August 26th

Context makes so much difference. Just before I sat down to type this there was a series of what sounded like gunshots. No hue and cry like there normally is with a ‘normal’ PNG highlands riot, but almost certainly gunshots, or at least tear gas being fired by the police. It’s sufficiently common not to cause an adrenaline rush, but certainly a heightened state of alert. So far, nothing unusual and people walk up and down the road unconcerned. Return to normal alert level.

Back in Blackwater we regularly hear the sound of gunfire. The ranges at the Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst are regularly in use. Sometimes there are army exercises on Yateley Common, occasionally supported by the big boom of artillery. It produces no sense of heightened alertness at all; just a comment, “Oh, the army are up to their games again”.

I wonder what it is like in places like Syria, Palestine, Iraq or countries in Africa and elsewhere where local warlords exercise power. That must be so much more than just a heightened alert level. Compared to these places, PNG is still well down on the alert scale.

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I read a while back that rhubarb likes to have a period of time in sub-zero temperatures to do well. My plants were spindly and unproductive, so I thought it was time for kill or cure, dug them up and they spent three weeks in a freezer, and then a week in our fridge during the day and room temperature overnight.

Yesterday they were replaced in nice warm, moist, freshly dug and fertilised soil, so time will tell whether it has been a kill or a cure. I’m quite certain that any of the little snails that made holes in the leaves will have met their demise, but I hope the plants have survived.

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I mentioned in a recent newsletter that I was flying with Volkher Jacobsen to get him current on the Twin Otter again, so that he can help keep the aircraft operational while we’re short of crew. This week I’ve been flying with Greg Falland, like Volkher a previous MAF DHC6 captain, who is alternating tours with Volkher, and who also hasn’t flown the aircraft for several years.

We’ve flown every day Tuesday to Friday this week, including one day down to Madang for some instrument flying on Wednesday, and ending up with a long day of programme flying on Friday. By the end of Friday both Greg and I were feeling pretty tired after eleven landings, and roughly five tonnes of building supplies or trade store goods outbound, and the same amount of coffee or peanuts coming back.

At one airstrip, Dusin, I sold 37 bibles. The desire people in these communities have for their own copy is remarkable, and is in contrast with many western churches these days where people often don’t bother to take theirs with them on Sundays.

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The town water supply has been more reliable again recently, so the car had a thorough wash. Nicki had done a good job with a bucket and cloth before Peter, Gilly and the boys came, but it’s not possible to remove all the mud and debris without a hose. Afterwards I gave it its first coat of polish for several years, so it is definitely looking the best it has for ages. With the roads in such poor condition it won’t stay pristine for long.

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While I’ve been out flying Nicki has been working at one of the desks in my office revising an orientation document. Several new families are expected in the near future and it’s always a challenge to provide them with all the information they need, but in a form that’s easy to assimilate, and in chunks that aren’t too daunting.

She’ll continue the project while I’m away in Goroka for three days this week, continuing Greg’s training.

That’s all for this week as I need to get on with some other emails and communications.

August 19th

It’s been a busy couple of weeks.

Having Peter & Gilly, Tim & Ben here was a real delight. We were so grateful that the passport issue didn’t delay them any more than one day. I couldn’t take any time off work, so Nicki showed them around the delights of Hagen during the week – the market, the second-hand shops, the different MAF compounds with their various types of play equipment and so on.

One afternoon after I had finished flying they came out to the airport and I showed them around ‘my’ aeroplane and introduced them to the little one that they’d fly to Madang in a couple of days later. During the weekend we drove out of town towards Enga Province to give them a taste of the countryside. The time with them was over all too quickly.

 They flew down to Madang on Wednesday morning for a couple of days at the Resort before flying on to stay with friends in Brisbane for another couple of days before heading back to the UK later today (Sunday). In the meantime, also on Wednesday, I flew to Tokua, on the northern tip of New Britain, one of the large subsidiary islands that make up PNG, for a conference organised by the aviation regulator, CASA PNG, for the rest of the week.

Like any conference, there were some presentations that were very good and particularly relevant, and others that weren’t. Nonetheless, it was extremely worthwhile and PNG is fortunate in having an aviation industry that is small enough for there to be very good interaction between the regulator and the different operators.

