PNG

OK, so I've been a tad inactive on the blog this past year. But I promise things will be different in the coming year as I will be based at the Institute of Business Studies in Port Moresby, PNG. I had been planning to fly out on Tuesday but the visa which I thought had been issued and was just waiting for me to pick up at the PNG Consulate in Brisbane, hadn't actually been issued at all. However, it should be processed and stuck in my passport which I couriered up to Brisbane last Friday with various documents proclaiming I have no police record, I don't have HIV or TB along with other docs, sometime this coming week. At this stage I'm hoping to fly up in about ten days or so.

I will be seconded to IBS and my role is Academic Director, largely overseeing the delivery and examination of two SCU degrees. My role also has capacity building and mentoring aspects to it, and I'm looking forward to a somewhat different role this coming year. Of course I'm also hoping to be able to spend some time exploring this amazing country and seeing some of its extraordinary wildlife. So buckle your seat belts - 2016 could be an adventurous ride!

Some animal observations

This bell is home to four micro bats, possibly bent wing bats. They took up residence in the past week or so, their occupation betrayed by the droppings that had accumulated on the railing and decking below them. Initially we thought rodents but then when we carefully peered inside the bell, we saw the four little faces of the bats.  Occasionally they have a bit of an argument just as they leave the bell for their nocturnal hunting.
We have also had a pair of whip-birds resident along the southern side of the house where the hydrangeas grow. Both birds are often visible sitting along the railing outside my office or even peering at their reflection in the sliding glass door of our bedroom.  It's lovely to see these birds so close to the house.
I was stung by a bunch of paper wasps as I mowed under the calistemon from which their nest dangled, yesterday. Enough said.
And Steve saw a python behind the shed yesterday as well.

Rainfall Figures for 2015

January      160.5
February    352.5
March          74
April          107.5
May           194.5
June             65
July             34
August        37
September  92
October     107
November 179
December  150.5

Total 1553.5

2014: 1029.5
2013: 1638
2012: 1573
2011: 1777.5
2010: 1687
2009: 1500

So, wetter than last year (which was by far the driest year we have had) but broadly similar to the rest of the years we have been here. The most distinctive feature of 2015's rainfall was the wetter winter and spring.

Max

 Max was our HelpXer who arrived in late November and stayed until the 30 December. He comes from Paris and enjoyed Larnook life very much. We hadn't had any HelpXer for quite some time so there was plenty for Max to do, especially since we had had a wet spring. That means lots of weed growth and lots of grass growth.  Soon after Max arrived we surprised him with his very own pile of mulch (15 cubic metres to be precise) which he spread over the Big Bush Garden with enthusiasm and dexterity. He also dabbled in the kitchen, creating this very delicious quiche lorraine.

 
 We were able to take Max on a few trips while he was here. I took him up to Border Ranges National Park to walk the Barr Mountain circuit and to enjoy the view from the Pinnacle Lookout. We also took him to Brisbane so he could enjoy his first live theatre (musical of course) performance - Les Miserables. While musical theatre may not have been to his particular taste, he still enjoyed the experience quite a bit and was able to follow the story. We stayed in a cute little airbnb place just near Southbank.  Max also enjoyed a Very Markwell Christmas, and is no doubt still enjoying the many boxes of chocolates he received from the various members of the Markwell clan.

The last Big Adventure was with our friends, Grant and Kelly, who stayed with us for new years. I took them all out to one of my favourite national parks in the region, Bald Rock, where we walked the Bald Mountain summit trail, having lunch at the summit in the company of Cunningham's Skinks. Not content with this walk, we then embarked on a walk to Little Bald Rock, about 4 kms from the picnic area. It was a great view from LBR and following a munchy break we decided to continue walking the Carol's Creek Walk, which Grant, Kelly and I were sure was only a few kilometres until we came to the end of the loop.  How wrong we were!  That circuit was 23kms in length and we didn't get back to the car till 5.30. I dreaded driving the 2.5hr drive back home, but we made it safe and sound around 8.00pm.  Although Max was a tad anxious as we walked the track, he was triumphant when we finally made it back home.  He had never walked so far in one day all his life.
We drove Max back to Gold Coast airport on 30 December where he flew down to Melbourne to enjoy NYE and catch up with some French backpacker friends. He is now enjoying a HelpX position in Cairns. We plan to visit Max and his family when we visit France in 2017.

