Ecotourism
Melanesia’s PAPUA NEW GUINEA
Touring
Milne Bay by chartered workboat
Workboats are 10 metre wooden boats with diesel engines that ply the remote islands of Milne Bay Province carrying trade store goods, copra, beche-de-mer, local passengers and the occasional tourist. Workboat skippers know the Milne Bay waters intimately and are well known to the people living on each island. Chartering a workboat is the most economical option for visiting remote communities where there are no scheduled transport services; considerably cheaper than chartering an aircraft, luxury cruiser or dive boat. Ecotourism Melanesia offers a number of charter itineraries aboard two typical workboats, the MV John Vincent and the MV Yayata which carry four passengers in cabin bunks with space for one or two extra on deck. Catering is D.I.Y.
SETTING THE SCENE: The islands, reefs and the coral cays of Milne Bay are breathtakingly beautiful. Traditional culture is still very strong and as you travel around there is every chance that you will witness a "kula" exchange or celebration.
Colonel Kenneth Mackay, in his book "Across Papua", published in 1907, described the scene then.
"Once more under way, we passed through islands often but a few yards square, green with undergrowth and sand fringed, and lonely atolls bare of all vestige of shade. Then to our front, the Amphlet Group rose cone shaped out of the sea. About mid-day we ran between two islands, partly wooded, but with great patches of grass on their sides and summits. On one a village by the shore, on the other, one built upon a spur halfway to its crown. They looked like two great emeralds set in aqua marine, while everywhere lay other islands all beautiful, and in the far distance the clouds rolled over the peaks on Fergusson. We anchored at the base of a mountain, its lower slopes green velvet, its higher altitudes forest, with mists rising out of the deep cut ravines, its bare and rock-faced head shooting above the circling clouds to a height of 4,500 feet. All around was stretched a chain of rugged volcanic peaks split by narrow passages, so we lay as it were in a lake whose shores were fringed by rich masses of timber right to the water's edge."And, in the last 100 years, nothing has changed! There are so many different routes that adventure travellers can take when they charter either the MV John Vincent or MV Yayata. Charters can be for as little as three or four days but the most satisfied guests have been those who have chartered for somewhere between eight and sixteen days.
Island groups accessable by chartered workboat include:
· The Trobriand Islands - dubbed the "Islands of Love" by Malinowski the anthropologist .
· The Conflict Islands - a superb coral cay with a large central lagoon where giant turtles nose up to boats to investigate. The turtles lay their eggs on the coconut fringed sandy islands of the Conflict group.
· The Amphlet Islands, famed for their beauty, pristine reefs and the very finest clay pots produced for "kula" exchange.
· Fergusson Island is renowned for its thermal activity. At a place just beside the beach, for over a hectare, steam shoots twenty metres or more into the air and boiling water bubbles through the rocks into streams that flow down to form a small warm lake. (Locals sometimes cook their meals in the boiling water, just as their ancestors did.)
· The thirty or more fjords of Cape Nelson on the north coast of the mainland are breathtakingly beautiful. Eachfjord is fenced in by sheer walls of basalt. Reefs fringe the fjords and at certain points, waterfalls pour into the sea.
· Samarai Island. Colonel Kenneth Mackay, again in his 1907 book "Across Papua", describes the scene as it was then…
"From this central vantage post we looked down on all the falling slopes covered with magnificent palms intermingled with bread-fruit trees, mangoes, just beginning to show their fruit, poincianas, like cedars of Lebanon in leaf, now crowned with glorious red flowers, crotons robed in deep tinted foliage, and lower still avenues of coconuts circling the tennis and cricket grounds, while rows of stately trees shaded the grass-carpeted flat, once a deadly swamp. Everywhere were coral paved paths flanked with hedges of crotons, and winding along the shore ran a pathway roofed by spreading fronds. Circling it all were the straits, studded with tree-crowned isles, and ringed as with jewelled girdle by mainland hills rising fold on fold, and high peaked islands, twixt which came silver gleams of narrow waterways leading to the outer sea. I doubt if in all the world there be a more beautiful spot, for it is a cameo cut by immortal hands out of the sea, and shore, and sky, and ever to me to will remain a very garden of the gods. Commercially Samarai is today the most important town in Papua."
