Bogia weekend: Camping on Nubia Plantation and Kayaking in the shadow of Manam Island

This weekend I got to know another beautiful spot of this magnificent country. We had Friday off for a nice long weekend… On Thursday we had a great dinner with many people at Locklain’s house to celebrate Nils‘ and Linda’s last days in PNG on Thursday night. He prepared Ramu-River prawns and a Sunday roast (more precisely he told his house-meri to prepare it) and we had a nice evening altogether on his veranda. It got a bit late, but stilll at 7AM the next morning we (Fabienne, Franziska, Locklain and myself) had the car loaded and went off towards Bogia, a village about 4 hours up the north coast. The road is, despite being dreadfully bad, very nice right next to the sea on an endless line of coconut Palms.

We had the canoes loaded on top and sat with two on the back of the car and two in the front cabin. Compared to our 7-people Mt Wilhelm group a quiet little bunch.

We arrived at Bogia and headed further up north to the old Nubia Coconut Plantation. The Plantation is still in operation, but after a major fight on land ownership rights (one of the major issues in PNG) it only runs at 20% of its potential with a tendency to even decline further. Who feels reminded of Solitaire???

But it is a perfect location for camping right next to the beach with a breathtaking view to famous Manam Island. This island is abandoned since the 2004 breakout of the volcano and still today there is a constant smoke cloud coming out of the top of the perfectly conic shaped mountain. We set up the camp place right next to the beach and really hoped that there will be no rain. The camping was rather simple: sleeping on matresses on the floor and catching the water from a tank 10 minutes walk away. Don’t imagine any sanitary facilities!

As soon as everything was set up we had a first swim in the waves. There are just few things that I would rate higher than sitting at the sea shore with the feet in the water and a cold SP (South Pacific) beer in the hand. Or a nice chill-out in the hamack between two coconut-palms. Cheers mates!

For barbecue we had an old Namibian classic: Chicken with Baked Beans and 'Mrs Ball’s Mango Chutney' (I could hardly believe it when I saw this in the supermarket!!!) too good!

At night we had a crew of guards hired to walk around our campground, so we slept quite well, apart from the sandflies and mosquitos that were eating us.

Aftera beautiful sunrise we took the canoes, fetched a guide with an outledge-canoe and paddled to the nearest Island in the bay. Distances are hard to estimate. I thought of a light paddle, which turned out to be an almost 2 hour journey on deep blue water. But the island was worth it: a completely empty island just for us, with spectactular Reefs for snorkeling and white sandy beaches for hanging out. Soooo nice!

Teddy, our 16-year-old guide with his younger brother on the island

In the afternoon we went with Jack, one of Locklain’s staff to Tangu, an isolated village via a dreadfully bad road. But the trip was great with wonderful views down the Bogia coast. But Tangu is really middle of nowhere. Check out the Tangu shopping centre:

The next morning I went with Franziska on the Kayaks again for a little paddle in the bay, we packed the car and had a peaceful trip altogether back to civilization. I can not tell you how much I enjoyed the shower.