Happy bitrhday to me...

Since the internet connections are just as rare as the amount of whitmans you see around here I didn’t manage to write earlier as this. I’m now back again in Lae after traveling around PNG for two weeks. I celebrated my 26th birthday yesterday with my friends over at 8 mile, St Joseph, I bought a few beers a couple of bottles of wine and we had a little party here, quiet but still good.

According to my plan which I wrote down in my last message I went to Mount Wilhelm. I took the PMV (public motor vehicle) from Lae to Goroka in the eastern Highland province. Traveling with a PMV is a adventure of its own! They all depart from the market square and you just have to ask somebody where the bus is going, they are little vans actually where we would carry 8 people in, but here they manage to fit at least 15 persons in with all the luggage. When you’ve found one that travels in the wright direction you have to wait until the van is totally full, otherwise they make less money. So when you think the van is finally full and you start your trip, the PMV drops off 2 or 3 persons in the van, who were just in there to make the van look full to attract others, you start over again to get the PMV full, when it is finally filled you start the journey but not after picking up a few goods that have to travel in the same direction. Luckily me, as a Whitman, get almost every time a seat offered in front of the van, next to the driver. The middle seat is not very comfortable though…
The journey to Goroka went fine once we were on the road. I’m still not very certain on which site of the road they drive because normally they just use the whole road because they have to get out of the way of all the holes in the road but when another car from the opposite direction is approaching they intend to take the left site, I guess that’s the site they are driving on because the steering wheel is on the right! The journey to Goroka took about 6 hours, we stopped a few times down the road at a few local markets to get some food and other stuff (everyone chews on Buai (Beatle nuts) here, add cambing (calc) and daka (pepper) for some extra flavor and then spit out a grose red spit, you see it everywhere)

We arrived in Goroka around 4:00 pm, I went to the Lutheran guesthouse and made a stroll around the town, I also went up to mount kiss which gave me a nice view over the city. In the middle of the city you find the airstrip and the rest of the town lays around it. Not very safe, that’s what I thought. Well about safety, you should never walk the streets on your own after it gets dark in PNG, I got told that you get held up and then take all your belongings and this happens more than occasionally! So the days are pretty short around here, you just have to get up early and do what you have to do before it gets dark at 6:00 pm.

The next day I made my way to Kundiawa, a 3 hour drive from Goroka. Kundiawa is just like Goroka a typical PNG city, a big market in the center of town, and a hell of a lot people on the streets. I asked around a bit to find a new PMV to get up the Kegsugl, the village which gives access to Mount Wilhelm. I expected just a little van which I was now used to but it turned out to be only 4x4 wheel drives that went up there. I found one and after 2 hours of waiting we finnaly made our way up to Kegsugl, to road was so rocky and bendy that it took us 3 hours for 50 km. But the road has to be seen to be believed. The 4x4 vehicle carried around 20 people: me and the driver in the front seats and about 18 people in the open back of the car, including luggage! I’ll upload the picture later, but it was madness! We had to stop at every creek to get some water to cool down the radiator of the car and it was indeed necessary because the engine was steaming hot after 30 minutes work! Finally we made it up to Kegsugl and I stayed at a Kege’s guesthouse with really friendly people who also happened to be on that PMV whit me! I also found my guide on the PMV who would take me up to the Mountain the next 2 days. Next to the guesthouse there was an unused airstrip situated and due to the coming elections a candidate running was holding a speech there. The whole village sat around him to listen and to watch the drama being performed by two local guys from the famous Raum Raum theatre of Goroka. I couldn’t understand it but it was really funny I suppose.

The next day we started around 8:30 am with the walk to the hut halfway on the mountain at a height of 3500 meter, most of the walk was in the bush and it had at lot of stairs. Because there was no gas at the hut, another guide had to carry a full gas tank on his back all the way up to the hut! We arrived around 1 pm and rested there until 1 am to start the second day of the climb. In the middle of the night we started walking in the freezing cold and with our torches (now I really needed your miners torch Roos, thanks for that) Around 5 am the sun started rising and that was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen! The sunrise at a height of 4400 m is indescribably beautiful, let the coming pictures do the talking for that. I kept making pictures of it.
At 8 am arrived at the top of the mountain at a height of 4509 m, it was fairly clear and you could see miles away, the views where stunning! After spending half an hour at the top we made our way back down again and we made back to the lakes at 12:00, and we made it back to the village around 4:30 pm. I was totally naggered! I fell asleep like a baby.

The next morning I got the PMV back to Kundiawa again to make my way to Madang, a beautiful place at the North coast of PNG. At first I wanted to walk to Madang, that would take me another 2 days of walking but my knees and calves were too sore so I chose otherwise. We caught a direct good looking PMV to Madang from Kundiawa and it did is job well until the first flat tire, that can happen, but after having a second flat tire we had to wait untill another van with the same wheels overtook us and was willing enough to spare us their spare tire! After 2 hours we swept to another van that took us to Madang. We were there around 9:30 pm, so nowhere to check in anymore but lukily I could stay with a cousin of somebody I had been sharing the same PMV’s with since Kegsugl. So I had a homestay that night.

The next day I went to explore Madang, a paradise on earth I would say, beautiful surrounding and little island in the sea. I cheched in to the Lutern guesthouse I found out about the diving in Madang. On Saturday the 23th I went for 3 dives with a local divemaster. It was like a early birthday gift to myself! I even went diving to a WWII-wreck that was sunk there. The other days in Madang I spent snrokling around Kranget island and Siar Island. There were some amazing shallow reefs that I could snorkel over there. Just a few relaxing days in Madang!

Next Thursday I fly to Port Moresby and then on Sunday to Sydney, where hopefully I’m going to meet some friend. Then the 4th of juli I fly to Bali, where I’m going to spend my last two weeks. I hope to see Msc Martijn and Kim there but I’m sure I will.

How are thing going in Asten, how did we do at the game without limits (Spel Zonder Genzen) without me, always fair and sportiff, joining the team this year? I guess you still made it in the top 10?

Well see you all in a few weeks again, bye bye for now! Alleeeeee