Oh dear - many litres of sweat flowed during this time, with the fragrance Antibrumm Forte and still mosquito bites...
And then, at midnight with a full moon, the clattering and clanging of the coffee set in the somewhat run-down bungalow, covered with a rich tropical patina, or a whole day of cruelly loud noise on a bungalow roof, which did not allow the oh-so-longed-for sleep to arise, or a mass in a steel ship with what felt like 18 degrees Celsius and dust-dry air at an outside temperature of 33 degrees with about 80 % humidity, and/or diving in a completely changed underwater landscape. 80% humidity and/or diving in a completely different underwater landscape, which was not at all compatible with the previous briefing, and...
Who would do such a thing to themselves? They are:
Our so sympathetic, all-knowing, prudent and gentle pack leader O., who almost can't live without gin and tonic (Rp. 1 to 2 x 1/day!) and is developing more and more gills: At the end of a dive of 70 min. there are still 140 bar in her 12 l bottle (at the start 200 bar), while the writer emerged with still 35 bar at a start filling pressure of 235 bar!
Further along was the self-contained, life-experienced Mrs. L., who now eats in an exemplary manner even more slowly than my sister-in-law from the Bündner Oberland. L., who had embarked on the (quote) "itinerary with pioneering and exploratory character, suitable for the medium to highly experienced adventurous divers..." with a few dozen dives and also survived this long journey very well. The interesting shore excursions, which were very worthwhile, were also a great benefit for L. in particular.
Then there was our dear B., who really always had everything under control and always commented on this and that like a radio reporter. But cave(!): Ms. is not as calibrated against vodka as the well-travelled USA-Bosnian Aida, who had dipped into 35(?) countries mostly by diving. But brave is B., who obviously did not let herself be put off by the nightly visits of rats in her hotel room.
The (sports) teacher Lady M. or, to put it another way, the female clone of the current US president, brought the average age in this "(pre)geriatric" diving horde down considerably: Note the corresponding underwater photos. Her legendary rock lift (backwards) on the outer wall of the zodiac to get into the boat after the dive is probably unique in the whole South Pacific. The two Swedish divers also observed that M. eats so little (!?).
Also present was the unmistakable, silver-haired senior consultant of the cheese dairy, Mr. H., who constantly pinched the fresh cookies baked in the galley from me, so that I could then safely complete the 3-4 dives per day. And when it comes to saying things, H. doesn't owe anyone an answer. If you want to make him happy, why not create a T-shirt with the inscription: "without oinons"?
The second man in the group was the cameraman, Hj. from Fribourg, who was strong in every respect. So I have practically never had such a correct, pleasant and humorous dive buddy. I was very happy to be his underwater shadow, although he never wanted to leave when, for example, there was "a lot of fish" to spot in the near vicinity as the current increased. After all, we were pack divers, the sworn swiss team blue on the Taka.
Last but not least, A., the writer from the southern foot of the Jura, Solothurn sector: minus 6 kg body weight/4 weeks. As always, a bit snivelling with intestinal motility irregularities and coughing fits. As we all know, he is still out of the woods at AHV age, so he always needs the strong man to get into the Zodiac. But A. enjoyed himself very much in this interesting, somewhat heterogeneous group, which - nota bene - shared a lot of joy and little sorrow from 10 Nov. to 8 Dec. 2019.
Arrival on Tuesday 12 November in Port Moresby, capital of PNG, after a flight of about 19 hours via Singapore. Greta Thunberg sent a telegram of disapproval to Father Christmas in advance; at the end of the journey a second, much more sharply worded one, after the additional so many hours of flying had been added. But all these flights, even in small propeller planes landing and taking off on gravel pitches, as well as Solomons Airlines with max. 3 planes in their fleet, I would not want to miss. PNG is a huge country, the landscape wild and off the mainland scattered over 1000 islands. Roads connecting cities, settlements and regions do not exist. From the plane we saw huge ranges of hills, mainly jungle and many meandering rivers with extensive swamps...
So we reached Tufi, our first dive resort. The reception building of "Tufi International" was a crumbling hut with extensive gaps in the reed roof, 1 man ground staff, who conscientiously carried out multi task, really ALL the functions an airport has to offer. Greatest respect for this man! Finally, from 14 Nov, we went diving at (wonderfully) beautiful dive sites that are only visited by a few divers. Intact, diverse coral landscapes were admired, but not with as many large schools of fish as we would have liked from time to time. Motor boats with helpful and cheerful crews took us out into the open sea for up to 1 hour at a time. What you can't see on the photos was a huge, fabulous chaos at the diving station, where the equipment(s) "lay down" in various piles. The dive station was reached either by Land Rover of older vintage about 40 metres uphill on 2 dilapidated concrete strips steeply down from the resort. Or on foot, one waded through ankle-deep, warm mud puddles or lakes, from which one could literally sense the malaria mosquitoes hatching, the more it rained frequently (at night). Somehow, however, the divers were still able to equip themselves and then sometimes set off up to 1 hour late, when the forgotten drinking water had also been admonished.
