Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree
If you remember those lyrics to a song from your childhood, you know I’m in Australia.
And indeed! I did see a real kookaburra (had always thought they were fictional birds) and a real gum tree, but wasn’t quick enough with the camera.
Hard to believe this is my fifth installment of “On the Road with Janice!” What began as a suggestion from David Butler, has happily become a nearly annual opportunity for me to share a few of the experiences and impressions encountered during some of my admittedly unusual travels. Thanks to the EIL team of Terry, and especially Kathi, for taking the time to edit out my typos and grammatical errors, and -- despite my struggles to relay text and photos via poor WiFi in bizarre and far flung corners of our globe -- somehow get it up on this EIL website.
So many of you have been asking the last few weeks: will you do your blog? Can’t wait to read your blog! (Aagh. Pressure!) I am truly flattered. There is no predicting what I’ll have to write about this go around…given how unpredictable traveling can be…but I hope you enjoy it.
Writing this blog means I cannot pass through the journey passively. I have to actively smell and see and think and connect. I try to learn and not just assume. I try to travel deeper. I write about what surprises me, what I hope captures a glimpse of the people I meet. And I hope that it is as interesting to you as it is to me. Knowing you are reading means you travel with me. Thank you for the support and the encouragement.
Also, always in my heart, is Larry, the first to encourage and support my blog. He definitely would not have chosen to do this trip and I have certainly seen his “look” a few times while planning it! But I honor his eagerness to “do it all," his openness to people, his love of history, his ability to observe what I would miss. I think he’s proud of me. And that has to be enough.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been following the Facebook photos many of you have posted from Alaska, Norway, the Baltic, Normandy, Amsterdam, Malta, Italy, Colorado, Berlin. Every single photo gives me wanderlust. There is history, cultural awareness, new flavors, scenic beauty everywhere! How to choose where to go next?
Although stopping in Sydney, this trip is focused on Papua New Guinea (PNG) and then onto the island of Sulawesi, Indonesia. PNG has been in my brain for several years since I heard some friends describe their experiences there 25 years ago. It represents a big “stretch” for me: an unknown part of the world -- to me and most everyone else, very limited tourist infrastructure, the need for a little caution, with earthquakes, civil “unrest," and State Department warnings in the mix (but more on that later), and many uncertainties that I could not resolve in advance, despite my very best Googling.
Believe me. I knew this trip would be an adventure. I didn’t know it’d be an adventure before I ever packed a bag! But...
But! A country with 800 languages. Not dialects, languages. People who, 80 years ago, no one knew existed. (And they didn’t know we existed either.) A country where cannibalism (aka anthropophagy) was practiced by people still living today; where tribal customs and beliefs are integral to daily life. Where some people live in trees and sago palm is food. A country with 38 species of birds of paradise (actual birds, not the flower!), and thousands of species of orchids. Really!
But first a stop in Sydney, since I’d never seen it, and to get over jet lag.
It is winter here, but the worst drought in 50 years (ground is dry six feet down) has
affected the climate making the nights chillier, but the days warmer (mid-70s). Kangaroos, searching for water, are coming into outlying suburbs eating vegetation.
They are competing with livestock and, just last week, farmers were given authority to shoot them. It is front page news that farmers have run out of feed.
That Australia has the highest rate of melanoma in the world is evident by everyone wearing hats and hugging the shady side of the street. Even the kids, in their school uniforms, are all in matching hats. There is a policy: No hat? No play. And you don’t see a single exception. Struck by the sight of all these cute kids playing in their hats, I went to take a picture and was nearly tackled by my guide. Seems taking pictures of kids is a huge no no.
And everywhere are screeching “bin” birds. So named because they scavenge in garbage bins for food
Cockatoo
Yes. Cockatoos.
I have spent most of my brief time in Sydney in the area called The Rocks, for the sandstone outcropping from which many of Sydney’s original buildings were built. This is also the area first settled by the convicts.
In the 1770s, rising crime rates in the UK were met with stricter sentencing. Where to put all those “criminals?” (Mostly theft, forgery. Not murderers.). After 1776, they couldn’t be shipped to the 13 colonies. Boats on the Thames were turned into prisons until they, too, were overflowing. Setting up a new colony in Australia became the solution, and more importantly, the way to keep the French out of the territory.