However, in the 21st century, it is not. Samarai is an island of only 24 hectares so, shortly after the Second World War, the provincial capital was moved to Alotau. Gone is the bishop, the three hotels and the big general stores. However, you will still find that the absolute beauty of this place which attracted the first white settlers remains along with some of the old buildings and a central monument.
· The natural beauty of the run of islands from the Trobriands to the Marshall Bennetts to Woodlark Island and then on to the remotest of them all, Budibudi Atoll, is unique. Throughout this chain of islands, the tradition of kula has been maintained and today large ocean-going canoes still form a very important element in local transport.
· The Calvados chain of islands. These are some of the most beautiful tropical islands that you could ever imagine. Swim from the sandy beaches. Dive into the coral gardens. Hike up and over one or more of these tropical paradise islands.
· Rossel Island. This is an island of immense beauty but one that comes with a past. Colonel Mackay in 1907 writes that "the most wholesale butchery was that of 300 Chinese wrecked in St. Paul on Rossel Island on September 30, 1858. The story goes that the natives placed all of the Chinamen on a small atoll close by, supplied them liberally with food, and then, as their condition warranted it, rowed them over to the mainland and ate them. The survivors appear to have been under the impression that as they did not come back their mates were liberated, and so as each batch left they were given a Celestial God-speed in the shape of a song by those left behind. The fact remains that in 1859 a French steamer took off one Chinaman, who was in the fullness of time arrested for "sly grog selling" in a Victorian gold rush."
Today, the Budibudi locals giggle shyly when asked about what happened and, if pressed, will take you to Chinese Island (Gohoteama). It is a small island, maybe 200 metres from the coast and maybe 50 metres by 20 metres and one wonders how 300 people could ever have been held here. The story as told in 2002 of what happened goes something like this… There was a shipwreck and many Chinese came ashore. Two chiefs were coming on a canoe from Dawa and Jinjo and they saw two young boys on Chinese Island. The chiefs indicated to the boys to stay as the chiefs were going to a feast and that they would come back for them. On their way back from the feast, the chiefs each took a boy back to their separate villages. One chief took his boy and ate him. The other kept his boy. He made him a canoe and taught him how to garden and fish. Then one day he took him on a sailing canoe to Misima Island. There they met a European. The Chinese boy went away with him and never came back.
Believe what you wish...
GETTING THERE: Air Niugini flies daily to Alotau from Port Moresby. From Alotau's Gurney airport, charter clients are transferred to Alotau. Charter boat clients must plan to spend two nights in Alotau before commencing their sea journey in order to have time to purchase supplies and transport these to the boat. We recommend staying at Napatana Lodge.
INTRODUCING THE WORKBOATS: MV John Vincent (38 feet) and MV Yayata (35 feet) are sturdy workboats built from Milne Bay timber at the Kwato boat building yard near Samarai and are each approximately 30 years old. Each boat is manned by a captain, a diesel engine mechanic and two crewmen. Both boats comply with PNG maritime regulations and are inspected annually. Safety equipment carried on each vessel includes two ship-to-shore radios (HF), life jackets, life raft. signal flares and tender (dinghy). Over the past thirty odd years both boats have weathered many a tropical storm and even the tail end of a few cyclones so you need not fear that the boat will capsize the moment you set foot on it.
There is no escaping the fact that these are "work" boats, not luxury cruisers. Before each passenger charter the boat is given a general scrubbing and the passenger cabin, toilet and gallery are cleaned and disinfected. However the smell of cargoes past and the appearance of 30 years of sea time is impossible to hide. Your nose will live with the hint of copra and beche-de-mer for the duration of your trip and your hands will collect a coating of sea salt and diesel grime each day - a similar composition to the Oil of Ulan which your mother pays a fortune for. These sights, smells and touches all comprise the character of the boat that make it a unique travel experience and of course make it about 50% cheaper than a chartered tourist or dive vessel.
