Another Adventure

I am in charge of this trip so I have to do the expense sheets every week for the company. I have to send them down to Port Moresby to Dave Scott for approval. One week, I make a mistake of 5 cents in our favour. I wasn’t aware of this until I get a letter from Dave telling me I made a mistake of 5 cents in our favour and asks me to correct the mistake next week. The letter has a 7-cent stamp on it. I’m beginning to wonder! Of course, next week I forget and the expense sheet still shows 5 cents in our favour. I get another letter from Dave with another 7-cent stamp on it telling me I still had a mistake of 5 cents in our favour, he wants me to fix the problem and adds …don’t do that again. Maybe I should enclose two 7-cent stamps with my next expense report for his troubles.

We’re at the bar one evening and John is telling some other guests that he is organising a trip to a native village and a walk in the jungle. He asks Phil and myself if we want to come too. Of course we agree. Saturday morning we’re in John’s Landrover, six of us driving out of town into the hills of New Guinea. We’re parking by the side and start walking up into the mountains, for about an hour when we come to a village amongst the coconut trees.

Village near Madang

It’s different from the village we visited in New Britain near Rabaul. This one is much larger and in front of most of the huts, there are native women engaged in making pottery. They are making all sorts of pots, vases and things. John explains they work for the Madang tourist shops, selling these items to visitors, mainly Americans passing through on boats.

The huts are about a meter off the ground on bamboo poles, the roofs are made with banana leaves and the windows are just holes in the walls. Each hut has a set of timber stairs to get down. The huts are built all around the village square

There are lots of children in the village gathering around us, chattering and showing off. Typical of children everywhere in the world. The mothers are in their huts keeping an eye out for the children. There is a large village square and it looks very clean.

We continue up the hill to a lookout from where we have the most glorious view over Madang in the distance and over the ocean. But what amazes me the most is all the little seashells everywhere on the ground. I point it out to the others and nobody has an explanation of how these millions of seashells got on top of this mountain, not even our host John Barlow. Most of them are crushed but there are still lots of them intact. An incredible sight.

Women making pottery for American Tourists

I am intrigued by this. We ponder the question for some time. The only solution we derive at is that at some time in the past, the mountain must have been formed by a volcano, lifting the landmass up high similar to that small island in Rabaul harbour that came up out of the water in 24 hours as many local people tell you.

We return back to the village and the other visitors buy some pots from the native women and finally walk back to the Landrover and drive into Madang again, it was another great day.