KIMBE BAY IN WEST NEW BRITAIN –

We stayed at Walindi Plantation Resort not cheap but the only option in accommodation since they have stopped tourists staying next door at the Research Centre (which was very cheap and almost identical). 

The grounds had numerous relics from WW2 but owners didn’t know much about them even though they acquired them. You would think if you went to the trouble of collecting them it would be worth knowing what they are! Engines from a Beaufighter, found at nearby WW2 airfield.

Lovely bungalows, overlooking the ocean and lovely gardens too.  Birdwatching, snorkelling, hot springs, volcano hikes – plenty to do.

Such a shame though in the area to see so much palm oil plantation. But at least they are chopping some back down to make buffer zones as they now realise the damage to the environment.

Trucks take kids to school, all crammed in the back – and the roads have more holes than tarmac – rough trip. Kids were having a ball laughing and singing, they must really like school or at least trip to it.

Everywhere you go the people wave at you, if possible they will all shake your hand and tell you their name.  They also all love their photo being taken – apparently they believe it makes them famous as it will be seen in other countries. Facebook rules OK

Out birding in various areas, the locals are very friendly and all seem to appreciate us being there. Again the birds are hard to find but luckily the accommodation bird guide is good. There were lots of hornbills high in trees – no good shots but you hear them coming – the loudest wing noise I have ever heard. Much louder than other hornbill species that we have seen.

First snorkelling trip out to the house reef – about 15 mins boat ride.  Amazing corals and interesting life. I had a lady guide who showed me lots of nudibranch’s which I have not really encountered before. Large lobsters and interesting fish.  Minor problem – when I put the photos on the computer I realised that I had not set the camera to autofocus. That was a disaster and resulted in everything being out of focus and no good. Real shame but good excuse to go again.

Second trip to house reef unfortunately was not as flat, or clear as the first day but still good and got a few passable photos.

The food here is all included smorgesboard – and really pretty bad to our way of thinking.  Good for my figure as I am hardly eating anything.

Next a trip up the volcano. Our bird guide came part way and tried to explain to the local guide to go slow (they are very fit, fast and young).  He told him we liked to find birds, butterflies, fungi etc.

The hike is up 560 meters and 11 kms return of steep climbing and steep descent. In other wordsit meant we needed a walking stick. The guide cut us one from the surrounding growth. Without one could have been a disaster. The first bit through fruit and veggie gardens then through thick jungle.  Our guide had to keep making “New path” with his machete.  Of course it is humid being tropical, but cloudy so not too bad.  Even though our bird guide mentioned about the speed as soon as he left, the other guide sped up the pace and kept saying we were too slow.  We felt like we were on a marathon and had no time to look for anything.  On top of that I got blisters on my heels and ended up having to take paracetamol to keep going (they are still not totally healed after 1 month, think I went through a few layers).

Even with all that it was really worth the climb, an active sulphur volcano – not lava and very impressive.

Unfortunately due to the blisters we could not then go out to Restorf Island to snorkel, shame as it supposed to be amazing and much better than the house reef.

We did do a trip to see 2 x WWII bombers that were left behind after the war. Steve thought it was brilliant and took lots of Photographs.

Another trip from this resort was a 10min drive to a location at night where there were thousands of fire flies – I have never seen so many, pretty amazing. Very hard to photograph.

We also visited Garu Hot Springs – a river flowing through the jungle that is a constant 28 degrees and very beautiful, unspoilt and no people.

Off to East New Britain. Not originally on our schedule at all, but Air Nuigini changed the routing. This resulted in changing from flying from Kimbe Bay straight back to Port Moresby to routing through Rabaul in East New Britain.

Not one to worry about getting the luck to see another place we booked into the Kokopo Plantation Resort (owned by the same people as our first hotel the Sanctuary in PM).  It was the cheapest place there was.  The rooms were a little motel like but the location stunning and other facilities great.  I would have loved to have time to do some snorkelling there – especially as you can get close to large pods of spinner dolphins.

We had planned to climb the volcano here (much smaller than the one in Kimbe) but due to blisters I could not get shoes on so this was also off the agenda.

 Instead we went to the war museum which was interesting and it also housed natural history and colonial artefacts which were fascinating. Shame that a lot of the artefacts are deteriorating outside