weekend with nothing much to do, grab a BBQ lunch and your swimmers and head up the hill to the peace and quiet of Crystal Springs.

The view from the lookout -

a bit misty due to heavy rain

Good Luck

A Pomme in POM!

The Carbine Club Lunch Port Moresby May 14th 2010

Late Thursday afternoon I was drawing some Kina from the ANZ ATM down at Harbourside, in POM when the bank manager Mal Parsonson popped out, said hello and invited me to attend the Carbine Club lunch to be held on Friday at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Port Moresby.

Well I had no idea what the Carbine Club was, but I accepted, and I am so glad that I did. The Carbine Club was founded in Melbourne in 1961 and was inspired by the legendary racehorse Carbine which won the Melbourne Cup in 1890 by 21 lengths carrying 65.5 Kilos, a true champion.

Since then Carbine clubs have been formed throughout Australasia, in Hong Kong, South Africa, Papua New Guinea ( in 1990) and most recently this year in Singapore.

The underlying motive of the club is the enjoyment of life and good company and raising funds for the assistance of young sports men and women.

The welcome speech by Richard Sapias was humourous and got the afternoon off to a great start.

The stand out comment for me was when he said that if some of the comments or stories from the stage offended anyones race, religion or colour, then we just don't give a f*ck! More power to political incorrectness.

The main speaker was Steven Bradbury, Australia's 1st Winter Olympics Gold Medalist. I will be honest and say that I though he was a bit of a joke, having won his gold from last position when all of the other competitors fell.

Steven Bradbury wins Gold!

But having heard his inspirational and gutsy story of having appeared at 4 Olympics over 12

years, survived two life threatening accidents on the track, including a broken neck and a ruptured artery in his leg, come back from those injuries to compete at the highest level again, I left there with nothing but admiration for the guts and steely determination that led him to eventual success as the last man standing in Salt lake City, Utah, his 4th Olympics. It had taken him 12 hard years to become an overnight success!

You can learn more about his inspiring story at: http://www.stevenbradbury.com/

Steven passed around the ice skating racing boots he has helped design, and which have been worn by multiple Olympic gold medalists and then passed around his Gold Medal for everyone to see and feel. Now that was fairly brave in PNG, but I am glad to say that he did get it back.

And if you are looking for an entertaining and inspiring speaker for your next event I can't recommend Steven highly enough.

The afternoon continued with some great humour from Vince Sorrenti. His take on ethnic humour in Australia was just brilliant.

What cracked me up was that the big banner behind Vince on stage had his name spelled incorrectly as Vince Serrenti and the printer was in the room to take the flak. His excuse; I copied the name from the tickets ( also spelled wrongly).

You can see Vince in action on Youtube at:- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5-xS27kFCs&feature=related

Washed down with copious quantities of PNG fine SP lager I had a brilliant afternoon.

Thanks Mal, for the generous invite.

Good luck

A Pomme in POM

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Day trip to Loloata

Sunday in Port Moresby and the team here fancied a day trip out somewhere to see a bit more of PNG.

While waiting to pick up some people at the airport I had picked up a brochure for Loloata resort, located about a 20 min drive SE of POM (Port Moresby) and a short ferry ride to the Island, that showed magnificent pictures of the underwater life that could be seen on the many dive sites that were close by to the resort.

We weren't smart enough to find out the deal, so took off in our car and headed in the general direction indicated on the street map of POM in the airport guide, which left us about 15 kms to navigate without a map.

Well, after a few false starts and a bit of help from some friendly locals we eventually arrived at the jetty with a sensational new Australian built catamaran waiting, or so we thought, to take us to the island.

However, it turns out that the catamaran only goes across at 9.00 am and 3 pm to drop off and pick up day-trippers and take hotels guests back and forth.

As we had not set off until after lunch from POM and it was now about 1 pm we had obviously missed the boat, so to speak. We asked the boat driver how to get to the island and he said he would call a dinghy to come and get us. We asked him how much the ferry fare was and in reply we just received a shrug and no answer.

