In the last week of November it was a steady week out at the hangar. Tuesday afternoon around 1600 some of us received word that there were two Twin Otter chartered flights going down empty from Mt Hagen to Madang the next day. Then doing the same Thursday afternoon, but empty from Madang to Mt Hagen. At first it seemed unbelievable, if there were empty flights then it would be going the other way. If there is a spare seat on a flight, then we can fly free. But to have a whole Twin Otter empty to Madang is very rare. “The World” cruise liner was docked in Madang harbour and several tourists were coming up to Mt Hagen for one night. So come 1630 when finishing work, it had been approved by management that Timon, Brandon and myself (the three Hagen singles) would be off to Madang the next morning. That night we took care of booking and arranging everything else.
1. The World cruise liner in Madang Harbour
We departed Hagen at first light just before 0600 on the first flight and arrived in Madang just before 0700. By the time we got into town and checked in at the Madang Resort we were having breakfast at the restaurant around 0800. Both Timon and Brandon are divers and Madang has some of the best diving in the world. So they were keen on diving, I don’t have my ticket yet, but would like to get it maybe next year. The group that we would normally dive with was fully booked and the other group seemed too expensive. So it was decided to go out to Jais Abbn to do some snorkelling. After some shopping and being able to rent a car from another mission organisation. We made it out to Jais Aben Resort and spent the afternoon chilling out by the water, swimming and snorkelling (there is coral reef very close to the resort). We had the water front area to ourselves. We headed back into town and resolved an issue with our resort room that had been ongoing all day. After resolving that we headed out to a restaurant called Coasties for dinner, close to the water. So we had a full day in Madang.
2. The boys @ Coasties - Brandon, Timon & I
The following morning after breakfast we headed out to the Malolo plantation resort which is about 40km’s from Madang. There again we chilled by the beach and swimming. Having the place to ourselves. The sand there is volcanic black sand. It is one of my favourite beaches in PNG. In the early afternoon we headed back into town for lunch, to have Chinese at the Madang Country Club. I had made it clear to the guys that we would have to eat lunch there at least once during our short stay. It had been a while for me since having real Chinese food, too long. We made our way back to the Resort, to check out and wait for the second Twin Otter flight.
3. Beach @ Malolo plantation lodge
After some confusion we made it out to the airport and knew that it would be very tight if we could make it back to Hagen before last light. Due to a few factors we got stuck overnight in Madang with the two pilots. My first time being stuck overnight somewhere in PNG and we were put up in the Madang Resort, pretty good. But there was no benefit for us staying the extra night, as we would go straight to work the next morning. We made it to work the following morning back in Hagen and the two pilots had another big program of flying that day. It was a really great short and refreshing time away (just getting out of the highlands for a night is so refreshing), plus a surprise. My first time out of the Highlands since July and my first time back to Madang since POC. It was good that Brandon could finally join Timon and me on a trip. I am quite pleased to go somewhere where there is beaches and food (planning on spending Christmas there for seven nights, but is now looking like six nights). When an opportunity like this comes up you have to make the most of it if possible.
December 26th, 2009 at 8:12 am
Merry Christmas! Glad to see you’ll be getting some time off, we’re leaving tomorrow so wish us luck.
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December 27th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Well done on the oppertunity flights.. yes the Madang Resort is very nice.
Chris
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January 2nd, 2010 at 12:27 am
Hey Jamo, are you going to solid or the road trip. Have fun!
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