ACCOMMODATION: Each workboat has a cabin with four single bunks. Rubber mattresses, pillows and tropical linen are provided. BYO towel and teddy. The cabin can be locked but the crew are honest and they are responsible for guarding your belongings while you are ashore when visiting islands. There are no problems with mosquitoes when the boat is on the high seas or moored offshore. At night the cabin can be hot so BYO battery-powered personal fan, spare batteries and some duct tape for positioning the fan to blow on you while you lie in your bunk.
BATHING AND TOILETS: There is a ship's toilet on board - pretty small and you kinda have to reverse in, but it works. Toilet paper is supplied but BYO spare in case the main supply gets drenched by a wave. There is no bathroom for bathing. Passengers can wash hands and face, have a bucket-bath or sponge bath on the duck-board at the stern of each workboat using fresh water from a small tank or drum replenished during each during shore visit. However most prefer to bathe in a freshwater stream or pool on one of the islands each day. All bathing on the boat or on shore is semi-clothed: men should wear shorts while bathing and women should wear shorts and top or a sarong. BYO favourite soap and frequent-wash shampoo.
MEALS: Passengers must purchase a core supply of supplies from the stores and the market
in Alotau before departure. The boat has iceboxes which when packed with block ice will keep perishables chilled for about a week. As the boat travels from island to island there is no shortage of fresh fish, fruit and vegetables available for purchase from villagers. Village people on these remote islands really look forward to selling their produce to visitors as this is often their only way of earning cash, so we encourage you to plan on purchasing as much as possible from the islands you visit along the way. Get wads of K2 and K5 notes from the bank, allowing K100 per day - you probably won't need this much for food alone but you will probably want to buy small handicrafts, sea shells and other items off islanders as well.
You can also catch large fish by throwing a trolling line out the back of the boat while motoring along - the crew have their lines out most of the time.
Upon booking your charter you will be supplied with a list of basic food items and cooking ingredients you will need to purchase. The galley on board the workboat has a small gas cooker and basic pots, pans and skillets. If there is nair a cook among ye, do not despair as the crew are quite good at knocking up meals with basic ingredients and of course they know 101 ways to cook fish. Even if you cook for yourself the crew will clean the fish, peel the vegetables etc ... you are chartering the boat with the crew so they are at your disposal. You will not have to feed the crew as the boat owner supplies them with daily rations and they will cook separately most of the time, though you will no doubt share a fish or two during the trip. The galley also provides basic crockery (enamel camp-style plates and cups) and cutlery (stainless steel forks, spoons etc). Nevertheless it may be a good idea to bring a plastic picnic set with you just in case.
SHORE EXCURSIONS: On arrival at destination your crew will go ahead and advise locals of your presence and negotiate any activities like traditional dance performances or tours of village areas. It is normal for a couple of villagers to be appointed as guides to take you around the village and interpret the local culture for you. Local guides can also show you the best fishing, swimming and snorkelling spots, caves and underground springs. They will also show you an appropriate place to bathe.
Carry small change with you, and at every available opportunity we encourage you to purchase fruit and vegetables, flowers, coconuts to drink - anything that can feed a little cash into the village. It is normal to tip your guides around K20 each for the day.
EQUIPMENT: If you wish to go scuba diving during your charter you must supply all your own equipment and you must organise all your own certifications and insurance. You must have a qualified divemaster among your tour party. Some dive equipment may be hired from a commercial dive operator in Alotau. The workboat's power supply can drive an air compressor. All equipment for fishing, trolling, snorkelling etc must be brought with you. You should also bring your own comprehensive first aid kit and plenty of sunscreen. You are bound to get sunburned so your grandmother's sunburn remedy (tea leaves or whatever) is a also must.
CHARTER COSTS:
PGK2,200 per day for MV John Vincent (38 feet)
PGK2,000 per day for MV Yayata (35 feet)
-includes bunk space for up to 4 passengers and deck sleeping space for an additional 2 passengers.
-includes boat fuel for the trip and shore transfers by dinghy
Does not include cost of shore activities.
Both boats are in heavy demand for cargo runs, so passenger charters have to be booked 3 months in advance.Book and pay through Ecotourism Melanesia.Visit our booking information page
CHARTER ITINERARIES
Tour One (16 days)
Samarai Island, The Engineer group, The Conflict Group, The Calvados chain of islands, Sudest and Rossel Islands.Day 0 arrive in Alotau, do shopping for supplies. Overnight hotel.
