Papua New Guinea

[Prawn_86]

Papua New Guinea, officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands (the western portion of the island is a part of Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua). It is located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean, in a region defined since the early 19th century as Melanesia. Its capital, and one of its few major cities, is Port Moresby. It is one of the most diverse countries on Earth, with over 850 indigenous languages and at least as many traditional societies, out of a population of just under 6 million. It is also one of the most rural, with only 18 per cent of its people living in urban centres. The country is also one of the world's least explored, culturally and geographically, and many undiscovered species of plants and animals are thought to exist in the interior of Papua New Guinea.

[kennas]

I was lucky enough to get to go to PNG in 1993 as part of an Army adventurous training activity.

It was a combined trek and then open water dive course near Madang.

The trek was absolutely amazing. From the Ramu Valley over the Finnisterre (spelling) range and followed the Faria (spelling) river all the way to the coast.

Shaggy Ridge was the sceen of about 6 key battles in WWII where the Japanese were dug in trying to hold the ridge line. We trekked up to the ridge and then recounted the events of the battles on site. Amazingly the pits were pretty much untouched and we found all sorts of artifsacts including machine guns. A bit rusted of course.

On the way we stayed in local villages, who were totally isolated. One was at least 25km from the nearest road. Unfortunately I ended up picking up some sort of parasite that got under my skin and caused the most severe rash around my groin you could imagine. Ouch.

At the end of the trek we heading to this small island off the coast of Madang and completed our open water dive certificates and did some more fun diving around the islands.

Total cost? $0.00 Thank you tax payers! :)

Here's a picture of a small section of the ridge...

[EverNothing]

Never been to PNG myself but it's on the list, definitely. I know a lot of the natives live in extreme poverty which is a damn shame but like Prawnster pointed out in his opening synopsis, quite a large majority of the country remains unexplored. You know what that means = undiscovered paradise.

Oh, and my condolences about the groin pash rash Ken, poor bugger. :(

I know it's been almost twenty years since you were last there but what can you tell me about Port Moresby? How big is it? Were there many tourists walking around? Resturants? Cafes? Museums?