Out in the Bush

Five hours of sleep.  Four liters of water consumed the day before.  Three liters of water sloshing around in my never-been-used camelback.  Two scrambled eggs for breakfast.  One excited (wannabe) hiker!

It’s 7:00 a.m. and I’m piled into a co-worker’s car driving toward the Yachtie to meet up with the Bushwalking Group to go on my first hike in Papua New Guinea.  Elated to get out of the city is beyond an understatement.  We are planning to head up to March Girls.  It is an easier hike along the coast that ends at a pretty resort where everyone hangs out for a bit.  Excited to meet some people not affiliated with TEMIS does not begin to cover it.  I feel very fortunate to really enjoy my colleagues – especially since they are both my work and my play friends - but, it's not a very big circle of people to associate with.  It is a very small community here in Moresby; even smaller when one does not step outside of the expatriate circles. 

I gather in the parking lot of the Yachtie with all the other expats waiting to get on the road.  The gentleman organizing the bush walk was running late.  When he arrives we learn that heading to March Girls is not an option due to a security concern.  6-Mile Road had been barracked and shut down during the week due to a murder.  My understanding (and this is all from word of mouth) is the family who owns the land that this road runs through closed it down until they received compensation.  Although this is a commonly used road, due to recent events, a convoy of expats driving through is not the brightest idea.  (You can stop gawking now; two people were shot and killed in Baltimore the other night according to the online papers back in the States.  It’s no different.)

Disappointed that we were not headed to March Girls, but to just outside the city by the Police Training Barracks [insert sound of my mother, grandmothers, and aunts sighing from relief in unison here], I pile into another expat's Land Cruiser and worry about the length and difficulty of what this hike would be. 

We arrive at the barracks after driving through town, past three places I know how to get myself to and from in Moresby (grocery store, school, Vision City).  Our police escort leads us to the brush and foothills that surround the city.  We walk past the Police Training Barracks, the blaring music, and the party that is still continuing from the night before [insert sharp breath of all relief leaving my mother, grandmothers, and aunts here].  Beautiful brown skinned men hang from the balconies and out the windows waving voraciously, shouting words of encouragement, and laughing hysterically at the mainly white-skinned group “hiking” what is a normal walk in the brush for them.  “It no hard girl.  It no hard.  You walk good,” one such police-officer-to-be yells down to me.  I just smile, wave, and keep walking.

There is no path.  The officer/escort in the lead is just creating a route and we all follow with another officer/escort taking up the rear.  The brush is up to my knees, higher in some parts.  We wander through the fields toward the hills ahead.  Hazy and overcast, I was thankful due of the lack of shade to protect my fair skin from the strong rays of sun here in the Pacific Islands.  We head uphill toward one of the Two Peaks hills – the one lacking a peak now due to mining.  We hike up and down the rolling hills circling the city of Moresby.  I more climb and less hike up one steep hill.   Our escort waits at the top to offer a hand of assistance while laughing at my clumsiness.  At the end of the hike, when we are all back in the parking lot of the barracks, the deep creases in his dark skin showing the years of hard work in the harsh sun curve up sharply at the corners of his eyes as his face lights up with a smile at the silly pride I beam for having finished the hike which he did barefoot and with no water. 



We hiked up to a mining site.  This company has completely
flattened the top of the hill to the right of where this shot was
taken.  You see this a lot in area - not many regulations here yet.



My “personal trainer” back home would have been proud (thanks go out to my Uncle Buddy for the early morning, well okay, late morning/early afternoon, texts telling my get my lazy bum out of bed and to the gym).  The sun did shine brightly toward the last quarter of the hike which slowed me down a bit.  I hung toward the back of the front group for the majority of the hike.  At the very end I dropped further back, mostly out of fear that we were never going to stop walking up hill and I wouldn’t make it at that pace for another hour.  I finished the hike.  I did not become dehydrated.  I did not die of soreness the next day.  All in all an excellent first hike in humid and balmy Papua New Guinea despite the lack of exciting coastal scenery – I look forward to the March Girls hike in a fortnight.