One afternoon after the sessions had finished the MAF team went for a drive out to Rabaul with John Bromley, an ex-MAF pilot who now heads the PNG Rural Airstrips Agency. Rabaul was almost totally destroyed by a major volcanic eruption in 1994, our first year here. I’ve flown to Tokua once, but this week was the first time I’d been outside the airport.

After paying a small fee to local people just outside Rabaul town, we had a closer look at Mount Tavurvur and the stream of boiling water running across the beach and into the sea. Jets of steam bubble up from the bottom of the stream and the local folk cook eggs and other food in the free supply of boiling water.

The conference itself was held in Kokopo, the town that expanded as the new provincial capital of East New Britain after Rabaul was destroyed. Although Rabaul still exists, it is only a fraction of what it once was. Huge amounts of black volcanic ash are still piled up in places, and buildings with ash two-thirds or more up their walls poke out in places.

There’s a lot of WW2 history in the area as Rabaul was a huge Japanese base. Caves have been carved into the hillsides were submarines were pulled out of the sea so that they could be serviced and supplied out of danger of allied bombing attacks. On the lookout over the harbour there are smaller caves where presumably personnel could shelter.

A war museum close to the hotel provided more historical background, now curated by an elderly gentleman whose father was in the PNG government prior to independence.

There is a line of volcanoes just off the north coast of the PNG mainland and this extends up through the island of New Britain, forming part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. Rabaul harbour is a huge volcanic caldera with the active volcanoes of Mt Tavurvar and Vulcan, which caused the destruction in 1994, and the former erupting again to a lesser extent in 2014.

On the flight back on Saturday morning a break in the clouds enabled a brief glimpse of Lolobau Island and Mount Ulawun, both active volcanoes and Mt Ulawun producing a bit of steam or smoke in the same way that Mount Tavurvur still is.

Back to normal this coming week! I’m doing a pilot’s recurrency training on the Twin Otter, so will be busy flying, especially during the second half of the week. When possible I’ll also be catching up in the office.

August 5th

After enjoying a few weeks of flying regularly, the latter part of this week saw me doing penance back in the office. I lost one day of scheduled flying because two of our GA8 aircraft, very inconveniently, broke down. One was at its home base in Goroka, so convenient for the pilot, Dave. The second, in Madang, with Sebastian, also a Goroka-based pilot.

The only way to retrieve Sebastian and his passengers (another pilot with her family who were returning from a few days leave) was for Volkher and me to fly down in the Twin Otter and pick them up. Fortunately, we organised some loading so that we covered costs, but it was a time-consuming exercise. As Sebastian is also a DHC6 pilot it made sense for him to come to Hagen with us after delivering his passengers so he could fly instead of me the following day. Although the outdoors beckoned, I did need time in the office to catch up.

The good news is that one of the Airvans is flying again – two engineers went and sorted it out on Friday, and the other will be tomorrow as the part required arrived unexpectedly quickly.

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Water in Hagen is in short supply at the moment. The situation isn’t helped by one of our water tanks springing some leaks, so we’re presently running it down completely so it can be either lined, or replaced, hopefully tomorrow.
The need to conserve water means that our car is in dire need of a wash as the dusty roads have given it a thick coating. Young hands have rubbed it along the sides, so it’s a good thing the car is old and we’re not too concerned about the paintwork, even though we do discourage the practice when we see it.

UK temperatures have been matching or exceeding PNG ones of late, and neither country has had much rain, or at least not in the Hagen area. Further south the south-east trade winds are still packing in the cloud and rain so airstrips in that part of the country are pretty wet.

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Peter, Gilly and the boys set off on their long journey to stay with us today. Needless to say we are very much looking forward to having them with us for a while. Nicki will introduce them to some (or all!) of the other young MAF families at the various compounds, and give them the chance to explore some of the play equipment. I’m wondering if the boys will like to see inside my aeroplane later in the week.

Another crate is ready for final assemblage, and a further one, maybe the last, not far behind. Six months remaining; it is beginning to feel very strange, but we are also starting to plan our trip home via South Island of New Zealand.