We waited about 15 minutes and a small boat approached us from seaward and docked and we all got on board.

It was a pleasant trip with views of the misty mountains of PNG to our left and right as we left Bootless Inlet and headed past a few other islands to Loloata Island.

We arrived at the island and walked down the long jetty to the resort. We were expecting a lush and exotic paradise, but what we found was just a little bit basic, to say the least.

Now it was a hot day and a cold beer beckoned, so we found our way out onto th veranda, with the magnificent views of the ocean blocked by mangrove trees, settled in and requested four cold SP beers.

The helpful young girl asked if we would like some lunch, and we said yes, expecting a menu to arrive so we could choose.

Well our beers arrived and we got into those, closely followed by the most unappetising plate of food I think I have ever been presented with. Some cold potatoes, some limp salad, a chunk of warm, very fishy fish on a bed of cold rice, a slice or two of ham and a bread roll that would have doubled easily as a baseball.

After some inquiry, we found out that this was all that was available, basically the leftovers from lunch served some time previously, and it was eat that or go hungry.

As we hadn't had lunch on the mainland and it was now about 2 pm we ate what we could stomach and left easily as much as we ate.

Our meal was brightened up greatly by the arrival of an exotic and very friendly bird that, although it wouldn't eat from our hand, would come within a few feet and hungrily gobble up what we didn't want from off the floor.

We were due back on the boat at 3 pm and so we asked for the bill, so we could settle up and have a look around the island before we went back.

Well, we were presented with a bill of PNG Kina 528. ( just over A$200) In total shock we asked for the break-up and were told that it was 50 Kina for the boat ride and 82 Kina for lunch.

Now a smörgåsbord lunch at the Holiday Inn is only 50 Kina, with a choice of half a dozen dishes, drinks and deserts, so this just could not be right.

After much discussion, with various staff members, and after much waiting around while the other guests checked out, we eventually found out that the rate for a day trip to the island, including snorkeling for as long as you like around Lion Island nearby and lunch was 132 Kina, coincidentally, exactly what we had been charged.

As we hadn't signed up for this, and had just really come out to see what was there we eventually settled on half price of 264 Kina and headed for home, with a disgruntled skipper who had had to wait 15 minutes for us to sort things out.

We did find out that a room for the night is 666 Kina ( an unfortunate number) which is about A$265. And I guess breakfast wouldn't be too exciting either!

However, the trip back was delightful, sitting on the top deck of the catamaran with a cool breeze blowing and passing other seafarers on their way back from work on the island.

All in all it was a pleasant day out, but it pays to find out what is involved before you head off on a boat trip.

I don't think I will be heading back to Loloata in a hurry, I will head for the resort at Madang instead. It will involve a flight out of Moresby, but I think it will be more than well worth the effort.

Check it out yourself at: http://www.loloata.com/

and http://www.madangresort.com/

Best reagrds

A POM in POM

Anzac Day in Port Moresby

Having only been in Port Moresby for a few weeks I am not au-fait with all of the the customs and social etiquette that exists here.

I have grown used to the chook ( chicken for you Poms) raffles and meat tray raffles (that are still very common in rural Australia) that occur at nearly every social gathering but I was unaware of the deep respect and reverence that most Australian and New Zealand expatriates living here hold for the Anzac Day remembrance service.

Waiting for the service to begin

Even though I am a Pom, and I have lived in Australia for 30 years, give or take, and am aware of the dawn service and marches that are held on Anzac Daty every year, I do not fully feel the full patriotic urge of an Aussie or a Kiwi to be part of the Anzac Day celebrations.

However, a very good friend of mine is a Vietnam Veteran and I knew that he would be attending the dawn service in Perth, so when I was invited to attend the dawn service at the Bomana Cemetry in Port Moresby by my bank manager, I decided it was well past time that I made the effort and attended.