Vanuatu II

 The next morning at 7.15 I started my trek around the island.  I'd asked Anok if it were possible to walk around the island and he told me it could be done but I would need to leave early so I could walk at low tide. Much of the western edge of the island was beaches and easy to walk on but

 on the eastern side the beaches were few and far between and I had to clamber up and over these rocky headlands on about three or four occasions.  My shoes weren't the greatest for climbing over wet basalt boulders but I was determined to walk the island so when I came to each headland I assessed it for the best route and then made my way slowly up and around each one.  I was pleased with my problem solving abilities actually.  I was having my own little Vanuatu Survivor experience.

 Two of the villages are situated on the eastern side of the island and this one was idyllic. The houses were set amongst pandanus and palms on clean white sand.

 Of course one of the highlights was finding this banded sea snake on the sand amongst some boulders.  These are reasonably common but it was my first.  Actually no it was my second. I once found some kids on a beach in Bali who had caught one and had somehow manage to slide it inside a plastic soft drink container.

 People on islands such as this one actually experience climate change in a much more direct way than those of us in the West, who, by and large, still talk about it in more abstract terms.  The sea level had noticeably risen on this island and the times when they grow certain vegetables has changed.  Part of the sea off this island was protected in a marine park and a program was underway to 'plant' more corals that had been lost to bleaching.

 I returned to Efate and then on the next day I took this cruise on the yacht, Coongoola, to Moso Island, yet another of the islands just off Efate.  This was a great day and we visited a turtle hatchery before going around to the other side of the island

 where we disembarked the yacht and boated over to this stunning beach where we had a BBQ lunch. Two snorkelling trips were made from this beach.  They boated us about 10 minutes to a coral reef which was just absolutely stunning!  It was literally like floating over a coral garden.  The colours of the corals were stunning and were similar to the amazing corals off Pemuteran on the northern coast of Bali.  But not so many fish...still lots but not as many as Pemuteran.  This is the island where Survivor Vanuatu was filmed - all three or four versions: Americam, English and French versions.

 And now just a few random pics of Port Vila.  The first is part of the huge vegetable and fruit market in the centre of town that operates pretty much 24/7 six days a week.  The stalls are mainly staffed by women who come in from surrounding villages on the island to sell their surplus. They sleep under the tables at night.

 This is Bosco, the guide who took me and three others on an 'ecotour' of some villages.  He was excellent - very good communicator with a great sense of humour.  He carried his bush knife (machete) with him of course.

 I was surprised to learn that Chinese immigration had taken place over the past few decades.  The Chinese own and run many if not most of the retail shops in Port Vila and according to the local ni-Van people, they tend to keep to themselves and not integrate into the community.

The Secret Garden contained lots of local custom stories including this one...not much more to be said, really......

Vanuatu I

 My little trip to Vanuatu was meant to be a short relaxing holiday in tropical weather but alas I hadn't done enough research - August is the coolest time of year with max temps averaging around 24-25.  Which is still pleasant of course but I had been hoping for high 20s/low 30s.  This shot is taken on Pele Island, a small island off the northern tip of Efate, which is the island I holidayed on but I stayed on Pele for one night.  The weather over that weekend and the Monday was the best of the 6 days - warmer temperatures and mostly blue skies.  I'll come to Pele a bit later.

Getting to Vanuatu was somewhat problematic.  The captain made two attempts at landing but aborted both (due to low cloud and low levels of visibility) and then told us he would have to fly to Fiji and then sort things out from there. The flight time to Nadi airport was 90 minutes.  Customs guys came on board shortly after we landed and gave the cabin a good spraying and then we sat for three hours while the captain tried to negotiate with Port Vila airport to return to land.  We were told that Vila had a 6.00pm curfew and so special dispensation would be needed for us to land.  Eventually he gave us the bad news that not only could we not return to Port Vila but because of a lack of accommodation, we were not able to overnight in Fiji, meaning we would have to fly back to Brisbane, which was another four hour flight.

So after spending 11 hours in a plane we ended up back where we began.  We weren't a bunch of happy campers, I can tell you.  While Virgin did put us up at a 4.5 star hotel and gave us a meal voucher to spend at the hotel, by the time we got there (having endured waits to (i) get our luggage (ii) go through immigration (iii) get sorted at the airport in regards to the hotel (iv) drive back into Brisbane city to the hotel and (v) check in, it was well after 10pm, so all the cafes and restaurants at the hotel were closed and the room service menu was an 'after 10' menu, meaning I had a toasted sandwich and a beer.  The other thing that annoyed us was that we weren't given any complimentary anything on board the flight from Fiji to Brisbane....so if you wanted anything (such as a pie or a drink) you had to pay for it.  Not happy, Jan.