The neighbouring village brought us into contact with the locals for the first time, who were so friendly, quite put-upon, curious, polite and yet a little shy and happy to deal with us. "Harry Hasler" shell necklaces with teeth or bones as pendants and interesting, "vegetable" textiles with beautiful and sometimes strange ornaments in natural colours were hawked. By the way, as during the whole trip, we enjoyed daily fresh fruits like papayas, bananas, pineapples, coconuts and especially mangoes, which crashed like manna during 24 hours, especially on individual roofs, like that of the strong man.
The group then flew back to Port Moresby, where our horizons were broadened during an extended day trip. Urban architecture and planning as well as PNG culture and history were on the programme. On the one hand, ultra-modern prestige buildings - in this very poor country - huge new city quarters under planning and construction and, on the other hand, next to slums with huts on stilts, the villa hills of the nouveau riche and politicians with scary barbed wire fences, surveillance cameras and guards. The National Museum and the Art Gallery were a highlight: all the country's wealth of culture and nature are vividly illustrated by thousands of exhibits. In the immediate vicinity is the magnificent parliament building, which is in keeping with the country, of course with a tremendously wide, dead-straight street leading to it, as has been the case since the Pharaohs, Caesars and other megalomaniac rulers. The visit to the zoological garden was also magnificent and wonderful with the many oh-so-beautiful orchids, the exotic animals of this country, such as a species of kangaroo that climbs trees, and the beautiful birds of paradise, whose unspeakably beautiful colour combinations can only be produced by tropical nature.
In the meantime it has become Friday, 22 Nov. We flew to the Solomon Islands (= independent state) with one change in Honiara (3 h flight), where a better bush plane took us to Gizo (1 h). Transfer by boat - we got wet again - to the Sanbis Resort. The owner, an adventurous Bernese (!) who tried his luck as a car racer in Australia at the age of 21 and then later discovered Sanbis as a "businessman" with a sailing boat, stranded there and created a small diving resort. This is now a bit run-down, but very idyllically situated and we were alone there and enjoyed the beautiful sunsets despite the tropical patina. The diving was much better organised, the attendants still so friendly, cheerful and helpful, so that the missing "fish walls" increased the South Sea feeling. Again, the most beautiful coral gardens; but occasionally with accompanying phenomena consisting of lots of plankton and sand grains.
The next leg began in Munda (Solomon Islands); transport again by a small propeller plane. After hours of hanging around, our liveaboard was replaced by an outdated, rickety bus, which had to transport not only us 7 Swiss, 2 Swedes, 2 Danes, 2 Australians and 2 Americans, but also all our diving luggage (average weight more than 30 kg/person). I have never experienced anything so overloaded. It was a bit scary, because the chauffeur had to prove something like a rally driver in the dusk, in order to finally reach the other side of the fjord over hills and through sharp curves. Here, at a dilapidated wooden pier with dangerous holes, in a derelict harbour, lay the steel Taka, or better "Solomon PNG Master", which was now our liveaboard vehicle for the next 10 days: food and dive deck organisation very good. Air conditioning, rudimentary intermediate (sun) deck and upper deck gets at most a 4 (best would be 6). Some dive sites even got a 3, because besides coral rubble piles, the visibility and the amount of fish left much to be desired. But on the other hand, I have never seen such huge fan corals - diameter estimated to be more than 3 m - phenomenal and overwhelming also the variety of species and colours of the corals. The daily routine was as follows: 06h up, light breakfast and 1st TG. 2nd "warm" rich breakfast, break and 2nd TG. Lunch, small siesta, followed by 3rd TG. Snacks, break and eventual. 4th TG, if possible. Dinner. Of course we had been very excited about (quote) "...a journey into the unknown, as no one has ever divided most of the land mass between Munda, Western Province, Solomon islands and Rabaul, New Britain, PNG...".
But in the end, the diving was rather sobering. Not so the shore excursions to remote islands and villages, where we were always welcomed with extraordinary friendliness and experienced a hospitality that is hardly known to us anymore. The sometimes bizarre dance and song performances were performed with great concentration and enthusiasm. The demonstrations of handicrafts and activities such as effective "Stone Age" fire making were also fascinating, as was the jewellery and home-made textile processing. Often combined with hearty laughter, which then showed the blood-red lips, tongue and teeth (with gaps), caused by the very popular betel nut chewing. This is not without its problems and is indicative of the hard and sometimes meagre life of these people. In some villages, for example, fresh water storage and medical care are quite difficult. An injury with a machete on the lower leg, which I was shown, could be fatal either due to tetanus or moist gangrene!
Henusodeh; disembarked again on Friday 6 December after the Taka had steamed many hundreds of nautical miles from the Solomon Islands back to PNG. Flights Rabaul-Port Moresby-last night at the Airways Hotel and then the never-ending flights via Singapore to Zurich. Back after 9 time zones, arriving in Zurich in "winter" - oh my - where the jet lag started to set in - oh my!
But I would never, ever want to miss this really long, so interesting, exciting and varied journey with these "7 Upright without flags" (loosely based on Gottfried Keller).
Andi W.