The Path Less Travelled - Shaggy Ridge - Adelaide to Port Moresby

Day 1 - Adelaide to Port Moresby

Excitement, anticipation and a little trepidation
Departure day had finally arrived....

We very nearly didn’t get there.

The preparations for the trek were complicated by our visas not arriving until the last working day before departure. After numerous unanswered phone calls and emails, our trek leader had to make a last minute mercy dash to the PNG consulate in Canberra to physically collect the visas and then send them to us by overnight express post.

Note to self:

Send PNG visa applications to Brisbane office: turnaround time – 2 weeks as opposed to 3 months!

Then there’s the journey to get to PNG. They say half the fun is actually getting there.....
6.00 am red-eye flight out of Adelaide, change planes in Melbourne and again in Cairns, finally arriving in Port Moresby at 4.30pm.
Unfortunately, our luggage missed the connecting flight from Melbourne to Cairns and so didn’t make it to PNG. Contingency plans were made for one of the trek leaders to stay back in Port Moresby to wait for the luggage and then meet up with us in Lae the following day

Note to self:
Always carry spare underwear and your toothbrush in your carry-on luggage.

Arriving in Port Moresby was a culture shock, a real assault on the senses.
After clearing customs and sorting out the lost baggage issue, we were bundled into a security escorted mini-bus. We slowly negotiated the afternoon peak-hour traffic out of the busy metropolis. Dusty pot-holed roads, scantily dressed children running amok, a cacophony of car horns tooting to guide their vehicles through the traffic, roadside stalls selling tropical fruits stacked in piles on tarps...

30 minutes later, we boarded a ferry and arrived at Loloata Island Resort just as the sun was setting. We shared dinner together, had a short introductory briefing and collected our backpacking gear.

What promised to be a one night stopover in tropical paradise, turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax.

The resort is touted as a 4.5 star accommodation, but I failed to see how it could rate that highly. The rooms and bathroom facilities were very basic. No reflection on the staff though, who were very friendly. It is a bit hard to pass judgment when you are only there for 12 hours! Maybe cheap and cheerful is a better description.
The weather also played a part with a blustery wind change and storm front arriving just after sunset, chopping up the ocean and creating what sounded like a commercial laundry washing machine going at full bore outside my cabin all night.
Off to bed early as tomorrow we have a 4 am start!