Travels: Tufi

Wow, what can I say. The fiords of southeastern New Guinea are amazing and the people fascinating. We were tired when we landed in Port Moresby and glad that arrangements had been made to bypass immigration. We breezed through the airport and were given a police escort through town to the National Museum. The museum was closed and but we were given a private tour. We were too tired to appreciate what was shown. After the tour we had another police escort, with blinking lights and all, to our hotel. Even more security at the hotel. Large gates, razor ribbon, and armed guards. All the guards would stand at attention and salute whenever we walked by them. It felt like there were as many security people as there were guests. The hotel was beautiful with excellent service.

The next morning we split into 4 groups: Southern Highlands, Sepik River Basin, Western Highlands, and Tufi Dive Resort. Paula and I took a small single engine plane to Tufi. Tufi is in southeastern New Guinea and is an area of large, deep fiords.

Tufi International Airport

Tufi Airport Welcoming Committee

These kids were gawking at us so I asked them if I could take their picture. They were quick to pose and really enjoyed seeing themselves on the little screen. It was a short Land Rover trip to the resort.

The water behind Paula is over 750' deep. Tufi was a PT base during WW II. The docks, runway and the road connecting them all date from the war. We quickly changed into our swimsuits and headed down the steep road to the dock. We traveled by boat offshore for an hour to the Keikos Reef. The water was warm and crystal clear.

As you can see, the water was very calm even this far offshore. The reef protected us from the large rollers in the South Pacific.

We returned to the lodge and enjoyed large lobsters for dinner. All the seafood was caught locally. The Spanish Mackeral were running and the natives were going offshore in outriggers and catching them with hand lines - ouch! They speared the lobster with long, skinny spears.

The next morning we took an outboard to the neighboring fiord and were met by natives in outriggers.

We transferred to the canoes and paddled to the end of the fiord and up a small stream. We then waded ashore and made a short hike through the forest with our guide, Ramsey, explaining what we were seeing and telling us about their culture.

Our Guide Ramsey

Note the young boy to the left of the tree.

We paddled back to the fiord and took the motorboat back around to a beach where we were greeted with a singsing, barbecue and cold SP Lager. They even had Diet Coke for Paula.