Port Moresby is a bit difficult to explore on your own – the city is spread out and there aren’t that many attractions to visit right in town. However we caught up with the energetic folks from Cold Media Productions who are covering my visit to PNG. We headed out in their Toyota Land cruiser for the top of a nearby mountain – Sogeri which affords one excellent views overlooking all of Port Moresby in the distance, the Stanley-Owens range (the backbone mountain range of the country) and further out, the ocean.
Having heard the calls of the Bird of Paradise in the wild but having not yet seen it – we were excited to visit the PNG bird exhibit at the National Orchid Garden – exotic parrots, colorful birds and the central focal point – a large Birds of Paradise exhibit in which one would walk inside and be surrounded by these birds flying around.
Exxon Mobile has started a significant new project – a heavily guarded and fenced area next to the coast near Port Moresby. The LNG site is well under way with major construction on storage tanks, pipelines, housing, a mini city for the workers and other construction relating to oil and natural gas production.
We were end of the Kokoda trail last week – today we visited the start (about 45 km from Port Moresby). Nearby was the Bomana World War II cemetery, which is home to the remains of over 3700 soldiers – all male with the exception of one female nurse killed in a plane crash towards the end of the war. The ages range from 16 to 69; most of the graves are of Australian soldiers with some Papua New Guinean carriers among the grave sites. Even 70 years after the war, remains are still being found in the mountains. Just a few months ago the remains of several soldiers were found in the mountains and were buried in this cemetery. We were in Palau (Micronesia) last year and saw people still searching for WW II artifacts, funded by a government grant.
The highlight of the day was a visit to a rocky outcrop near the fishing village of Roku. A picturesque small bay is nearby along with Fisherman island, just offshore – but the most dramatic part of the visit here was the amazing tropical sunset.
We finished an exciting experience filled day in the Cold Media Production studio in Port Moresby – where we made a final interview video. Cold Media is a collaboration of three young individuals with help from friends. Their focus in part is to highlight some of what makes Papua New Guinea unique and create a passion for their own country among the countries’ youth.
Check out this song performed by our talented friend Ezra of Cold Media Productions – he wrote the lyrics performs, and has a little vocal help on the harmonics:
This is wonderful. Thanks for sharing! My parents spent about 6 months in Port Moresby about 7 years ago and I’ve been dying to see it.
Lance – thanks for dropping by. It is hard to find someone who has been to Port Moresby or elsewhere in the country – its fairly hard to get to logistically, and is not an inexpensive destination unfortunately. Hope you and Laura get the chance to visit someday 🙂
I haven’t been in Moresby but I would love to see that beautiful sunset there. Just hope there’s an affordable accommodation.
Love the market shot, remind me much about crazy hectic markets in Benin. Great post!
Yes, those markets are always chaotic – I love wandering through looking for new foods and fruits I’m not familiar with. Benin. A revisit to West Africa is on my list for the next year or so – probably fly into Nigeria – possibly see Benin and then head up to Senegal – I have a friend in the process of building a home in Guinea so will be sure to stop there to.