Elad’s blog

Here is a short historical anacdote about the power of science and greed. A few centuries ago, after the europeans realized that the world is a sphere, they reached a conclusion that in order to balance the weight of the continents in the northern hemisphere, there must be another big unknown continent in the southern hemisphere. This bogus physical theory appealed to many politicians, who funded expensive expeditions to explore the pacific, hoping to find this land and get its treasures - just like the spanish achieved in America. Thus, the ocean was swept with explorers of many nationalities - for example portugues (Torres, de-Quirros), dutch (Abel Tasman) and the one who won the big prize - the british James Cook, who actually discovered the great southern land - Terra Australis, as it was referred to at the time.

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And my horse was two german girls.

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Since I got back to Australia, I have one main concern: to get rid of my car. It didn’t happen yet, but I keep an optimic spirit - the situation around is much better than in was a month ago.

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When I entered the car market, 2 days ago, there were 9 cars like mine over there. Today in the evening, there were 13. The market is practically dead, with no buyers. So I decided to do the logical thing, and not sell the car.

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Eventually, I drove the over 900k”m way from Melbourne to Sydney in one long stroke. I blame it on the weatherman: it was raining in Melbourne, and the forecast said that it is shiny in Sydney. Hence, I planned to drive till I get out of the rain and then camp; but the rain continued all the way to Sydney. The weather is also responsible for the poor fact that I left Melbourne at 13:00 on Sunday, thus arriving at Sydney only at 23:30, after an almost continuous drive.

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It is always useful to keep a doctor at home.

Yesterday I got sick. Just a flue, but in a bad timing: I really want to be healthy in my little PNG adventure. So I called home, and my father told me just what medicine to take (I carry enough antibiotics to kill a small herd of elephants) and indeed today I feel much better.

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North Australia’s climate is supposed to be tropical, which means there is a ‘dry’ season (right now) and a ‘wet’ season. These definitions, however, are just general rules; So of course when I go to dive, it is rainy.

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Consider a tree.

Most people highly underestimate what a complex lifeform a large tree is. Just think how it can survive dry seasons that last months without drinking water (compare to how much you can last without water); or how it can stand the changing weather conditions and continue growing day and night, year after year, in the most harsh environments.

The skyrail tour between Cairns and Kuranda gives you a whole new perspective about trees.

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Oddly enough, the city of Cairns doesn’t have a beach.

Alligned with the sea are five large boulevards, which form the city heart. The city spreads over a large area, and is composed of small two or three floors buildings that are found between big two or three floors malls and shopping centers. At one end is a big marina from which boats sail daily to the reef, and between the sea and the esplanade (the first street, closest to the sea) is a large park, covered with green grass.

This is perfect, because the green color forms a much better background to the breasts of all the topless sunbathing girls in the early afternoon than any sand would do.

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I’ll start with the important thing. Here is a skeleton I made to my PNG tour. As you notice, it is pretty detailed, because unlike most of the other parts of my journey this IS a place that needs preparations. If any of my readers know something about this country, and has advices or comments about my plans - please do send me your remarks. I am still planning and any advice is welcomed. The plan goes like this:

* Thur 7/7 - Flight from Cairns to Port-Moresby and a direct transit to Mount Hagen, in the Highlands.
* Fri 8/7 - Morning at Hagen markets. Later in the day, taking a PMV (Public Motor Vehicle, the local version of a bus and an adnventure on its own) to Goroka, still in the mountains. The PMV should take 6-7 hours.
* Sat 9/7+Sun 10-7 - Goroka and the surrounding vilages.
* Mon 11/7 - a PMV tour from Goroka to Lae. This will probably consume the entire day.
* Tue 12/7 - a flight from Lae to Rabaul.
* Wed 13/7 - Thur 14/7 - Rabaul and its surroundings. Visiting the Mask Festival and maybe diving.
* Fri 15/7 - Flight from Rabaul to Kavieng
* Sat 16/7 - Sun 17/7 - Kavieng. Visiting another festival, and maybe some more dives.
* Mon 18/7 - Flight from Kavieng to Wewak. As there is no direct flight, it will probably need to go through several connection.
* Tue 19/7 - Taking a PMV ride of 3-4 hours from Wewak to Angorum, a village on the Sepik river.
* Wed 20/7 - Fri 22/7 - Sailing a Canoe on the Sepik, the base point is Angorum and heading probably to the village of Tambanum. By friday evening I should be back at Angorum.
* Sat 23/4 - taking the PMV back from Angorum to Wewak.
* Sun 24/7 - taking a flight from Wewak to Port Moresby, with direct connection to the flight from Port Moresby back to Cairns.

As you notice, I skip the most dangerous part of PNG - the city of Port Moresby; I plan not to leave the airport there.
I am still not sure wether I should fly to Mount Hagen or directly to Goroka.
I also still have to find out where exactly I can drink the water there, and where they must be boiled; Malaria is probably a great danger anywhere in this country.

This tour is going to be extremely expensive because of all the domestic flights; but it is necessary if I am to cover all three major areas of PNG: the highlands, the islands, and the Sepik, as well as attending the festivals. The Sepik in particular is going to be very expensive and challenging.

If you got to read that far in this post, you probably know already what I did in the last two days: what I didn’t do at home - a quite extensive study of PNG. For this I spent much time bugging people - from Air Niugini flight agents (yes, they come so PNG, so I correctly assumed they should know a thing or two about their country; and they are extremely nice and patient) to local travel agents that usually sell packages to PNG, but kindly helped me prepare my tour eventhough I did not book it with them.

Besides, I also saw the War of the Worlds movie, an experience which I recommend to skip (you can easily find a better way to spend a couple of hours); and I met many of people I know from my journey - there were Dash and Sheena from Fraser (enjoy your journey to NZ!), Sylva and Anuk from the Whitsundays (Hope you had an easy flight back to Europe!) as well as three of the dutch guys from the Whitsundays (find your lift quickly!). I also spent some nights partying at local nightclubs (their music volume is much less loud than in Israel, and indeed there is much less smoke here, too); but I am not that great a clubber.

I am now to continue my PNG preparations, and maybe tomorrow I will start really looking into Cairns and its surroundings.