Lonetree

Today, June 9th, is celebrated as the queen's birthday, which is a national holiday in PNG. I think it goes back to the time when PNG had some ties with Australia, which was of course once a British possession. Something like that. Anyway, it means that everyone has the day off here. So instead of going in to the finance office at 8 this morning, I took a hike up a mountain outside of Ukarumpa known as Lonetree with a group of others. Most of the mountain is covered with tall grass, as you can see from the picture above. The stand of trees up top is actually the edge of a small forest that extends down the other side, but apparently about 30-40 years ago, all you could see was one tree. Thus, it became known as Lonetree. (I am told that the historic "lone tree" has since been struck by lightning, died, and become not much more than a blackened stump)

We left around 8:30, just after the night's misty rain had stopped. (of course, in the end we still got soaked, because the grass was about waist high or more, and it was still all wet from the rain) We had to take off our shoes and cross the Bae River just outside Ukarumpa, then we went through a little village where a young boy named Jack took it upon himself to be our guide. He led us up to the top on paths that he assured us (in Pisin) that would keep us away from the landowners who would charge us 20 Kina to walk on their property. The paths were very narrow trails through the grass that were easy enough to see when you were on them, but were small enough that you probably couldn't find them if you were only 10-15 feet away. We estimated that it was about a two mile hike to the top, where (with Jack's help) we made a small fire to warm up and dry off a bit. We saw misty views like the one below on both sides of the mountain, which overlooks long valleys on both sides.


On the way down, it was an adventure making our way along the paths without slipping around too much. The dirt on the little trails was hard packed clay, and since it was wet and our shoes were muddy, we had fun laughing as we all took our turns on the ground from time to time. (Jack only slipped once I think. That was the spot where all of us ended up slipping too) By the time we were halfway down (again, about 2 miles in all) the sun was starting to come out and it was getting much warmer and drier. We came out to a little village and coffee plantation where of course everyone popped out of their houses to see us and wave and smile as we passed. It really is a neat experience to be able to make everyone's day with a wave, a smile, and an "apinun" greeting.

After that, it was about a 4-5 mile walk on a dirt road back to Ukarumpa. Now it was quite a bit warmer, since the sun had finally broken through the clouds, but it was still a nice hike. We got to enjoy seeing the sun and clouds playing across all the grassy hills, which is when I took the picture you see at the top of this post. We got back and were all ready for a rest, considering the whole hike was about 8 miles. Jack stuck with us the whole way until he had to take a trail back to his village towards the end, and patiently waited from time to time for us whiteskins to catch up to him on the steep climbs up the mountain.

It was a nice hike, and sometime I'll have to go up there when it's sunny so that I can see what's it's like when it's clear. It was still neat to see the mist and clouds rolling and moving across the top of the mountain and falling into the valley below. Now, after taking a shower and cleaning up a bit, I'm just relaxing and enjoying the day off.