As had happened in America, the influx of white men brought disease which quickly nearly wiped out the indigenous aboriginal peoples (as they are called today)…a culture that had existed for 70,000 years.
To build -- literally -- the colony, the convicts were put to work. Some worked for the government and some for the settlers who had come. Of course, they all had to be fed. Since food was in short supply, the Governor reduced sentences or pardoned criminals so that they would have to fend for themselves and no longer be eating food needed by the soldiers. Over 80 years, a community with families and businesses grew.
Women? A very few came on the convict ships. More, many Irish orphans, came after the famine.
The discovery of gold created a boom town, over crowding, unsanitary conditions and, in turn, the plague. The government realized they needed to step in and began a “cleansing," demolishing many buildings, building “public” housing, and even offering 6 pence for every rat caught! Many of those buildings, some with gorgeous “iron lace," are today being sold to private owners and gentrified.
1 of 2
Houses in Sydney
2 of 2
Iron work on building in Sydney
What is apparent in Sydney is how (only recently) it has not only come to terms, but actually embraced, its convict past. It is now actually somewhat of a badge of honor to be able to trace your family back to a convict. There is also respect and recognition of the aboriginal people and efforts to preserve their heritage
Which gets me back to Papua New Guinea. Just as I am going from Australia to PNG, so too did the New Guinea people. DNA testing has shown the Australian Aboriginal people share the same genetic make up as the PNG people. Originally, Australia and PNG were one land mass. As sea levels rose, the two land masses separated. The aboriginal people in Australia adapted to an arid land; the tribes of New Guinea adapted to a more fertile land of rain forests and high altitudes. For the same reason - there are kangaroos in PNG!
PNG, the second largest island on the planet after Greenland, sits on the Ring of Fire, the area in the Pacific basin with frequent earthquakes and volcanoes.
After I booked this trip, there was a volcanic eruption on a PNG island. No worries, I wasn’t going there. In April, there was a very severe earthquake in the Highlands. I AM going there for essentially the whole trip. I googled the Australian and PNG newspapers, trying to determine if my itinerary would be impacted. Clearly, there was serious damage: mud slides, roads and bridges collapsed, buildings damaged (not that buildings in the highlands are that tall). Finally I heard from my PNG-based travel company. There had been some minor damage to one of the lodges, but all would be fine by August! Whew!
In June, again reading the PNG newspapers, I learned there had been some rioting following a court decision upholding last year’s election results. The rioting was not particularly near where I am going but (and here’s where things began to get a little dicey) the rioters had torched one of Air Niugini’s planes, the airline I would be using for two of my five internal flights. Obviously, Air Niugini isn’t Delta with a huge fleet so being down one plane requires some rescheduling. But that wasn’t the biggest issue.
Air Niugini decided, out of caution, to cancel all flights to Tari until further notice. Tari is sorta like a hub for accessing the Highlands.Oops. Not that I would be spending time in Tari, but I needed to get there to get to where I did want to be. The travel company recommended rebooking alternative flights and added another charter as a workaround. Ok. Some juggling but still fine.
About this time, I looked at the State Department site. It was strongly discouraging travel to one area of PNG. On a map, it looked sorta close (a few hours away maybe), but the terrain is so intense, I figured I was still good.
Then. About two weeks out, the travel company said they were changing the itinerary. We would not be going to one of the lodges (the one a couple hours from Tari) as they could not insure the safety of their guests. And another rebooking of flights was required. (Through all this, I must say: Air Niugini has an awesome website!)
Now the positive spin on this is that the travel company is clearly concerned about our safety and is taking appropriate precautions. But I gotta say, the whole thing gave me pause. But here I am, flying into PNG tomorrow and on to the Highlands the next morning. The itinerary change isn’t a huge deal and I am considering it all part of the adventure.
I planned a low key final day in Sydney. So I will leave you with a couple shots from a back stage tour of the opera house and beautiful Manly Bay.
Next stop: the Mount Hagen sing-sing in the PNG Highlands
1 of 4
Janice at the Conductor's Podium at the Sydney Opera House
2 of 4
Bass Player Poster
3 of 4
Manly Cove
4 of 4