The original plan (A) had been to trek in the last week up the Black Cat track from Salamaua to Wau. We had already given up this idea for many reasons and changed to plan B which was to trek it the slightly easier route from Wau down to Salamaua. I'd been pretty disappointed already by this as my seven weeks in the jungle appear to have turned me into a masochist and I wanted to do the harder route, but a week before we left Kamiatum Adam dropped another bombs...

We all needed a break after 3 weeks in Kamiatum, and were happier than ever to return to our rooms in the Salamaua Guest house. Mittie was there to welcome us and we were soon de-jungled with (cold) showers and dry clothes and after about an hour of foot surgery on my part and a quick lunch, Claire and I both went and slept for 2 hours on our beds, bliss! The first day was very much focused on relaxing and enjoying small luxuries like chairs and tables and not...

After just 5 days of jungle living it already felt like we were living off a very restricted diet, so when Adam suggested we visit the yacht club, the only decent ex-pat food serving establishment, we jumped at the chance. The "lot" burger then became the topic of many conversations for the next 2 months and was, in fact, what dreams were made of! After this brief taste of familiarity and an epic and slightly desperate sweep of the supermarket, we load...

I could see from waking up on the morning of my trip to PNG that nothing was going to be straight forward. After lugging my (excess) baggage on the train to Brisbane airport and arriving fairly early at check in I encountered my first problem. Pacific blue would not let me check in without proof of a return ticket - which I hadn't booked with them. For some strange reason they sent me to Qantas, who re-directed me down two floors to Air Nuigini - still lugging...