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NEWSLETTER

NEWSLETTER OF THE AUSTRALIAN BONANZA SOCIETY LTD. ACN 057 887 500

SEPTEMBER 2009 NO. 78

Day 1: SUN 21 June – Meet at Horn Island

We arrived at Horn Island before lunch afteran excellent over night stay at End of theRoad Motel at Karumba where we had achance to get to know each crew memberwhilst watching the sun go down over thewater in the west over a few drinks. I thinkthat Ken won the Sunset bet and still no onebelieves me that there is a green flash as thesun disappears over the horizon.

Our friendly hosts Doug and Lyn picked us upand dropped us back to the airport andlooked after us very well in fineaccommodation at a reasonable price.

We were taken from Horn Island Airport by acouple of shuttles from the Gateway TorresStraight Resort to settle in and partake in asumptuous lunch where we met up withIrene Kelly and (Florence) Leanne Barnettwho had arrived the day before bycommercial airline.

After lunch we were all taken on a guidedbus tour of Horn Island which was veryinteresting. The thing that amazed me wasthat it was still identifiable after 60 oddyears where the activities of WW2 took placewith the remnants of aircraft still where theycrashed and the taxi ways and bunkers andammunition storage areas still in good order.

The labour of love, that Vanessa See Kee(OAM) and her husband tour guide Liberty

See Kee have dedicated to the history of thewar effort in documenting and saving thisheritage was very pleasing to see and I forone thoroughly enjoyed the half day tour asI am sure did all of our crews.

The remaining time available in theafternoon was filled in with a visit to theMuseum at the motel where the history ofWW2 activities on Horn Island is wellpreserved.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA AIR SAFARI21st June – 4th July 2009

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Letters from Japanese pilots which have beentranslated in to English was of particular fascination forme in that they opened my mind to understand that notall of the Japanese agreed with their Emperor.

The evening after dinner involved flight planning and filling in International flight notification forms byhand. It is so long since I have had to do a flight planby hand that Keith and I were struggling andparticularly when Bospella said to insert the 7thParallel as a reporting point I think that at this point ofthe evening I went to bed.

Bring on Day 2. I can not wait.

DAY 2: MON 22 June – Fly Horn Island-Madang. Staying at Malolo PlantationLodge on the North Coast

With great excitement we gathered at the morningbriefing to prepare us for our first leg into internationalterritory. Bob’s laptop, even at 7 am, showed a chainof thunderstorms along the Highlands crossing ourpath. Departure out of Horn Island was orderly anduneventful.

However, after crossing the PNG coast we were greetedby a high, wide, ominous, black cloud mass directly ontrack. Some diverted, others climbed to 12,000 ft inan attempt to a bid the worst of it. Others decided toreturn to Daru and catch up next day.

I will never forget popping out of cloud to be greetedby a most magnificent range of mountains nearly15,000 ft high.

Flying over Goroka, in the Highlands, was straightforward, except for a few who nearly had a closeencounter with the infamous “cumulo-granitus”. AfterGoroka it was a rapid descent from 12,000 ft to sealevel in a few short miles to land on a long sealedrunway at Madang, on the north PNG coast.

Waiting for PNG customs in an old hangar in oppressivehumidity was a trying experience we won’t forget.

A town tour of Madang was interesting especially whenconsidering that there are 200 languages spoken in aprovince of around 300,000 inhabitants. The tour bustransferred us to the resort directly on the coast.

Our first evening in PNG was filled with lively andcolourful dancing and singing by a local tribal group.

DAY 3:TUE 23 June – Madang – Malolo Plantation Lodge

Today was such a full day I felt that we had seenTechnicolor New Guinea in one hit. Driving north fromMadang to Malolo Lodge we passed a teachers collegeand a government school where Michael Somare wentto school, they said that many politicians don’t live intheir electorates or even in the country! We stopped atBagildig village, everyone crowded around us infriendly fashion, we were the curiosities: we sawcooking demonstrations – everything goes together intothe clay pot on the floor-taro, yams, greens along witheither fish, prawns or chicken, then it is boiled incoconut milk over the fire.

Then we moved on to Sokaka village where we saw ademonstration of traditional costumes – I remembertwo wee people in grass skirts, large shell necklacesand shell or feathered head dress, they looked verystiff with large solemn brown eyes. The villagersshowed us their herbal remedies for malaria, scabies,sinus, death adder bite, and some red bushy leavesthat they send as a message of war!

