Thursday 5th March - I was up before the alarm went off at 05.15am, I’d read from previous reports that the view was worth the loss of sleep. Rabaul in the East New Britain Province of Papua New Guinea was established by the German Empire in the early 1900’s as the capital of their colony Deutch Neu Guinea. And the area was later ceded to Australian administration as a ‘trust territory’. The town was all but destroyed in 1994 by volcanic ash from the eruption of Vulcan, one of the 5 volcanoes surrounding the area and even to this day it is still threatened by continuous volcanic activity from Tavurvur, another one of the volcanoes. Above, (Izzy and me, early morning, on the sail into Rabaul)
The sun hadn’t appeared yet as we sailed into Simpson harbour and one of the first things I noticed was the faint smell of sulphur, fortunately the wind was blowing toward the volcano. I could see the shapes of the volcanoes ahead and at first light the streaming black smoke and giant cloud above it were clearly visible. Simpson harbour is a beautiful big bay, dense tropical forest down to the waterside on two thirds of its’ circumference and a grey wasteland with smoking volcanoes on the other side.(see left) The 1994 eruption covered the old town with up to 2 metres (6 feet) of ash and all that survived of the vegetation in the area was the bare stocks and branches of what had once been jungle. We had arranged to meet our travelling companions, Elaine and Bob, at 07.45am and walk to the Rabaul Hotel where we’d find our rental car and driver. Even at that time, it was hot and humid, we passed through the dock area gates and some vendors had already set out there wares on the ground. The roads were wide uneven paths of black volcanic ash with few buildings on either side, fortunately it hadn’t rained or they’d have been much more difficult to negotiate. Ten to fifteen minutes later we reached the hotel and met our driver, Robert, before entering the hotel to meet Bruce, the owner, he was the guy who had made all the arrangements with Bob, online. A pleasant enough Australian fellow, Bruce had the casual manner of many of his countrymen. I enquired about exchanging some Australian dollars into local currency, I’d checked the day before and it was about 1.7 PNG kina to 1 Australian dollar. “No worries” said Bruce “we usually change them at 2 for 1”, ’very reasonable’ I thought.
The road to Kokopo
Our vehicle fitted 4 passengers comfortably, it was a Nissan Patrol, similar to a Ford Explorer, though probably slightly smaller, but plenty big enough for us. First stop we decided was the Commonwealth war dead cemetery at BitaPaka since it was furthest away about a 40 minute drive. The roads varied from completely paved and pothole free, to dirt tracks with ruts and potholes deep enough to hang the truck up on its’ axles. The cemetery was incredibly well kept, grass perfectly edged and manicured bushes all around. Inside a large rectangular area bounded by colourful head height bushes lay 1114 Australian and Indian dead from the second world war and 32 from the first war. It was very moving, most were no older than their mid twenties and we were moved close to tears by the thought that underneath this ground lay the last remains of many promising young people, lives cut short before their time. Izzy collected fallen Frangipani flowers and laid them on as many graves as possible, then sadly we were on our way back toward Rabaul.
Two pictures from the cemetery at BitaPaka
The drive back took us through the town of Kokopo, school kids all in uniform, throngs of people going about their business, quite different from Rabaul where life and business operate on a lower level. Our next stop was the Japanese Barge tunnel, off the main road a kilometre or so up a dirt track, a leftover from world war 2, the tunnel, about 200 metres deep, still holds 5 Japanese barges rusting out. The approach to the tunnel was flanked by several vendors, mostly women and children, selling beaded bracelets, necklaces and bags. Seeing the children, Izzy brought out her bag of candies and passed them out to kids and adults, the people as everywhere else we went on the area, were friendly and welcoming, living standards are generally quite low, but most people seemed happy.
We stopped at the roadside to look at a small beach and this little guy was sitting by himself, his dad came out and told us his name was Alex
Our next stop was the volcanological observatory atop one of the dormant volcanos, it provided excellent views over the town and the active volcano. We spent a brief amount of time in the observatory, but there’s not much of interest to the layman, the outside views are much more rewarding. Next we temporarily bypassed the market and drove off toward the active volcano, over ash covered fields, fording deep channels cut by water flowing through the ash. We crossed a wide expanse of untravelled ash, reaching a stretch of water separating us from the volcano and the bubbling ocean at its’ base. We could hear the faint rumbling of the explosions within the volcano as it threw up vast clouds of ash and steam, it was quite a sight and if there had been anywhere to have a beer I’d gladly have sat for a while and enjoyed the spectacle.
As our time was limited, we were soon on our way again, visiting the Japanese memorial to the war dead and then the market which was disappointingly predominantly local produce. We returned to the hotel, settled our bill (it worked out to be about US$50 each including all entrance fees etc) and then Robert dropped us off at the entrance to the dock.
Of future interest, 2 to 3 hour tours were available on the dockside for US$20 each, in non-airconditioned 15 seat vans. Most people seemed to think they were good value and although they were way too hot, they covered most of the nearby places of interest.
We got back to the ship right at 01.30pm and the ship sailed 15 minutes later, 15 minutes before scheduled departure, maybe the captain was concerned that the wind might change and blow the ash toward the ship. After a late lunch, I spent some time in the pool before getting ready for dinner. We watched the show in the Cabaret Lounge, it was the ‘Royal variety Performance’, a bit of a ‘fill in’ show by the onboard dancers, highlighting their dubious other talents, juggling (not too bad), singing (wouldn’t get past the first round of American Idol) and instrumentalist (quite good).
