17 Oct 2017

Bound For The Solomon Islands

The windy weather of yesterday had ceased by morning with just the last of the cloud clearing from the mountains and promising a somewhat cooler day. By 0700 we had all had breakfast and were boarding the zodiacs to head ashore, here our mini vans awaited for the drive up the old mine access road.

Arriving at the summit of the road we left the birders to enjoy their morning amble and birding along the road while the rest of us continued down to the site of Panguna Mine, it was a facinating morning with visits to view the open pit, tailings (with view to the west coast of Bougainville), Panguna town and the concentrators.

Meanwhile the birders had a very successful morning getting good views of many of the hoped for Bougainville endemics. After lunch aboard the Spirit of Enderby it was shortly time to head back ashore for a visit to Arawa including the library donated by Lloyd Jones of Mr Pip fame and also the town market. We then enjoyed a performance on the beach at the Catholic Mission by local cultural groups before clearing PNG customs and preparing to sail the short distance to the Solomon Islands.