 Anyway, the 8.30am flight managed to land in Port Vila, even though the weather conditions looked remarkably similar to those of the day before, so many of us weren't convinced that we would actually land.  I stayed in a hotel called The Melanesian, which was very well located, being about a 5 minute stroll into the main street of Vila.  If I was to stay on Efate again, I would stay at a resort, I think, so I could more easily access beaches and the water.

 The main street of Port Vila still showed evidence of Cyclone Pam's ferocity with this building behind the original parliament house (the very small building with the mural) abandoned because of damage (it had been the location of the Department of Finance and Treasury).  Most of the buildings along the main drag were one, two or three storeys high.  The highest building was a hotel.  I felt very safe at all times.  the roads are incredibly pot holed though, as you can imagine, with the kind of weather that the town has to deal with.

 Without a car, you are pretty much dependent on commercial tour companies to take you to the attractions.  I did a couple of half day tours including this one to Mele Cascades - don't you think it looks a little like Gandalf the wizard from Harry Potter?

 The tour also took in the Secret Gardens, which was an interesting guided interpretive tour that is situated on a tropical plant nursery.  In addition to the many many interpretive signs, there are also a number of enclosures with local animal species including this Pacific boa, one of only two snakes on the island.  I'd kind of forgotten my island biogeography theory which tells you that oceanic islands formed out of coral atolls or volcanoes and far from larger land masses are going to be fairly low in terrestrial animal species.  So, yeah, not much in the way of land animals on the many Vanuatu islands.

 One of the highlights was to see this amazing fire show at a place called the Beach Bar, about 20 minutes out of town.  The group of fire workers performed to a range of contemporary western music, so it was good to see they weren't 'locked into' performing only so-called traditional forms of dance.  They were all in their late teens/early 20s and from local villages.

 As I said, I made it across to Pele Island where I spent one night and a couple of days. Getting there involved a taxi drive of about an hour to a small jetty and a 15 minute boat trip.  There's about 400 people who live on the island, across four villages and a few people have built some very low key 'bungalows' right on the beach.  I was the only white fella on the island during the time I was there.  It was fantastic.

 I spent much of the time reading and relaxing and eating the scrum my food that Anoch's wife, Joanna, prepared for me. I had a couple of unsuccessful attempts to snorkel but the water was just too choppy to be enjoyable.

 This is my little beach shack.  The toilet and shower were in a separate out house where I am standing to take this picture. No electricity of course but I had a little light by which I could continue reading.  But I literally fell asleep by about 8.30/9.00pm.

Th

 Some of the beach had the most beautiful pink tinge to it which was caused by pink quartz amongst the sand.  I'm looking out towards another island about 10 minutes north of my bungalow.

And a rather lovely sunset to end a rather perfect day.

Larnook in August

Sunday has failed miserably to match the sunshine and warmth of yesterday. One of those days when it is cooler inside the house than outside.  Which is where I was for much of the morning. Starting with taking advantage of Julia having stayed over after dinner and a movie, to help us move the boys from the front paddock into the Billen Cliffs paddock. Where the grass is greener. And longer. They were largely well behaved and if they hadn't been, Bluey would have kept them in line. Then it was mowing down by the creek. Accomplished without too much drama. Though I need to take the brush cutter for a visit down there sometime in the next month or so.  Weeds. Lantana. Vines. Yuck. Chooka now lives by himself.  The remaining two girls died a few weeks ago. We won't be getting any more hens. Though I hanker after some cute little bantams. But not yet. It's not time. So we let Chooka wander around during the day. He is mostly OK. But there is the occasional over-enthusiastic scratching out of mulch or soil around a shrub or tree.  But he is happy. No sign yet of any reptilian activity. Other than the carpet that took to sunning itself out from the pine tree garden.  My captive blue tongues are yet to show signs of courtship. Or fighting. They give each other a hiding during courtship time. No HelpXers for quite some time and none on the horizon. Hopefully we shall host some soon. There is lots to do. To get the place looking its best for spring. We are still waiting on a visit from the self-proclaimed 'Tank Doctor'. Yes, we have a sick tank. Water tank that is. And I guess it's injured rather than sick. It has a hole.  We no longer have any water in it. Luckily we have another tank filled with the bore. After a lot of doctoring, Steve and Julia managed to re-shunt the water pipes and rejigged the pumps so that the bore water now services all our aquatic needs. For the time being anyway. Until the tank doctor gets here.