Alotau and Milne bay in 3 Weeks

Recently I spent 3 weeks in the Alotau / Milne Bay area. This is my trip report, which I hope may be useful to others.

Unfortunately I was leaving Moresby a couple of days before Christmas and the airport was chaos. It took me three attempts to get on a flight to Alotau, despite having a ‘confirmed’ ticket. Anyway, I finally got on a plane and got to Alotau.

I stayed at Napatana Lodge in Alotau. It really is a nice place to stay. You can really relax and chill out there. I think it is about the best place that I have come across in PNG. I stayed in one of the ‘budget’ rooms, as I don’t use air con (K160 per night). The room was clean, had an en suite toilet and bathroom and tea and coffee making facilities.

Wagawaga and Treetops Guesthouse

Greta from Napatana is a wealth of knowledge for those wanting to travel around the region. She put me in touch with Warren from the Ulumani Treetops Guest House, where I stayed one night with some other expats. The guesthouse was great with fantastic views over Milne Bay. It is near Wagawaga Village, on the opposite side of Milne Bay to Alotau. I could easily have stayed there two or three days. We went snorkelling and swimming at the beach where the WW2 ship wreck is. The guesthouse was K80 per person, per night, including breakfast. Dinner was K27.

Trekking from Wagawaga towards Samarai Island

I wanted to go to Samaria Island overland, so warren arranged for two local boys to walk with me. It was a tough walk. We walked for about 8 hours, with the first 4 being mostly up a river: in the river, over rocks along ledges. Lots of leeches! The second half was all up hill in the jungle. I have done some hard walks in PNG, but this was one of the hardest. We got to Aisape Village at about 4:00 pm. There was a nice waterhole to swim and wash in just before the river, which had clear running water.

At Aisape we had fresh water prawns and garden foods for dinner. There was plenty and it was great. Also pineapple and bananas. Slept overnight here. Paid K20 for the food and K30 to stay in the house.

Next day the walk was easier, through the jungle and mostly flat land. Crossed lots of rivers, with crystal clear running water. Stayed at Dalidali Village that night with Moses, his son Harry and their family. Of course they didn’t know we were coming, but soon as they saw us preparations started for what turned out to be a mini feast. We had pineapple, banana, garden vegetables, fried wild pig and fish. I went to bed early and then some of the boys went diving in the river, so in the morning for breakfast we had freshwater prawns and fried eel. I have had bad experiences with eels in the past, but this was delicious.

Paid K30 to stay the night and K40 for the food as it was so good and a few extra boys had joined us walking the day before and of course they had to be fed.

Aisape and Dalidali villages are very remote. The people know about tourism and welcome tourists, but don’t have any business skills. When I tried to talk about costs they were very shy and reluctant to set any prices. So I based what I paid on other experiences in PNG. I also paid K20 a day for the guides. This is cheaper than elsewhere in PNG, but was assured this was the right rates by Greta and Warren.

The last day was an easy and pleasant walk to Gardogardowa Village where I caught a dinghy across to Samaria Island. I paid K40 for this dinghy, which was far too much, but I really wanted to get to Samarai that night.

Samarai Island

In Samarai I stayed at the Women’s Guest House. It was clean but basic. It cost K50 per night, with no air con. I think air cone rooms were K65 per person per night.

Samarai is a great place just waiting to be discovered in a big way. I took it relatively easy and just snorkelled off the old pier, but there was plenty to see there. There are lots of trips that could be done from Samaria to other islands. It’s just a matter of finding someone with a dinghy and negotiating a price. Some of the islands have good guesthouses.

After two nights on Samarai I went back to Alotau on dinghy, shared with two others for K 25 each, which was a pretty good price. The trip took about 1 and ½ hours and was pleasant in the clear early morning.

Alotau to East Cape to D’Entrecasteaux Islands

After a couple of easy days at Napatana in Alotau I headed for Normanby Island in the D’Entrecasteaux Islands group. I caught a PMV truck from Alotau to East Cape and then shared a dingy to so to Saidowai Village in Sewa Bay on Normanby Island. The PMV was K7, and the dinghy K180, which we shared amongst 4 people.

Saidowai Village has a lovely bush materials guesthouse with 4 rooms and a separate dining, sitting and cooking area. Mombi and the other villages are working very hard to make tourism viable, but from the records they had they only had about 20 visitors in all of 2007, so if you can, go and support them!

Overnight cost K30, dinner K20 and breakfast K10. The ladies prepare the meals and there was plenty of good food. Again, I had just turned up without giving any prior notice, but everything was organised very quickly on the spot.