At some stage we went to Simon’s village walkingthrough tall grass along a narrow track, they weredrying beans to make chocolate in a complicated seriesof timber structures. Simon was a wonderful old man,leaning on a staff, very eager to show us his culture, he

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took us to his family compound, 16 people live there,he and his wife had 11 children, many of them aremarried now – he only talked about his daughtersthough and he said he wouldn’t like his children to goaway when we were talking about education. Simon was the first person to be ‘saved’ by Leanne; I think she gave him an antibiotic for his foot!

Malolo Lodge was welcoming & comfortable with aswimming pool – the only one on the circuit. After lunch some of us went in dugout canoes to a littleisland – Tadwai a coral cay, where we spent theafternoon snorkelling or clambering about. There was awonderful dancing performance after dinner thatevening at the lodge, villagers in ceremonial dressdancing and chanting, with tiny children there includedin everything. Ben was the guest speaker for the nighttalking about his flying adventures. Altogether it was awonderful day!

DAY 4: WED 24 June – Fly Madang to Karawari

Today we left Malolo & Madang to fly up the coast toManum Island with its active volcano, then up the Sepikto Karawari & the Sepik Spirit. We set off in ratherunpromising weather for our flight NW along the coastto the volcano. Despite the intermittent rainstorms weenjoyed lovely views of the coastal villages & palmplantations, with the jungle covered hills in thebackground. Then the volcano came into sight amongstthe clouds with its massive plume billowing to thesouth. Unfortunately conditions didn’t allow for a goodview, but we circumnavigated it anyway & it was quitean experience. Then we set course for the Sepik. With a drop of only 85 feet through 1100 kilometres, itcoils & loops & winds like a massive brown pythonthrough the jungle. No roads, just the jungle & theriver & villages & people in dugout canoes. Thank goodness for GPS’s – finally just a narrow greenstrip cut in the jungle beside the river – Karawariairstrip, with a welcoming committee of all the localvillagers. The heat & humidity hit us like a wall & it waswith relief that we finally boarded the boat to transferus to the Sepik Spirit – and even greater relief to get onboard its air-conditioned comfort!

Day 5: THU 25 June – Sepik Spirit

Rob’s day out

We awoke to the aromas of diesel fuel and gentle

vibrations of the engines of the Sepik Spirit to a finebreakfast once again.

Whilst cruising down the river looking over the opengrasslands we spotted our first bush tucker – on displayby locals in the middle of the river in their dug outcanoe (two small crocs was the prize)

We then got ready for another village trip – we climbedonboard Jet boat 1 from the mother ship - with amighty roar we were off –

The sun shinning through the clouds ever so oftenglistening on the sticks and debris floating down theriver after the rains upstream, stopping at the villageto see more carving and artefacts etc. (plenty ofmosquitoes), we were taken in by the main communalhouse to their lifestyle. (“must be plenty of bush sex –children everywhere”!!)

Then back into Jet boat 1 and off to another village –this time to see the spiritual house and bloodstonesand a talk how they killed and ate their fellow peoplesby their tribal ways.

Then back to the Sepik Spirit – another great feed anda nice cold beer!!

And later that evening a chat about the men’s penisextensions that didn’t really work (big softies).

Off to bed - to make us ready for the next day flightout!!

Rob Stokie

DAY 6: FRI 26 June – Overnight Karawari Lodge

This morning we all assembled for the briefing on howwe were going to get back to Karawari and afterwaiting for the fog to lift we were loaded in smallgroups aboard Jet Boat 1 to cross the river to onceagain become the centre of attraction with the localnative people. Bobs Islander aircraft arrived at a grassairstrip with grass I guess was about 250mm + high andwas wet from the overnight rain.

The pilot and some villagers unloaded what seemedlike an obscene amount of provisions for the SepikSpirit and the local village and with military precisionthe luggage was loaded by the pilot and 8 or 10 peoplewere told to board the aircraft.

I am thinking that wet long grass and heavily loadedaircraft is not a good combination. As it turned out allwent very well and what I learnt from this is that this

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is normal in PNG. After a short flight of about 20minutes we were back at Karawari Airstrip to unloadand wait for the next load of our group to betransferred.

We then all wandered through the jungle to find JetBoat 2 waiting for us to take us to the Karawari Lodgehigh on a ridge overlooking the Sepik delta.

