Last Saturday I had the great privilege of going for a hike with several guys of the national engineering staff. Our aim was to climb Mt Engiki who’s peak is 8000ft above sea level and then to hike across a mountain ridge down into a village for lunch. It was estimated to be an hour and a half of hiking, but I knew that was unlikely and would take porbably all day.
We started off Saturday morning in town, fortunately I had access to one of the MAF van’s. And started the transport run of picking people up and shopping, which started at 0800. Around 0930 we started to drive out of town, down roads which a Van is not designed for. It was amazing scenery out of town, we arrived at Engiki, the village that we would be starting from around 1030. Some of the group took the Van and headed for our finishing point to prepare lunch for us. It worked out really well, that the villages we were travelling from and travelling to belong to the guys we were with.
Being out from town as we were in the middle of no where, most people see very little white people or have ever seen any before. So every village we travelled through, there was a lot of excitement. After greeting a lot of people we started hiking towards Mt Engiki with a group of locals joining us. The track itself was very basic and rugged, once we reached the bottom of the mountain the track just went straight up and was very steep. Sometimes using whatever I could grab to help pull myself up the track.
As we continued to climb, I knew that it was going to get harder as the altitude increased. i have never hiked up that high before, I managed quite well. But I could notice the change in altitude and as I looked up, like any mountain you can see that the track is ongoing. You can tell when you’re close and not sure when it finishes. After about an hour of walking some of us reached what I thought was the peak. But as I caught my breathe, I looked up and saw the mountain peak which was still quite away above us. We continued for about another half an hour or so and reached the peak. I started to become a bit nervous with the track, as it was very narrow and either side was a very long step drop. And involved a bit of climbing to get up. But the sight from the top of this mountain was absolutely breathe taking, it would be one of the most amazing sites I have ever seen. These photo’s don’t do any justice for the view and since it was overcast. We could see 360 degrees around us of different valleys and other mountain ranges.
We spent a bit of time up there enjoying the view. Interesting enough there is a prayer house up there, where locals from the village walk up to once a week for a prayer meeting, now that’s commitment. We headed off again back down the mountain a bit, and then hiked across a mountain ridge. This involved hiking up and down other mountains for some time. At one point we left the extra crowd that had come with us. And this was good just so we could enjoy the hike with one another.
As we worked our way down from the mountain ridge, we passed through different villages. But also could look over the wide open valley, and it always amazes me that people live pretty much anywhere. On top of mountains, side of mountains or in valleys. We walked through villages that belonged to the area that the guys are from. In the end we entered Northeru Dame Secondary School teacher’s compound after 1530, where we would have a late lunch.
So we did about five hours of hiking in the end. Those who had taken the Van from Engiki and driven to the school, had prepared a Mu mu (meaning ground oven). This is a traditional PNG meal of chicken and vegetables cooked in the ground, which was beautiful. A lot of the guys were tired after the hike and was good to get some food. We left the school around 1700 and made it back into town just before dark, as we were driving back in it started to rain. So it was a great day and adventure. I really love hiking and it was a difficult hike at times, but was a lot of fun and beautiful surroundings. It was great to get out of Mt Hagen, but most of all it was great just to bond with the guys and the share the adventure with them..