The villages were extremely friendly and the kids loved having a visitor. I went for a swim and before I knew it I had about 30 kids with me, swimming, jumping and playing. It was great fun.

The next day I walked with two boys across the island to Ulowai Beach Resort, which was unfortunately closed. More of that later. The walk took about 8 hours and was mostly flat through the jungle, but with lots of river crossings. All the rivers are crystal clear. No leeches! When I got to Ulowai I saw the Guesthouse and thought everything would be okay, so the boys that were with me left as there wanted to get back to one of the other villages to overnight before it got dark. I paid them K35 each as I had two bags and one had food in so was a bit heavy.

The local people at the guesthouse said that they didn’t have the key and that I would have to sleep on the porch, outside. This was not good news. I was wet and tired and wanted a bed, even if it was just thin foam. Esa’ala was about 2 hours walk away, but it was almost 5:00 o’clock and I now had no one to help with my bags, and I was just not up to tackling that trek at that time. Then a solution. Someone came running up saying that there was a work boat off the beach and maybe it would take me to Esa’ala. After some negotiations I agreed to pay K50 for the boat to make the relatively short trip to Esa’ala. I know I paid too much, but it was a seller’s market and I wanted to get to Esa’ala that night.

Esa’ala

When I got to Esa’ala my heart sank: the gates were locked and there was no sign of life. Surely I couldn’t have struck out on two guesthouses in the one day? Not to worry, someone came to my rescue saying that the lady who managed the Guesthouse lived ‘up the hill’ and someone had been sent to get her.

The manager (can’t remember her name), soon came, prepared my room with the help of her very obliging and hard working grand sons, especially Kenneth. There is a good trade store at Esa’ala and it even sells SP beer. This was too much, so I bought a six pack (at K5 per bottle) and drank them with a couple of new friends who as it turned out helped me get around in my few days in Esa’ala.

My first day I just walked around the village and along the beach and generally took it easy. I had met a guy with a dinghy, Xavier (or ‘Exxy’ for short) and he offered to take me in his dinghy if I bought the zoom. This was a great deal so the next day went over to the hot springs at Deidei Village on Fergusson Island and then snorkelling on the reef just off the Esa’ala beach. The hot springs were awesome. There were geysers, boiling waterholes, mud pools and a great little stream with hot water were we could sit and swim. We ate fresh pineapple and bananas that had been cooked din the spring while we sat in this stream. This is one of the things that I marvel about travelling in PNG: if this spot was in Australia or Europe it would be teeming with tourists. In PNG I had all this to myself and my guides.

The next day went for a walk through the inland jungle with a local guy and visited his families living in the bush. A great day, though beautiful country and only cost me a six pack when we gat back to Esa’ala.

The Guesthouse cost K85 per night including 3 meals, which were generally twice as much as I could eat.

Salomo and Fergusson Island

Exxy agreed to take me to Salomo if I bought the zoom, which I did. It is about a 30 minute trip from Esa’ala. Salomo is the headquarters for the United Church for the PNG Islands. It is a large mission town with a school, aid post that actually has medical staff and medicines (that’s because it is funded by the United Church and not the PNG government). The church runs a nice guesthouse there. K20 to stay overnight and K10 for meals.

I had hoped to walk across Fergusson Island to get to Goodenough Island but was told there was a raskol problem on the island and that I shouldn’t do it! Enough people told me this that I reluctantly had to review my plans. My options were to just wait in Salomo and hope that a dinghy turned p that was going to Goodenough or jump on the passenger boat tat was going back to Alotau the next day.

Now Salomo is a pretty enough place, but not much to do there and I had already finished the one book I had taken. I hate admitting defeat, but I decided that my best option was to get on the MV Bromilow (the Church boat) and head back to Alotau. The boat took 10 hours and cost K20. Luckily the sea was clam and the day clear, so it was a good trip back.

At Alotau I decided to try Masurina Lodge. I stayed one night in a budget room for K110, with air con, but went back to Napatana the next day as Masurina just doesn’t have the same great atmosphere.

I didn’t have a ticket back to Moresby, so had to spend an extra day in Alotau before I could get on a plane and then I was back in Moresby.

I had hoped to get across to the mainland from Goodenough Island and then go up the coast to Lae, but got stymied at Salomo. Will have to leave the North Coast trek for another day.

Thanks to Andy_Andy and Lostscot for their trip reports during 2007, which gave me some great information and ideas for planning this trip. The Milne Bay people are very friendly (apart from the raskols on Fergusson Island!) and there is a lot to do, so I would encourage you to go.

Great report. Thank you.

Yeah! Great report, thanks.