Day 1 After breakfast board either MV John Vincent or MV Yayata and motor down Milne Bay to Samarai.
Day 2,3 Motor to the Engineer group. Four beautiful tropical islands. Spend two days here relaxing around these islands. The reefs are teeming with fish.
Day 4,5,6 Motor to the Conflict group. Relax for couple of days in the central lagoon, swimming and observing the turtles and the absolute beauty of this paradise. There are no villages on the Conflict Islands but you may meet villagers from surrounding islands, diving for beche-de-mer.
Day 7,8 Tour to the Calvados chain of islands to investigate this natural tropical wonderland. These islands are now regarded as some of the most attractive in the Pacific.
Day 9,10 Travel to Rossel Island . Diving on the reefs around the island is a wonderful experience.
Day 11 Begin the trip back to Alotau, four days direct island-hopping.
Tour Two (16 days)
Fergusson Island, The Amphlett Islands, The Trobriand Islands (Kiriwina, Vakuta, Kitava), The Marshall Bennett Islands, Woodlark Island, the beautiful Budibudi group of islands, Alcester Island and Normanby Island.Day 0 Day 0 arrive in Alotau, do shopping for supplies. Overnight hotel.
Day 1 After breakfast board workboat and motor down Milne Bay, around East Cape to Fergusson Island, renowned for its thermal activity. Moor at a place just near where for over a hectare, steam shoots twenty metres or more into the air and boiling water bubbles through the rocks into streams that flow down to form a small warm lake.
Day 2 Proceed to the beautiful Amphlett Islands to swim among the coral gardens or watch as traditional potters create cooking pots that are treasured by all who cook in Milne Bay Province (and by international collectors of traditional pottery).
Day 3 Proceed to Losuia, the main township on the Trobriand Islands. If you arrive during yam festival time you will be in for awonderful experience but the local traditionalists will always be on hand to either try to sell you some of their fine ebony carvings or maybe invite you to their villages to witness traditional dancing.
Day 4,5 Proceed to Vakuta Island and tour around the villages and, for a couple of days, tour their special sites. Maybe you could ask to stay in Klunie Patimo's village homestay accommodation for a night. You can relax and maybe swim at one of their isolated beaches and then swim in one of the many limestone caves.
Day 6 Proceed to Kitava Island, another Trobriand Island and there, maybe dive with the boys on their reef and spend time with them at their village.
Day 7,8,9 Tour to the Marshall Bennett Islands (Iwa, Kwaiawata, Gawa). These are truly beautiful islands. Some of the finest carvers live here. These islanders build beautifully carved ocean going canoes and, during your travels you should see some of these under full sail.
Day 10 Tour to Madau and Woodlark Islands
Day 11,12,13 Motor from Woodlark to the beautiful Budibudi Atoll, arguably the most remote of all islands in Papua New Guinea.
Two of the eight islands have small villages. The sand is sparking white, the corals pristine and the hospitality will overwhelm you.
Day 14 Anchor at the village at Alcester Island…a wonderful setting with its crystal clear water and gardens of coral filled with a spectacular array of the most colourful fish.
Day 15 Normanby Island
Day 16 Alotau.
Tour Three (12 days)Topora, Cape Vogel, Kewasasap (on the border between MBP and Oro), Reaga, Uiako, Wanigela, Jebo village near Cape Nelson, Goodenough and Fergusson Islands.Day 0 Day 0 arrive in Alotau, do shopping for supplies. Overnight hotel.
Day 1 After breakfast board workboat and motor down Milne Bay, around East Cape to Topora. At this place, in years gone by, the old men of the village would lead the boys on fishing missions where, after weeks of ritual, the men would paddle out in their canoes and "flying fish would, through magic, just fly into their canoes, filling them to overflowing". This is the home village of the owners of MV John Vincent and mv Yayata and they witnessed these happenings when they were small children. Sadly, the old men with the magic, did not pass it on to the next generation.
Day 2 Motor across Goodenough Bay to Cape Vogel and moor for the night at a safe anchorage at one of the coastal villages.
Day 3 Travel to Kewasasap village with its white sands.
