July 5 – Day 9: Transfer to Cloudlands

Another very early start as we had a long drive to Mt Hagen airport for our 9.10 flight to Tabubil on PNG Airlines. An hour later and we were close to landing as we descended through the thick cloud and the landing gear deployed only for the captain to make a late decision to abort and ascend up above the clouds. 

Flooded forest in the Tabubil area

Presumably the approach to the runway was still enshrouded in low cloud. So we carried on to the next airport, Kiunga, instead. We had to wait a while for vehicles so we had lunch first. We’d dropped down in altitude and it was noticeably warmer and humid with some rain around.

Birding in the rain - a regular occurrence at Tabubil

Driving on, we stopped a few times for some birding en route, once just getting back into the vehicle before a tropical downpour. We did see a couple of distant Pesquet’s Parrots and Blyth’s Hornbill, the latter being the only hornbill to have crossed the Wallace Line. 

We drove through a tunnel to OK Menga where we scanned the river. I managed to find our quarry, the endemic Salvadori’s Teal which likes fast-flowing rivers. 

Salvadori's Teal

We also managed a brief view of a Mountain Peltops before going the short distance to the aptly named Cloudlands Hotel where we would be staying for four nights.

Cloudlands Hotel