Trip to Segari in PNG (part 1)

Hi everyone,

Finally found time to write on the blog. The pace has not stopped here with something new happening everyday. This rotation has been less fun and more work. Well, I did get a Sunday off to get out of town about three weeks ago. I went with some friends to a park that is the start of the Kokoda trail. The trail is the old trail the Australians used to fight off the Japanese during World War II. From this point the Australian army could fire canons and hit their target three mountain ranges over. Now the trail is used by adventure group to hike across the mountains to the other coast. It's a 10 day hike through some of the toughest jungles and forests around. One of the guys that went with us is a guide for an adventure group out of Australia. He says the trip is long, hard, and not for the timid. It costs about $3000.00 per person to go on this trek.

From there we went back down the mountain to a small village called Segari and to the the Crystal Falls park. Segari had an open market to walk through. Most of the vendor were selling vegetables, smoked fish, and other items they have grown or made. Of course there were the betel nut vendors selling their products too. 

So, on with the show:

 One of our first stops was to visit the memorial cemetery for the Australian solders that fought during WW II. Most of the head stones depict unknown solders.

 On higher ground is this cross overlooking the graves. The landscape was beautiful around the area.

 Further up the hill was the memoral for all the PNG people that also fought in the war. The columns are lined with bronze plaques with names of all the people involved.

This is a typical head stone for the majority of the graves. Unknown solders from the war.
 

 We left the memorial and headed up the mountain toward the start of the Kokoda trail. Above is a typical road side stand. this one sells vegetable. All the fruit and vegetable stands have items that the families grow.

 This is the main road we traveled to our next stop. Yes, it is a dirt road up the hill that is barely wide enough for two small cars to pass on. There were some paved parts, but, they were full of ruts and some were slow getting through. During the rainy season this road is sometimes not drivable.
 

 

The next stopping point was a viewpoint the one of the largest waterfalls on the island. These two girls were the gate keepers to the entrance of the viewpoint. It cost 2 kina per person to walk down the path to the viewpoint. Later I found out from our guide that they actually do keep the area clean and tidy and they get paid for their work by people like us coming to see the waterfall. 

This was the best viewpoint of the fall I could find. the path was steep and part of it was on a rock edge that went strait down to a viewpoint landing. The water is coming from a lake higher up the mountain.

We finally got to the top of the mountain. Well, top of the hill at least. This the the start of the Kokoda trail. The trail goes over the furthest mountain you see in picture and then down to the ocean on the other side. Our guide said we should climb down to the stream. I looked down the trail and it was mud, wet grass, and pretty steep. I declined to go. Also I was wearing my sandals at the time. The other 4 people started down an ended up sliding most of the way. It took them about 10 minutes to climb up the 100 yards they slid down.

 After getting muddy (of course I was clean) we went to the market in Segari. Here you could buy all the fruit and vegetables you need plus other items.

 This is local river fish that have been dried. There were a few stands selling the fish.

 These two ladies were selling home made donuts. There in the buckets in front. No, I did not try one. I am a little leery of eating any of the local food. 

This family were selling potatoes and some leaf I couldn't pronounce.

This is the back side of the market area. All the products are locally grown.

And there is always a betel nut stand with ample supply of nut, lime, and mustard stick.

These two teenage girls didn't know I was taking their picture until the third click of the camera. When they saw I was taking pictures they hid there faces and started laughing. Their a little shy.

As we left the market I couldn't resist this shot. Mom and baby waving bye.

There is a part two to this blog. I will be working on some more pictures and posting soon.

Take care,
Ken

Okay... I'm back.....

Hi all,

This tour has been a whirlwind of work. Got back to work and found nothing had been done while I was gone. We had 3 incidents in January while I was gone. Plus all the daily paperwork, equipment certifications, and programs I started fell through the cracks. It's taken me a month to get back to where I was before. I guess I can't leave anymore.

So... I haven't taken many pictures of the area; only work stuff. My days have been getting up at 4 am; be at work by 5am; have tool box talks with the crew; go to meetings; go back to my room around 7pm; and in bed by 8:30pm only to start over the next day.

The weather has been interesting here. When I arrived it was a monsoon. In a matter of 3 hours it dropped 6 inches of rain; flooded downtown PortMoresby; and made it difficult to get to camp. The next day, the sun was out and the humidity was about 90 percent. It's been raining like this on and off since I've been here. The temperature has been cool at night, around 78 degrees, but, the days get up to around 95. With the humidity on top of the heat we have a feel like temperature of 105 degrees or more. Really strange weather here.

Clouds before and after storms 

This is my new background on my laptop. This storm came in and dumped 3 inches of rain in 45 minutes.

Another cloud formation that ended up dropping enough rain to cause no vision while driving. Simular to a white out when it snows hard.

This formed after a storm passed through the night before.

I thought this was a cool cloud formation also.



 Everyday the sky has a new appearance here. The sunrises are dramatic as well as the sunsets. It's hard to pick and choose which ones to photograph.

I also have some pictures of the largest crane on site. It can lift 600 metric tons. And a picure of a pumper truck that we use for pouring concrete.

This is Big Red. It lifts 600 metric tons and the yellow crane in front can lift 250 metric tons. Red is the biggest crane on the site. The tracks on big red are taller than I am.

.Here is our crew working with a pump truck pouring 120 cubic metes of concrete.

The next picture is a girl that works in our office. Her name is Aiva. Aiva is 23, married, and with child. Two weeks ago she was at a conference on-site and started to hemorage. She went to the on-site clinic for help and could not get the help she needed. The clinic told her to get to the general hospital where she could get looked after. However, the clinic on-site would not provide any medical transportation. By this time the hemorage had stopped and the doctor felt it was safe to tranport her. Myself and two other people transported her via company van to the hospital. We spent four hours with her trying to get through the crowds of people at the hospital to get her check out.  We were able to get her to the front of the line for her examination because of where she worked and some persuasive talk from  me. Once she was in proper care and her mother arrived, we left. Later that day we found out she lost her baby because of the complication. I was amazed to here this is not uncommon in this country. The hospital we took her too was a sight to see with all the women there waiting to be seen by a doctor. I heard some of the women waiting to see the gynocologist have been there 2 days waiting for there appointments. It's a sad sight to see.

Aiva is doing well. She is back to work and moving forward with her life. Here is a picure of her I took at work a few days ago.

Aiva Avia

On the brighter side, the next two pictures are of Nembo and Peter. Both guys are our top welders in the shop. They keep everything under control duing our hectic times of production.

This is Peter.

this is Nimbo

Well thats it for now. Need to get some sleep. Hope you enjoy the pictures in this session. I will be writng soon to show my one day trip to Seguri village just outside of Port Moresby.

Take care.

Ken