The drill was that we were all to meet at the Aviat Club ( a premier sports and social club in Port Moresby) at 4 am on Sunday Morning. Yes that's correct - 4 am, not long after midnight and quite a bit before dawn.

Well, around midnight and knowing I was to be getting up soon, I had difficulty sleeping. This wasn't helped by the hot and humid conditions that evening and I found myself awake at about 2 am listening to torrential rain pouring down.

The thought of standing out in the open, in the dark, getting soaking wet didn't fill me with desire and I promptly fell asleep.

I was woken a bit later by the raucous beeping of my Australian digital alarm clock. The difficulty here is that I think the frequency of the power supply is not 50 Hz and digital clocks do not keep very good time, they gain about 10 minutes every 24 hour rotation, so it was not really 3.30 am but more like 3.15.

I looked out of the window and all was quiet with no sign of the rain that had gently lulled me to sleep.

Whilst still being totally ambivalent about getting out of bed, my colleague Stuart rang and enquired if I was on my way.

Fifteen minute slater and we were en-route to the Aviat to join the convey out to Bomana Cemetery.

Four of five 4 WD's headed out from the Aviat Club, in the dark and headed over the Poreporena Freeway towards Bomana.

Soon we were part of a much larger convoy as vehicles of all descriptions joined us and headed out to Bomana.

On arrival, the car park was already almost full. We were shepherded to a parking spot and then followed the crowd up the hill and around the corner where we were greeted by a welcoming committee of committed volunteers who handed us a lit candle secured in a plastic plate ( to stop the wax from burning our fingers) and a programme of events.

As I hadn't brought my reading glasses and it was pitch black anyway, I found the programme of little use that morning, but I did enjoy reading about it all the next day.

We all stood patiently under the huge fig trees waiting for 5 am and the events of the day to commence.

In the absolute dark, just before dawn we heard the rattle of drums form the distant end of the cemetery, that we could often just catch glimpses off as camera flashes went off at random in the dark. The drums were soon joined by the swirl of the pipes and the mystical sounds of amazing grace played by the Papuan Army Pipe band swelled in volume as they marched up through the quiet of the graveyard, where so many Anzacs were interred.

The pipe band came right up to the war memorial and we could just make them out in the dim light of the candles held by those closest to them.

In the quiet that followed we could just make out the catafalque party as they took their stations at the four points of the compass.

The master of ceremonies announced the arrival of the Governor of Papua New Guinea and the remembrance service began.

A series of hymns, sung beautifully by the choirs of local high schools, readings and prayers followed and then the solemn wreath laying ceremony, with so many wreaths laid that the war memorial was entirely surrounded.

The faint light of dawn spread over the gathering of around 1500 that had made the journey out to Bomana Cemetery, and soon we could see clearly as the ceremonies proceeded.

The graves of the Anzacs form a dramatic backdrop

And then the bugler palyed the Last Post from high above us, with the poignant notes rolling down upon us as we stood and remebered those who had sacrificed their lives so that we could live in freedom.

The band then played the national anthems of Papua New Guinea, Australia and New Zealand and finally the pipe band played their way out of the cemetery.

All in all it was a superbly enacted ceremony in a unique and exotic setting, far from the homes of those who lay in rest all around us.

We left as a convey and accepted invitations to a gunfire Breakfast at the Australian High Commission, where the majority of those at the ceremony made their way. Cooked breakfasts, Anzac biscuits, coffee with rum a cool refreshments were served, including the obligatory cold beers that the hardy amongst us sampled, with the first of many beers of the day at 7.30 am.

From the High Commission to the Aviat Club for a magnificent BBQ lunch, cooked so well by "Turbo" and company, a few more beers and then down to the Royal Papua Yacht Club ( http://www.rpyc.com.pg/) for some more beers and the best Two Up school I have ever seen outside of the original at Kalgoorlie!

The Original Kalgoorlie Two Up school

What a great day and many thanks and congratulations to the host of volunteers who made it so memorable.