We got to the airport – did some shopping (I had already lost my Koala water bottle, so I bought a new one), then the flight was called.
Smooth sailing to Port Moresby. We had braced ourselves for a Madagascar experience, with people trying to “help” us with our bags, and then demanding a tip at the end — but there was no issue like that. We were met by our scheduled shuttle bus and ended up in the hotel. It was hot and muggy — no great surprise. I stayed in the room mostly, and Sheila took a swim in the hotel pool.
Then it was time to meet the guide and other people. Everyone was well-traveled and knew birds much better than Sheila and me. (We were the only ones without an iBird account.) Our guide, Forrest, was great. There was a very a knowledgeable guy from the UK whose goal was to see at least one bird from each of the bird families (there are 249 families, and he was only missing 10) – there are two unique families in PNG he hoped to see. There was also a guy from Sweden who had a birding blog, and two other American women.
Two people hadn’t arrived from their pre-trip add-on to East Britain birding, because their flight had been delayed.
The plans for the next day: meet our missing two participants at the airport, get on the plane, and fly to Mount Hagen, where we were staying at Rondon Ridge Lodge (described as very nice), for two nights and then drive to Kumul Lodge for two nights (described as “not as nice” — maybe the word “rustic” was used? but it had other birds).
Port Moresby to Mt. Hagen (take 1)
Alas! Air Niugini turns out to be the worst airline I’ve ever encountered.
We got to the airport with plenty of time to get money from the ATM before our 11:40 am flight. However, the plane was delayed, and then delayed again. Many other announcements in the departure lounge were for cancelled flights, so, when our flight was finally announced (at 2:45 pm), we were relieved.
We were halfway through the journey when the captain announced something like “You know that maintenance fix we were waiting on? It turns out it wasn’t fixed, so we are returning to Port Moresby”
The plane turned around and then and started dropping down. Sheila and I both thought (hoped) the pilot was just dropping altitude for safety, or something, but another of our group assured us (later) that it was an engine failure. Whatever it was, the plane leveled off and we landed safely.
This was a common enough occurrence (flights cancelled, not planes turning around and dropping) that we got a voucher for a nice hotel and food. The menu was specific to our airplane voucher.
So that was one day out of eight that was lost to airline issues.
Port Moresby to Mt. Hagen (take 2)
Although they told us to show up for the 8:30 flight at 6:00, our guide talked with people at the airport and hotel – he said there were three cancelled flights to Mt. Hagan that were being included on our flight. So we showed up at 4:30 am.
Fortunately, Air Nuigini had a 737 for us to fly on – with enough room for all (I think) the passengers to get aboard. Even as we were boarding, Forrest was pointing out birds.
We landed an hour later, were picked by a van, and driven to Rondon Ridge lodge, up in the mountains.
We walked around the lodge area – birds were hard to see! Forrest used bird calls on his phone. This is normally not good birding practice, but it sometimes it was the only way to see the birds in Papua New Guinea.
