Last week I went to Lae for a few days. This is a 10km drive
from our home in the Aiyura Valley to the Highlands Highway, then about 210km
along the highway to Lae. In many places, a 220km highway drive is a matter of
a few smooth hours. Not here! We spent
four hours bumping through or swerving around potholes, breaking suddenly and
holding our breath.
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| A truck parked on your side of the road? No worries, just swerve around it. |
The 10km to Kainantu is one of the worse stretches of road.
At one point the road subsides over a metre, and the cars bump down into the hollow
and back up again. At another point, the road has been patched up from what
used to be one lane and a gaping hole where the creek stole the other lane. The
bridge to Kainantu has also been patched up, with pieces retrieved from the
river below where they had previously fallen. This bridge is slowly sinking
down the river banks. When it is eventually impassable, we shall be cut off
from the highway.
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| Looking ahead to a landslide which we will soon go along the top of. |
Once on the Highlands Highway, we first wound our way
towards Yonki dam. This provides hydroelectric power to much of the nation. At
all points you are sharing the road with pedestrians and roaming livestock,
which adds an extra challenge. Along the edge of the road are villages, market
stalls and fuel stalls.
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| The beautiful view along the Markham Valley. |
Once we have crossed the dam, the next challenge is KassamPass. This is the switchback road which descends from the highlands to the
lowlands. As we drove down we passed through a layer of cloud, travelling from
clear air to fog and back to clear air again. The clarity gives a breathtaking
view of the valley and the Finnesterre Mountains beyond…and of the precipice
beside each bend that you take. Reaching the bottom of the pass I always
breathe out a sigh of relief and breath in the humid air that says we have
reached the lowlands.
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| The Markham River looking lazy. |
The Markham Valley is flat, grassy and full of cattle. If
you take the turn off to Madang, there are palm oil plantations. I have only
ever seen the Markham River in a lazy state, but the breadth of the river bed,
the sharp cliffs along it and the trees and rocks scattered about testify to
the force of water which sometimes passes through. It has been known to take
out bridges when in full flood.
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| The surprising house that seems to have landed from somewhere else. |
PNG is the land of the unexpected and nearing Lae there is a
sight which made my head turn; a house which looked like it had been lifted
from America and landed in PNG. Apparently it belongs to a local MP.
Once we reach the turnoff for Nadzab airport we are nearing
Lae, although it is still over half an hour away. Maybe this distance would be
shorter if the road were better, but as a heavily trafficked road, it is
quickly worn down. The worst stretch of road is the last 10-15km into town. The
unofficial rule is that you keep to the side of the road which is smoothest and
to the left when there is oncoming traffic.
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| Potholes at a Lae corner. |
In Lae itself the roads vary. The road to the guesthouse had
been redone since I visited a year ago. It was smooth, had kerbs, gutters and
lines marked. Another corner by a main shopping centre was so full of potholes
that it required defensive 4WDing skills, in a 2WD van, while dodging the
pedestrian crowd. As the potholes were full of water, we never knew how deep
each one was until we splashed into it and out again, sometimes with more of a
‘thunk!’ than expected.
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| Stepping into another world to have lunch at the Lae Yacht Club. |
Our driver for most of this was Rebekah. Taking on the
driving helped her defeat motion sickness, and surely has half the Highlands
Highway talking about the white woman who was driving. Women driving in PNG,
especially outside of a town, are rare. As security we had one of our male
colleagues with us. He rode in the front so that everyone could see him and
hopefully choose not to harass us.
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| The long receipt after we filled four trolleys with groceries at one supermarket. I have no idea why this won't upload the right way up. |
Lae itself was a time for shopping, dining out, meetings,
relaxing in the pool and generally enjoying being with friends and away from
the computer for a few days.
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| Skeleton of a ute. |
On the drive home we were laden with cargo. Organising a
trip to Lae is a headache and for many of us only happens once a year. As it is
our best accessible centre for shopping, we make the most of it and stock up
while we can. The van was rather full!
During the drive home was Susie suggested that PNG cars
include skeletons and zombies. Skeletons are the remains of vehicles which have
ended their life by the roadside and left only remains. Zombies are those
vehicles which should have died, but somehow keep on driving. We saw plenty of
both. I hope you’ve enjoyed some of my attempts at taking their photos from a
swerving, bouncing vehicle!
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| A truck that did not make the corner and is quickly being stripped down to a skeleton. |
Arriving safely home in the highlands we offloaded cargo and collapsed into our various beds. Our three days away had been good, but tiring. Meanwhile, another vanload of people were doing ‘Lae in a Day’, leaving before 6am and returning after 8pm. No thanks!
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| Vehicle skeleton on the roadside. |
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| A local PMV (Public motor vehicle). Surely there is space for one more! |
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| I think that windscreen repair qualifies this as a zombie truck. Note also the number of pedestrians we're about to share a bridge with. |
