14 Oct 2018

Remote villages, colourful sing sings & spectacular birding

The past few days of our journey on the Spirit of Enderby has included remarkable visits to remote Papua New Guinea villages. The northern island of Tatau in New Ireland introduced us to the unique tradition of the Malagan ceremonies with Lambom Village in the south providing a unique opportunity to chat to the local land owners on modernity. Our exploration of East New Britain included visits to Rabaul, WWII Japanese barge tunnels, a war museum, Yamamoto’s bunker, volcano observation centre and Kokopo local food market. Being only the first expedition for the year, our visit to Nissan Island in the Buka Channel, was celebrated by a colourful sing sing at the local Balil School, canoe racers and a wonderful opportunity to wander through villages with our new friends. 

Meanwhile snorkelers have enjoyed relaxing drift snorkelling along the coastal paradise of Duke of York Islands and Nissan. Many marine creatures have been discovered along the way, and the diverse coral reefs were teeming with fish. 

Expedition days always mean exciting opportunities and for the birders their day on New Ireland was exactly this. With more hours to explore they managed to uncover such endemic species as New Ireland Friarbird, Paradise Drongo, Hunstein’s Mannikin and Song Parrot. This full day of birding meant they were in prime position at the southern end of New Ireland to find four Beck’s Petrel, an extremely rare and restricted seabird. Their luck has continued through New Britain and Nissan and for those with a more general natural history interest there have also been a number of fascinating sightings from endemic flying foxes and giant black and turquoise phasmids (stick insects), to huge Birdwing butterflies and vivid green tree skinks.

    Images (c) H. Dohn and (c) Heritage Expeditions