This months highlight (and probably the years highlight) was a family holiday to one of our remote aid posts called Mangao. We chartered an MAF flight and flew about 20 minutes from Kompiam into the mountains into a very remote region of the Enga Province. We spent a week living like the locals in the village and even fitted in an overnight hike through some of the most amazing scenery we've ever seen. We walked for 17 hours and about 20km in the 2 days through all sorts of different terrains including grasslands, rivers, rainforests and up and down muddy mountain tracks. It was a wonderful experience being able to live with the people and truly experience their daily lives in this very remote little corner of PNG.
 |
| The grass strip in the middle is the 450m long Mangao airstrip clinging onto the side of a mountain |
 |
| The Welcoming committee - don't get too many visitors out this way, and many of the kids never seen white people |
 |
| All our meals were in the cookhouse - they feed us well with sweet potato and bananas |
 |
| Some of the boys headed off pig hunting |
 |
| Teaching them how to skip and they also got the hang of throwing a frisbee pretty quick as well |
 |
| Another muddy track - very slippery and required bare feet |
 |
| Wendy about to take the plunge into some mud with Terrance our health worker watching on |
 |
| More mud |
 |
| Nice to cool off after a hard and muddy walk. No shortage of amazing swimming spots. |
 |
| Polishing off an amazing tasting watermelon - they grow everything they eat |
 |
| Our bathing spot each night - cold showers aren't really that bad |
 |
| Bonnie and supper. Terrance killed his pet pig for us. |
 |
| Looking down into the valley - we followed the river at the bottom |
 |
| Steep walk downhill through the grasslands |
 |
| Walked down this creek for about 5 hours getting to our overnight stop. |
 |
| Heather and her helper Warrium - they stuck together the full 2 days |
 |
| Fishing with a bushknife |
 |
| One of our many guides and helpers as we approach the end of the walk down the creek |
 |
| Our accommodation for the night - dry and warm with a fire |
 |
| Some of the boys relaxing at the end of the walk |
 |
| Group shot of about half that came down with us |
 |
| Cooking up dinner |
 |
| The next morning waiting for the rain to stop before starting off back to Mangao |
 |
| Terrance ready to do some pig hunting |
 |
| Heading back up the mountain through the grasslands |
 |
| Walking back up the ridge all the way to the bush on top of the mountain |
 |
| Looking back down on where we had come from - we camped at the junction of the two rivers |
 |
| Out of the grasslands and exhausted at the top of the hill - long way and a lot of mud to go yet |
 |
| Bamboo water bottle - ingenious |
 |
| Very steep and slippery slopes - shoes off for 4WD mode. |
 |
| In the plane looking back down on the walk we had just done |
 |
| Flying back into Kompiam - the big smoke. Nice to get home, but will miss Mangao. |
