08.31.15 Royal Papua Yacht Club

It is a tradition I am told for yacht club members to visit the local yacht club while traveling. The Cottage Park Yacht Club (Winthrop, MA, USA) burgee has been photographed in Pohnpei at a marina (no yatch club), Royal Palau Yacht Club, and now at the Royal Papua Yacht Club.

Visitors must be accompanied by a member, but I was allowed to enter for the reasons stated in the above paragraph. The club was quite large and appears to be a social club for expats. There were some tall masts at the dock as well as a large number of motor boats. There were no pictures of races on the walls, no models of sailboats, no plaques to indicate that this was a yacht club. Perhaps they were in the sailing office, but being Sunday, it was closed. The experience made me miss CPYC and the warmth and commaderie of the members.

There was a huge dining area both inside and on the deck, which faced west. Rubgy games were on the television and as it got closer to the dinner hour, more people were arriving. By the sound of the accents, most appear to be Australians with a few NZ accents, too.

The security guard was kind enough to take my picture with the burgee in front of the club sign, reopened in 1998.

 

 Rugby match. Oceana games in progress. PNG 51 Solomon Islands 12. Am trying to learn the game.t

CPYC burgee at RPYC.

 

08.30.15 More pictures from New Britain, PNG

New Britain was a lovely  island to visit. Enjoyed the birding and the visits through the villages and meeting ever so briefly some of the local people.
Here are a few more pictures from this visit.

Jon, from Brusssels, Belgium, found a large grasshopper.

 

This is a "dry snorkeling shot" although I really did the real snorleling at Restorf Island.

 

Dominque, one of the boat drivers and guides to Restorf and MuluMulu islands.

 

 

 

 

Pretty blue ribbons identify the chicken as belonging to a particular village.

 

Coral reef.

 

Low tide, collecting shell fish.

Proteus.

Another local guide on the boat trip.

 

Erik, the Rockjumper tourguide.

Black noddies.

The world would be a much sadder place if it were not for the cocoa bean. CHOCOLATE!

 

Airport, Hoskins, New Britain. A new modern airport is being built.

 

 

 

08.30.15 People, places, flowers and village homes in New Britain

Our guide from Rockjumper is Eric and our local guide from Rockjumper is Joseph. Our travels in New Britain took us through Garu Forest and along the Kulu River. There are many palm tree plantations here - the fruit is used to make palm oil. In the evenings we wnet through the palm groves looking for a masked owl, which we never found. It is a challenge to find and only a few groups has seen him.

We also had the opportunity to pass through a village on our way to "Killer Ridge". One of the chiefs, named Joseph, was also our guide.  The hill was steep but not too bad. The view from the top was gorgeous and we did see many different birds as we walked through the forest, such as the owl included on the previous post.

Local workers employed by the palm oil plantations.

Cute little baby at the Walindi Plantation Resort.

Garu Forest.

Joseph, our local Rockjumper guide.

Fellow birders looking at the violaceous coucal.

 

  Fruits made into palm oil.

Local young woman.

Man harvesting the palm fruits.

Kulu River where we found the spotted whistling ducks and the kingfisher.

 

 Pretty flowers.

 

Nice young man at the resort.

Yes, he just makes himself at home. There were three big dogs there. Makes me miss Shorty, Fionnegan and Gunnarr.

Mother and daughter in a village.

There is a crake in there somewhere! Kulu Rivr scene.

Resort bungalow.

Joseph, a local chief and guide through his village. hefound the boolbook owl for us.

One of the village chiefs.

Tea break.

Cassava, also known as tapioca.

Taro patch. Many plants are dying because of the drought.

Our local guides.

She is cute and shy.