PNG Tour Report

[Raid]

I visited the Western and Central Highlands, the Sepik River Basin and Port Moresby (the capital).

Overall I had a fantastic time, despite only a fewgood shots and would like to do this again now I know more about the country and the best way to get around.

Security

You will hear that PNG is a very dangerous place, but it is a third world country. Well for my entire time there I never felt unsafe, in fact I never saw a gun until my last day before flying out, even the Police don't carry guns (although I'm told they have automatic rifles in their 4WDs) or even body armor. I came across some missionaries who were about to leave PNG after 5 years. They said that in their time they had had their car broken into once, but no other trouble. In the cities foreigners need to look out for pickpockets and rip & run, the same advice you get when visiting a civilized country like Los Angeles/Greece/Vancouver (never any problems in these places). All the local tour operators will look after your security needs, so just heed their advice.

PNG has had mobile phones now for about 3 years and the coverage, almost everywhere I went, was excellent. At the wilderness lodge the coverage was poor, but when you are out on the river, in the middle of nowhere it was excellent.

Power in PNG is 240VAC (same as Australia) in-country power is provided by micro generation (Diesel or Hydro), which means that the voltage and frequency varied. Any power adapter you take should be rated to 100-240VAC. There were no problems with my Canon or Motorola chargers but my no-name NiMH charger overheated and now doesn't charge properly

Most companies don't provide much advise before you sign up so when I found the following I was delighted, this is top info for anybody planning a trip to PNG no matter what company you use.

http://www.pngtours.com/cms/uploads/images/Files/PNG_info.pdf

I ended up using this company for my tour and being local they certainly know what they are doing.

Rondon Ridge Lodge (Western Highlands - Temperate Rain-forest) is like a 3/4 star hotel, food was fantastic.
Karawari Lodge (Sepik river basin - Tropical Rain-forest) is a wilderness lodge, warm or cold showers, food was very good.
Ambua Lodge (Central highlands - Temperate Rain-forest) is like a 2/3 star hotel, food was basic.

I came across two other lodges in my trip, although I didn't stay at either of them I will give you the contact info.
Kumul Lodge (Western Highlands)
Kumul-lodge@global.net.pg

Kumul Lodge has a bird feeding platform that they let me use, even though I wasn't a guest. All the good bird pictures came from here.

Makara Bird View Lodge (Central Highlands)
http://www.countrytours.com.pg

Equipment

Canon 350D, EF-S 10-22, EF-S 17-85, EF 70-300L, 430EX Flash, Lowepro Flipside 400AW backpack, Garmin Vista HCX GPS and a small cheap tripod. In PNG there are restrictions on weight in very small aircraft for both carry-on and in the hull, so clothes were kept to a minimum to allow the maximum equipment.

EF 70-300L is my first L lens and I didn't expect much from this lens but I was very surprised. Canon said that it has a new coating that resists smears and fingerprints. I used this lens pointing up into the rain forest canopy. The lens hood had to be cleaned after every outing to remove dirt, seeds and water. The lens itself only had to be brushed to remove some dust, but (unlike my other lenses) there were no water marks or stains.

The reason why I chose the 70-300L was it gave me the best possible IQ at f5.6 (due to low light in the rain-forest) and its lightweight.

When it comes to photographing birds in the rain-forest canopy I was lucky to get a image larger than the focus point box in the viewfinder. If I had taken a EF 100-400L there would have been only a small gain. My guess is that you will need something in the 600mm+ range. I cannot see you being able to use manual focus it these conditions, so I wouldn't recommend using a 400mm f5.6 lens and adding a 1.4TC. The EF 400L f2.8 + 1.4TC or the new EF 200-400L f4 X1.4. I don't know how feasible it would have been to take heavy lenses halfway up a mountain in morning drizzle, but I made it with a full backpack 9kgs (20lbs).

Changing lenses in a rain forest is challenging at best, so if you can take a body for each lens do it. You will need to take something to waterproof your equipment, I made this from one of the Ziploc bags I carry.



Types of Tours

When you see a "Birding Tour" advertised these are aimed at Birders/Twitchers (Binoculars, Logs, lists and journals). This means they will supply you with lots of spotters for those with binoculars (it's common for binoculars to have a DSLR equivalent of 600mm or more with IS) and ID is easy. This also means that if you have seen that type of bird before, they won't point it out (you have crossed it off your list). I wasn't interested in what the bird was (I wouldn't know if they were lying anyway), just what would make the best shot.

You need to expressly tell the tour company/lodge/guide that you are there to photograph PNG, for me that was Flowers, Birds, Animals, Insects and landscapes. I wanted to go to a spot, get things up and not too much running around. In most cases the local guides know the display trees/area so this is easy. I have some very poor shots of a Twelve-wired Bird-of-paradise, while I'm standing in 10cm (4") of water for half an hour (it was still fun).

There are also two ways of doing a tour, that is Guided or Independent. With guided you get a western guide (or nanny) to tell you what will happen next and local guides to show you around. With Independent, you don't have the western guide, so you ask the local guide/lodge manager what's next. The western guides are expensive, you pay for their trip plus company profits, and all the information you want is available from the local guides or lodge manager.

For me independent is the best option and that's what I did. If you can get a number of friends together (6 max) then you can get yourself a really good rate.

There were two western guides that I ran into on my travels, both told my local guides he was wrong about the bird ID he provided. The local guides are all very polite and deferred to the "Expert". Later we checked my photos with a reference book and the local guides were correct, but they would never had said anything.

Attitude

I came across many other tour parties during my trip, and one thing occurred that annoyed my greatly. Most of the locals are subsistence farmers, hunters and fishermen with no electricity. The people that are serving you dinner often live in those villages that you will visit, so think before you make comments about the life style of the locals.

Pictures

Please note that I'm not a birder so any correct ID is purely accidental.

The biggest Bird of Paradise is the Black SickleBill, over 1metre, the flash didn't reach and the sun didn't come out so this is my best shot.

1. Canon 350D, EF 70-300L, 300(480) ISO400, 1/1000, f5.6

Here is another example the Raggiana Bird-of-paradise the first shot I took in Port Morsby (caged) the second is as close as I could get in the western Highlands. Again flash wouldn't reach and sun didn't come out. The reason why I posted these poor pictures is so that you will know what to expect.

2. Canon 350D, EF 70-300L, 166(266) ISO400, 1/160, f5

3. Canon 350D, EF 70-300L, 300(480) ISO400, 1/2000, f5.6
Now for the better shots and some very ordinary shots. It is so easy to spot the L glass.

4. Canon 350D, EF 70-300L, 300(480) ISO400, 1/500, f5.6

5. Canon 350D, EF 70-300L, 300(480) ISO400, 1/1000, f5.6

6. Canon 350D, EF 70-300L, 300(480) ISO400, 1/400, f5.6

7. Canon 350D, EF-S 10-22, 19 ISO400, 1/250, f4.5

8. Canon 350D, EF 70-300L, 135(216) ISO400, 1/1000, f10

9. Canon 350D, EF 70-300L, 300(480) ISO400, 1/40, f10

10. Canon 350D, EF-S 10-22, 10 ISO400, 1/1600, f8

11. Canon 350D, EF 70-300L, 300(480) ISO400, 1/800, f5.6