Day 4 Travel to Reaga village which is situated on a sand spit with a backdrop of the Owen Stanley ranges which, at that point, is some 3,500 metres high.
Day 5 Visit Uiako village, the centre of the tapa making industry and the place where the people, with the support of the Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund and a number of private donors were able to win a series of court battles that finally protected their forests from loggers. (There is a telephone at Uiaka village.)
Day 6,7,8 Visit Wanigela, the village in Oro province renowned for its potters and then motor on to the safe anchorage at Jebo village. Jebo beach is really beautiful and on either side are two of the fjords that nearby Cape Nelson is famous for. Colonel Kenneth Mackay, in his book "Across Papua", describes the scene… "This delta is pierced by over 30 fiords, all radiating out from the mountains like the ribs of an open fan, and all beautiful as the one we rowed up on that still, sensuous afternoon." "For we rowed up a marvellous arm of the sea, fenced on either shore by sheer cliffs and steep-faced ranges, all clothed and crowned with palms and mangoes and giant vines, while ever above rose in splendid confusion a very tumult of hills, broken and torn and tumbled before the feet of (Mt) Brittania (1,726m), (Mt) Tremaraire (1,574m), and (Mt)Trafalgar (1,644m), while (Mt) Victory's crater (1,841m), whence smoke forever rises, towered in the rear."
Days 9 Begin the return journey, via Goodenough and Fergusson Islands to Alotau.
Day 12 Arrive Alotau
Tour Four (8 days)Fergusson Island, The Amphlett Islands, The Trobriand Islands (Kiriwina & Vakuta), Normanby Island.Day 0 Day 0 arrive in Alotau, do shopping for supplies. Overnight hotel..
Day 1 After breakfast board workboat and motor down Milne Bay, around East Cape to Fergusson Island renowned for its thermal activity. Moor at a place just near where for over a hectare, steam shoots twenty metres or more into the air and boiling water bubbles through the rocks into streams that flow down to form a small warm lake.
Day 2 Proceed to the beautiful Amphlett Islands to swim among the coral gardens or watch as traditional potters create cooking pots that are treasured by all who cook in Milne Bay Province (and by international collectors of traditional pottery).
Day 3,4 Proceed to Losuia, the main township on the Trobriand Islands. If you arrive during yam festival time you will be in for a wonderful experience but the local traditionalists will always be in hand to either try to sell you some of their fine ebony carvings or maybe invite you to their villages to witness traditional dancing.
Day 5,6 Proceed to Vakuta Island and tour around the villages and, for a couple of days, tour their special sites. Maybe you could stay in Klunie's village homestay accommodation for a night.You can relax and maybe swim at one of their isolated beaches and then swim in one of the many limestone caves.
Day 7 Proceed to Normanby Island
Day 8 Arrive Alotau.
Tour Five (6 days)Samarai Island, The Engineer group and The Conflict group of islands.Day 0 arrive in Alotau, do shopping for supplies. Overnight hotel.
Day 1 After breakfast, board workboat and motor down Milne Bay to Samarai.
Day 2 Motor to the Engineer group…four beautiful tropical islands.
Day 3,4 Motor to the Conflict group. Relax for couple of days in the central lagoon, swimming and observing the turtles and the absolute beauty of this paradise. There are no villages on the Conflict Islands but you may meet villagers from surrounding islands, diving for beche-de-mer.
Day5, 6 Return to Alotau via either Nuakata Island or Wari Island.
Tour Six (4 days)Dawson Island, Conflict group of islands
Day 0 arrive in Alotau, do shopping for supplies. Overnight hotel.
Day 1,2 After breakfast board workboat and motor down Milne Bay to Dawson Island, a beautiful island rimmed with white sand and coral reefs.
Day 3 Motor to the Engineer group…four beautiful tropical islands.
Day 4 Return to Alotau.
OTHER INFORMATION
You must have full medevac insurance for these workboat charters. If you suffer an acute illness or an accident on a remote island, a fixed wing aircraft or helicopter may have to be flown out to evacuate you.The boats are fitted with ship to shore radios and the captain makes twice daily contact with their base at Alotau. Messages can be relayed via the Alotau base.
