Next Stop Vanimo

I organise a flight from Wewak to Vanimo which is an outpost to the north-east on the Irian Jaya border. To get there, we have to board a Piaggio, an Italian made airplane that has the propeller at the back, pushing the plane trough the air, rather than pulling it like conventional airplanes. It seats about eight people and takes about an hour and a half to get to Vanimo. Phil and I are the only two passengers and Phil sits up front next to the pilot. I stretch out at the back.

Ansett Piaggio takes us to Vanimo

  Vanimo has an Australian Army Base, a pub, a gaol. and a timber logging company. The only air conditioning is in the army base. We book into the pub, next to the gaol not far from the beach. Vanimo is a pretty place especially at sunset, when the sun shines low on the horizon through the coconut palms  near the beach. I take lots of photos.

We only stay a couple of days in Vanimo changing the motor bearings of the air conditioning unit at the army base. Our spare time is occupied drinking on the verandah of the pub, watching the prisoners next door working in the yard of the jail. It’s the only jail I have ever seen, where there are no walls just huts. The prisoners all wear blue overalls with strange markings on them.. I ask the publican why they are not escaping. They’re too well fed, he says and in any case, where would they go? Very strange that.