02 May 2016

Arawe Islands Adventure

There’s something uniquely magical about visiting a place that’s not accustomed to “tourists.” And it’s even more special when it’s a village that’s never hosted international travellers. Such was our experience today at Kumbun in the Arawe Islands. Far off the tourist track, this area is so remote that we were unable to make contact with them prior to arriving. Instead, once our Zodiacs were noticed, the village chief and magistrate motored out to meet us and arrange an impromptu visit. They also sent out chaperones for each of our four Zodiacs who helped direct us in and out of the lagoon behind the village. And news spreads like wildfire here. As we cruised along the dense mangroves looking for birds and crocodiles, a gaggle of kiddos appeared through a clump of trees at the water’s edge. They were carrying on as if at the most exciting Rugby League match of their lives—and we were the players! They were standing on branches and climbing over buttress roots to get a better look at these foreign ‘explorers’ in their strange, inflatable marine crafts… As we made our way to the village, we could see a choir of women waving small branches and belting out hymns in warm welcome. Most of the village had gathered in the main square…wide-eyed, inquisitively smiling and anxious to shake hands and introduce themselves. They led us to the centre of the village where the magistrate officially welcomed and invited to explore the village. The birders wandered into the bush with Chris, accompanied by 15-20 young “helpers” while the rest of us made our way up the hill to the school. The the children we thrilled to show us around each classroom.

We noticed that most of the women here had facial tattoos (common is Western New Britain), and several canoes had an area for making fire. We also learned that one of the elders is the ripe old age of 104 years—quite impressive since we were told the average life expectancy is around 55 years. We presented the School Master with a container of school supplies, toys, soccer balls, as is done with all village visits. The children immediately started playing soccer with some staff and travellers. Surprisingly, they did not have a soccer ball at the school, so the boys seemed especially elated. An unfortunate side of this village, however, is that drinking water and food are in short supply.

After a wonderfully full visit of talking, singing, touring the schools, birding, playing—and for some of us, canoeing—we loaded back into our Zodiacs for a short ride to an adjacent island where the chief lives. We were offered fresh green oranges as we changed into our snorkel gear for our last underwater adventure.

This afternoon, we explored the Pulia, a winding twisting river reminiscent of an Amazon tributary with its milky chocolate currents and overhanging canopy of creeping vines and long dangling roots. We stumbled upon a small cave with stalagtites and later saw a flying fox, Dollar birds, Metallic starlings, a bismark crow, collared kingfisher, little kingfisher (only 11 cm long with blue on its back)…and a lucky six of us spotted a five-metre long crocodile sunning itself on the banks before quickly retreating below the murky shallows.