After lunch we boarded Jet Boat 2 for a short trip backtowards the airstrip where the afternoon was spent atthe Karawari village where amongst many otheractivities some children played a remarkable gameusing a spinning top and some sticks. It is such a simplelife in PNG and they all seemed very happy. We allreturned by Jet Boat 2 after a slight delay, in what wasthe hottest place we had been to date, back to KarawariLodge where the elevation made it a bit cooler.

Most spent the rest of the day sitting and looking out atthe view with a coldie in the hand and partaking in lots

of conversation.

I for one avoided to 30000 steps to our room until itwas time to retire. It wasn’t 30000 steps but it sure feltlike it when climbing up to our room.

DAY 7: SAT 27 June – Fly Karawari Mt Hagen

Early start again. I thought that we were supposed to beon holidays. The weather is only fine and beaut in theearly mornings and as the day grows so do the clouds.Moisture just keeps dropping out of the sky in the

afternoon thunderstorms only to be sucked up againthe next day and the process starts all over again.

We know that we had a possible difficult flight if we didnot get away early to beat the clouds as all flying inPNG is visual. So back to Jet Boat 2 for the trip back toKarawari Airstrip where we pushed and pulled ouraircraft to get them out of the depressions they hadsettled in to due to the soft ground and rains that wehad whilst they were parked for 3 nights and 4 days.The start was organised so that we all got away in anorderly fashion.

Today was our first flight for a lot of us to land at anairport with a density altitude of some 7000 feet.

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Much discussion took place about noting your settingsfor mixture so that on departure out of Mt Hagan wecould set the correct mixture on the ground to get bestperformance for takeoff otherwise we might not takeoff said Bospella.

I am pleased to announce that the altitudecompensating fuel pump and the 300 H.P. Continentalhad no problems lifting us in to the sky.

After arriving Mount Hagan we refuelled all of theaircraft as this was the last chance for Avgas until wegot back to Horn Island. Bobs staff looked after therefuelling with again military precision and in a veryshort time we were all refuelled and then loaded in tobuses for our trip to Rondon Ridge.

The bus trip seemed to go on forever but finally wearrived to a most magnificent lodge high up in themountains with a view which went on forever.

The weather was perfect and all Bospella kept saying was that it can not stay like this and we shouldbe flying.

DAY 8:SUN 28 June – Rondon Ridge overlooking Mt Hagen

Another magic day at Rondon Ridge overlookingtowering mountains some reaching 13,200ft. Enjoyed adelicious breakfast then boarded our bus for aninteresting tour of the Waghi Valley. On mountainslopes farmers grow their coffee, tea and vegetables,the women tend to their sweet potato crops and lookafter the family pigs, the greatest sign of wealth to theMelpa people. Our last stop was the spectacular displayby the Mudmen. These men pretended to be evil spiritsto overpower another tribe that had taken over theirvillage. On the mountain slopes surrounding the valleyare home to a diverse range of orchids and thebeautiful bird of paradise, some of us were fortunateto catch a glimpse of them. Our day was completedwith great food, wine and conversation

Day 9: MON 29 June – Fly Mt Hagen Tari

Leaving Rondon Lodge after a great stay for the Mt Hagan Airport, all eyes on surrounding ridge caps, to Tari, once airborne not a problem, the picture was clear.

Some tracked direct and some to the south.

Big greeting on arrival from the locals then up to AmbuaResort - the flagship of Bob’s resorts – what a setting!!

Hard act to follow, set amongst a beautiful rainforestthat is available to enjoy by all, by winding paths overroped bridges, spanning crystal clear streams andwaterfalls, not to mention Bob’s creation of yetanother amazing engineering project, an aqua-duct

winding around sides of hills to 2 x turbine powerstations servicing the resort.

We had yet had another spoiling experience with thelocal Huli culture. Looking forward to what’s next!!

Trevor O’Meara (Skipper of Allcock Airways)

DAY 10: TUE 30 June – Ambua Lodge

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An early morning start for some of the group in searchof the ‘Bird of Paradise’.

The Tari area is home of the Huli people, who areknown for their warrior like traits.

We were treated to a welcome dance at the firstvillage, with the men painting their faces with yellowand red clay and using various feathers (some bird ofparadise) for decoration of their hair and bodies. The warriors use wigs made of human hair forceremonial purposes.

