Thales
Past President
Eight days and nearly 24 hours underwater have passed and we are on our way from PNG to Brisbane. The trip has been great, and the travel gruling. SF to Sydney. Sidney to Brisbane. Brisbane to Port Moresby. Port Moresby to Alotau. All by different planes. Then Alotau to the dive resort - 2 hours by car and 30 minutes by boat. No we are in the middle of leaving the resort; Resort to Alotau, Alotau to Port Moresby (with a 7 hour layover), Port Moresby to Brisbane and a 2 hour drive to a farm.
The diving was great! Nice operation that allows you to dive till you decide to come up. Longest muck dive - 96 minutes. Great reefs too. Very healthy with way too much life. I got just about every sickness possible. Massive headaches while diving that went away when we decide to dive nitrox. I perforated my left ear on dive 4, but didn't let it stop me, and started taking antibiotics just in case. Had a bout with something horrible in my guts that I was sure would stop me from diving, but it evaporated after 6 psychedelic hours. Saw; manta, 2 species of pigmy sea horse, pegasus sea moths, 2 species of ghost pipe, rinos, nudis galore, crocodile fish, lionfish, frogfish, great clams, turtles, mating mandarins, cuttles, octopus fighting, bobtail squid, mantas and more fish than have a right to exist in one place. The new camera worked great, and it was very nice to video in HD and be able to snap pictures at the same time. We highly recommend the Tawali resort and dive crew.
The kid has been a champ in travel and in adventure. She got to see more of PNG than we did! Everyday while we were diving, she and her 'minder' would go to the beach, eat pancakes for lunch, and even walk the 3 miles to the local village to play with her friends. On non diving days we hiked to skull caves and swam in waterfalls. For the times where she has been grumpy, the Ipod video has been invaluable because its small, light and full of kid show goodness (and some stuff for me when I was grumpy!)
PNG is very strange, culturally speaking. All of the social cues that we are used to mean completely nothing and territoriality is important. On top of that, each island speaks a different language. If someone looks at you and doesn't smile, you have no idea what they are feeling.
Currently, I am sitting in a 'day hotel' in Port Moresby using expensive internet to post some pictures. More when its possible as we move from Brisbane back to Sydney!
OK - some pics fresh out of the camera:
More at http://www.stickycricket.com/png_pics/
;D
The diving was great! Nice operation that allows you to dive till you decide to come up. Longest muck dive - 96 minutes. Great reefs too. Very healthy with way too much life. I got just about every sickness possible. Massive headaches while diving that went away when we decide to dive nitrox. I perforated my left ear on dive 4, but didn't let it stop me, and started taking antibiotics just in case. Had a bout with something horrible in my guts that I was sure would stop me from diving, but it evaporated after 6 psychedelic hours. Saw; manta, 2 species of pigmy sea horse, pegasus sea moths, 2 species of ghost pipe, rinos, nudis galore, crocodile fish, lionfish, frogfish, great clams, turtles, mating mandarins, cuttles, octopus fighting, bobtail squid, mantas and more fish than have a right to exist in one place. The new camera worked great, and it was very nice to video in HD and be able to snap pictures at the same time. We highly recommend the Tawali resort and dive crew.
The kid has been a champ in travel and in adventure. She got to see more of PNG than we did! Everyday while we were diving, she and her 'minder' would go to the beach, eat pancakes for lunch, and even walk the 3 miles to the local village to play with her friends. On non diving days we hiked to skull caves and swam in waterfalls. For the times where she has been grumpy, the Ipod video has been invaluable because its small, light and full of kid show goodness (and some stuff for me when I was grumpy!)
PNG is very strange, culturally speaking. All of the social cues that we are used to mean completely nothing and territoriality is important. On top of that, each island speaks a different language. If someone looks at you and doesn't smile, you have no idea what they are feeling.
Currently, I am sitting in a 'day hotel' in Port Moresby using expensive internet to post some pictures. More when its possible as we move from Brisbane back to Sydney!
OK - some pics fresh out of the camera:
More at http://www.stickycricket.com/png_pics/
;D
