Day 5: Bundi Forest

The next day Brus was sufficiently recovered to make the steep journey to the 1,700m site. This was my favourite forest. The temperature was nice and fresh. Tree ferns started appearing, it was mossy, and the mist gave it a lovely atmosphere.



Bundi airstrip. Fancy landing on that baby? Actually, it hasn't been used for 10 years due to road access, so it's probably a bit bumpy



The photo on the left is at the 1,700m mark. A couple of times the fog completely cleared but quickly descended again. I preferred it foggy



A impressive fruiting ficus (left).



Love this pict.



Me looking like a total gimp near a large tree (okay, not big by NZ Kauri standards, but big for here)




Just after sunset back at the guesthouse

Day 4: Around Bundi

Welcome to St. Franny's Dr. Doolittle-based community school and mission with lovely nuns (unlike the apparently heinous nuns of yore)

Due to Brus having a bad knee (or 'nee bilong em bagarap' in Pidgin!), we had a relaxing day around Bundi while he recovered.



Here is the mission guesthouse, looking like a big chrome C-shaped angel with no wings. The kids take a quick break from school to look at the silly white man.



The school 'bell' and buildings



More children enthralled by my presence. Our most excellent driver, ex-president of Bundi and general good egg, Alois, a man born "around '72, '73, something like that". They really don't give a toss about age or time, which is clearly the way forward



A view looking back to where we'd come from



A tree with pretty bark and a spider



Please smile! Group nit-picking!



Certainly the nicest nun-run guesthouse I've stayed in. Good night, sleep tight.

Day 3: Kumi - Bundi

We were up at dawn after a fitful night's sleep for an exciting breakfast of beef biscuits. Beef flavoured biscuit - what could be better? This was also lunch - chicken-flavoured biscuit if you were lucky. Made you appreciate dinner I suppose.

Anyway, we walked up to the 1,200m site, which took almost 2 hours. And it was already a hot day. It did get a bit cooler as we ascended, mercifully. Our smiling, barefooted guide, Elios, was full of beans. I thought he was about 40 but he said he was 20. However, many PNGers don't actually know their age or have a developed concept of time (bit jealous actually!). He also told us that Russians used this track during the 2nd world war. His parents told him before they died. It seemed unlikely.



When we'd finished, Elios said he wanted to correspond with me! I didn't want to promise anything, because a PNGer never forgets. And there are no postmen. I said I didn't have a pen, which was true, and left it at that.



On the right is an insect infected by a clever fungus. Once infected, the fungus somehow forces the insect to crawl upwards and to cling rigidly to a twig or stem, thus providing the best chance for dispersal of its spores!





Alois arrives with our transport for Bundi.



Once again we were crammed in the back along with three women and two babies and a load of supplies. The ride was incredibly memorable. The road was predictably appalling and in parts, where the mountain side had given way, scarily narrow. Often the car would tilt enticingly towards the abyss. The women were totally unconcerned, and laughed heartily at our worried faces.



The views were fantastic, but getting my camera out was not an option - I was clinging on too tightly. We ascended into low mists and tall trees and the air was nice and refreshing. But then, the heavens opened. For half an hour we were battered by rain with no protection. It got much colder, and the rain gushed down my neck and pants. When we finally arrived at the St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Mission, Bundi, I was drenched to the bone and practically shivering. I jumped down from the pickup, my muddy boots were like ice-skates on the smoothed concrete floor and I went flat on my arse, as the nuns, Alois, and our co-passengers looked on. Good entry.

The mission guesthouse had hot showers, and boy how good it was!

Day 2: Brahmin to Kumi

The morning view from the Catholic Brothers Guest House



Our transport arrives, courtesy of Alois, a guy helping us with the logistics. What appeared to be a clapped out 15 year old Toyota. The body was a complete wreck and the windscreen badly cracked. He assured us the engine was good.



Legi & Brus on the way to Kumi (above) and the rest of us (below)






Our guide, Peter, climbing a tree to reach a ficus specimen.

The bush at Kausi (200m) is a typical lowland tropical forest with typical insect species









The River Inbrum and bridge where we waited for an age to be picked up by Alois.



When the road got too dodgy, due to a landslip in this case, we had to get out, walk, and let Alois do his stuff.





The tiny settlement of Kumi. The 700 & 1,200m sites were here a little way up the mountain.




Relieved to be at the 700m site after an exhausting climb. Emergency rations: a baby bird! Barely any meat but they were going to kaikai (eat) it anyway.



As the light faded, our night's accommodation was still being erected. It was completed just in time for a torrential downpour, whereupon modifications were required to the drainage system. Spent a most uncomfortable night on some lumpy saplings. We had forgotten to bring sleeping mats. Not the most uncomfortable night ever though, that is reserved for a night feeling sick in an unbearably hot tent in Cambodia. How intrepid is that?