At the second village (also Huli people) we were shownhow the men and women lead separate lives. The young boys go to live with the men from an earlyage and the girls stay in the women’s hut, which is alsoused to house the pigs. Any sexual activity is in thegarden area. Village life is dictated by Land, Pig andWomen – in that order.

In the afternoon we visited a ‘Wig Making School’. It costs approximately 280 Kena to join the school andthis pays for food and the 18 months it takes eachperson to grow the wig. The hair is sprayed with waterthree times a day to aid in purity and in the bleachingprocess of the hair. Wigs end up a brown colour. At theend of 18 months the hair is carefully cut off and sewnto form the wig. People return to the school severaltimes, as they can sell each ceremonial wig for around900 Kena.

Lastly we saw a traditional ‘Wedding Ceremony’. This seemed more about negotiating the dowry price e.g.the number of pigs traded, than an actual ceremony.

At the end of the day we were ‘All Villaged Out’.

DAY 11: WED 01 July – Tari and fly to Bensbach

Another early start to beat the clouds and yet another5000 foot elevation runway to contend with. This timethough we knew that once airborne it was only amatter of negotiating the mountains and clouds as it ismostly down hill to Bensbach.

After an enjoyable flight we finally found yet anotherairstrip carved out of the bush with an unusual taxiwaywhich seemed to go about a couple of kilometres throughthe trees before arriving at our parking spot at the resort.

The keen fishermen and women went out for a try atthe Barramundi.

Apparently according to some of our members this isthe best Barramundi fishing spot in the world

There was a few caught that afternoon which only thenwet the appetite even more for the big trip tomorrow.

DAY 12: THU 02 July – Bensbach Wildlife Lodge

After leaving Tari with a beautiful and scenic flightwith F&B weather we finally arrived at Bensbach.Wednesday 1st July. Bensbach sits near the border withWest Papua in the remote and sparsely populatedsouth-west corner of PNG. Broad and sweeping floodplains teaming with deer, wallabies, crocodiles, seaeagles, pygmy geese and most of all Barramundi.Stands of paper bark eucalyptus provide building

materials for the local people - while the bark is usedas insulation in traditional ovens. Our lunchtime barracaught by Peter and Bill was cooked to perfection bythis method.

We comfortably accommodated 19 guests with theeight (thin) twin rooms and adjoining managersresidence. The pristine lawns and shade trees on theriver edge were so inviting for a little R&R. But themain purpose was the Barramundi fishing and just aswell as Venison was on the menu three times a day.Perseverance paid off for those determined to catchthe biggest one. The prize for the biggest Barramundigoing to Steve.

It was our last night and all was brought together withdress ups, acts, games and fines. What goes on tourstays on tour. The night ended with unsettlementbetween the tribe and we were rather pleased to moveon the next day. Yes it was time to head home.

DAY 13:FRI 03 July – Bensbach-Daru-Horn Island-Cooktown

An early departure from Bensback on another beautifulsafari day for Daru to clear Customs. Many thanks toKen for dealing with the officials there, and at Horn Is.On to Cooktown our last leg over Aussie soil in clearconditions. Met two lads at Cooktown who tried to getto PNG in a Jabiru 300 but were refused point blankbecause of no VH rego and had to be content to seePNG from Saibai Is. so Bruce and I felt quite pleased tobe the first known Ultralight to make it to PNG andback again . Many thanks to you all for your patienceand what an adventure.

DAY 14: SAT 04 July – Cooktown – Depart for home

We all awoke to a perfect Cooktown morning enthusiasticabout making our way home. At our leisure we strolled tothe Wharf for a relaxed and yummy breakfast. Where webid farewell to our friends then made our way to theairfield. With F&B conditions we departed for Cairnscoastal for a very scenic flight. We stayed with friendsovernight Will and Helen Simpson a former Aviator andBaron owner and Simpson Desert Station owner"Amaroo". I met them flying a Tiger Moth across Australia.Bill "Bospella" now owns it. Many thanks to all concernedfor a wonderful PNG Air Safari 2009.

Article organised by Keith Duce with each crew writingone day in the life of the Safari.

Photography by Lorei Bedford.

NEW CAP FROM THE ABS FOR ONLY $25.00

Contact Judith Gordon3 PETRIANA COURTTORQUAY VIC 3228Phone: 03 5261 5382Facsimile: 1300 305 047jgordon@vic.chariot.net.au