It has been a few months since we were 'on the road' or 'all at sea', so it is with great excitement that we depart on the P&O Encounter, bound for Papua New Guinea. Many of you will know that Jim lived and worked in PNG during the 1980s, so for him it is a welcome back. And for Penny, on her first visit to the country, it is a voyage of discovery.
Following two and a half days at sea when we ate Italian, Asian and Luke Mangan's mouthwatering eye fillet, drank Victorian merlot, listened to great live music, saw a fabulous stage show and played Rummikub, it was time to drop anchor at the first of our four ports.
Then, as a tropical low was forming in the Coral Sea, the Captain announced a slight change to our itinerary. Our first port of call on Saturday was to be the town of Alotau on the PNG mainland, but we swapped this with our Sunday port of call the Conflict Islands. The atoll comprises 21 islands which are privately owned by Australian millionaire Ian Gary-Smith. The second biggest island, Panasesa, which we would visit, houses the Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative (CICI), an Australian registered charity that supports the research and protection of sea turtles, manta rays, epaulette (walking) sharks and coral. It also operated a marine debris program. The island is uninhabited except for research staff and local rangers.
Prior to our visit to Panasesa, we attended a talk onboard the ship by Olly, an Australian Marine Biologist who works on the island from time to time. She talked us through the various programs on the island and told us that since 2021 the CICI has tagged over 2,000 turtles and released over 250,000 turtle hatchlings into the sea. Turtles are still poached in PNG for their shells and the CICI runs nightly ranger patrols to try to stop this from happening.
We learned that coral, an animal, forms a symbiotic relationship with microscopic algae called Zooxanthellae. These algae perform photosynthesis (converting sunlight into energy) and produce nutrients that feed the coral. The coral in turn protects the algae and provides them with access to sunlight. When the water becomes too warm, the Zooxanthellae leave the coral, which die from starvation: this is what causes coral bleaching. The CICI has built four coral nurseries where coral is regrown and replanted into the sea to try to combat this bleaching. For more information about the work of the CICI go to: Conflict Islands Conservation Initiative.
There are no large docking facilities at Panasesa, so we took a ten-minute tender ride to this tiny paradise (think Gilligan's Island) which is on 1.2kms from north to south and 1km from east to west. Despite its size, our very knowledgeable guide Manu took us on a good walk whilst he explained the history of the islands, their participation in WW2 and various tidbits of information about the people and their customs. We passed the landing strip as we walked on well-worn sandy paths beneath swaying palm trees, which kept the heat somewhat at bay.
At the end of our tour Manu took us to a market garden with an undercover picnic area and provided us each with a cold coconut in which he inserted a straw (delicious), and a shared plate of fresh and papaya, pineapple, banana, watermelon and pomelo (equally delicious).
Manu then demonstrated the PNG tradition of chewing betel nut. He peeled the green nut and whilst chewing the centre, dipped a mustard stick in lime (not the fruit kind, but crushed shell similar to the lime we put on our gardens) and chewed it as well. This is what causes the red colour that changes the local's teeth to brown. Betel nut is addictive and unfortunately children as young as 10 are taking up the habit.
Apart from the research station and the turtle hatchery, there is a small eco-tourism resort comprising just a few lovely timber huts, and a couple of other makeshift buildings. As we were about to leave to walk back to the pier, we experienced a typical afternoon storm, so we spent the next twenty minutes standing in a queue for the tender, trying to stay dry!
The next morning we docked at the mainland town of Alotau, which has a population of 16,000. Our shore excursion to the Lik Lik Festival had been cancelled, perhaps because it was a Sunday and most of the shops and businesses were also closed. However, we left the ship and walked for a few kilometres in 31C with 79PC humidity until we couldn't take it anymore and headed back. But along the way we visited a large, busy air-conditioned supermarket, a charming waterfront pub, watched local dancers and wandered by market stalls selling mostly betel nut and cigarettes. Mid-afternoon a storm rolled in so we were glad we were back on board.
Our third port of call was the island of Kiriwina, the largest of the Trobriand Islands with a population of close to 10,000. But, as we sailed towards the island in the early hours of the morning, we could hear rain lashing the balcony doors and occasional thunder joined by occasional flashes of lightning. Just after 7.30am the captain announced he was cancelling the port as the sea was too rough to use the tender boats for the 30-minute journey to the island.
At the same time, we read that Cyclone Alfred had finally formed 840kms off Cairns and was expected to track east - but the BOM wasn't really sure what it would do next. So, we sailed on towards Rabaul.
Rabaul is a township in the East New Britain province of PNG, on the island of New Britain. It was built on the volatile Rabaul Caldera. Its current population is 7,900. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in the province until in 1994, 80% of its buildings were destroyed by falling ash when the Tavurvur Volcano erupted in its harbour. The capital was then moved 20kms away to Kokopo.
Rabaul continues to be threatened by volcanic activity with its last large eruption occurring in 2014. Its other active volcano is called Vulcan, and there have been three double eruptions since 1858. We cruised into Rabaul Caldera early on Tuesday morning. The scenery is magnificent, made all the more so by the imposing Tavurvur Volcano, which was smoking from two vents.
