June 29 - Day 3: Travel to Yasukom

Another early breakfast then we packed up and headed to the airport, this time at the domestic terminal for our 08:45 Air Nuigini flight to Wapenamanda. We got all the way there but due to the thick low cloud cover the pilot couldn’t see the airfield so we had to head straight back. 

Fortunately the influential regional Governor was on board with us and he was desperate for us to get there as we’d be the first birders in the area so he managed to charter a small plane to take us to another airport, Mount Hagen. After lunch in town, we boarded the eight seater which unfortunately meant we had to leave Max behind. 

The Governor leading the way to our chartered plane

We arrived without any further problems, unloaded our bags from the plane and piled them into the vehicles where we joined the Governor’s convoy to our lodge. It was a three and a half journey but at least we’d made it without any further delays, which was more than we could say for Max...

We arrived to a welcoming party with the local tribe (who’d been waiting there several hours for us) all resplendent in their make-up and costumes suddenly breaking out into dance to the accompanying music. 

Local tribe welcoming us to Yasukom Resport

We felt honoured, although by then we were very tired from all the travelling and just wanted to eat and go to bed. However, that wasn’t part of the plan so we made our way to the function room along with other dignitaries and invited guests. The Governor and local tourist board had flown in a celebrity chef who’d used local ingredients to cook us a five course meal, washed down with some nice Aussie wine. 

Menu for the feast

This was all to kick-start eco-tourism in the area so there were plenty of speeches before we could finally retire for the night, having only seen around five birds during the whole day.