Round the World

After six days steaming up and down the coast of Papua New Guinea just south of Port Moresby, the capital, we headed out for the Eastern Fields, a 98 nautical mile ride southwest, which would take almost 12 hours. Arriving to the fields is almost anti-climactic, with nothing more than white-cap breaking waves on the horizon and what looks like an oil slick of translucent emerald green shimmering almost like neon, announcing shallower worlds of coral below. While the waters and their contents were worth the wait, the journey has taken its toll on Jacquie, and she continues to struggle fighting her head cold and battling the ill-effects of an unreasonably rough sea. At times, half the boat has been taken ill, and the all-night journey produced many groggy travelers on the morning of our arrival.

Within 15 minutes of arrival, we waste no time and get into the wet. Days of murky visibility and green, brackish water gave way to the deep blue of Coral Sea beauty. While the visibility could be better (currently at about 75 feet) it is stupendous in comparison to what we have dealt with, and the hoots and squeals of delight, along with fist-pumping and large smiles barely obscured by our regulators reflect the mood of finding nice open waters. Finally we found the BIG BLUE!

Big smiles as we find BLUE waters in the Eastern Fields!

Reef fish abound

Lots of barracuda too - they would swim right to you and envelope you!

We saw some great big tuna as well - schools of a couple dozen or so

The fish life abounds here, with schools of numerous species, many I have never seen: hammerhead shark, large (400 pound!) dogtooth tuna, huge (300 pound!) potato cod, rhinopius or lacey lionfish, flashlight fish (that emit bioluminescence at night) and sea-snakes were all part of the cast of marine animals we came across. In addition there were uncounted numbers of corals, sponges and small life like reef-fish and nudibranch.

Of course the biggest impact to our visit was the cyclone. The captain of the boat and many others we met with many years of experience in Papua New Guinea, said this was the earliest such weather seen in at least 20 years. Normally we should have found sun, dormant (or “doldrum”) waters and amazing visibility below. While this was not the case, we still feel lucky to have visited a very remote marine eco-system. We made the best of it, and have actually considered creating a new PADI certification (named for our new small club): Cyclone Divers!

You can see Cyclone Guba (white swirl) in the top right - we were on its south-western edge. Too close!

Not all the days were bad, and we had one or two nice days in the Eastern Fields

Although remote, one draw for us to such places is to see large pelagic sea-life, especially sharks. Unfortunately, sharks were in short supply. The reason: shark finning operations that came through the are 3 years ago, decimating the shark population. One such vessel was caught by Australian authorities just south of the area, and confiscated 240 tonnes of shark fins. That’s just the FINS. No doubt untold thousands of sharks were destroyed to meet the demand for shark-fin soup – a delicacy that has no taste. The fins are after all merely cartilage – it is prized merely for some mythical properties of potentcy prized by Asian (mainly Chinese) markets. So – if you ever see shark-fin on the menu of a restaurant you are at, please walk out and let them know it’s a horrible, destructive practice.

On the whole, the dive experience was good, but due to the weather and rough seas, we were limited overall. It still amazes me to see the things we can see while taking a peak into the undersea world. It is also humbling and sad to know the devastation we can wreak so easily. I'll be back here someday, without doubt, and hope the waters will be as vibrant with life as they are now, and possibly rebounding with more big life.

Months of anticipation as we travelled the globe brought us finally to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea for our 10 day live-aboard scuba diving trip. On arrival, rain greeted us, and has since not stopped. Once on the boat, we have suffered the heaviest seas we’ve ever encountered (6-8 foot swells, with lots of white caps and 35 knot winds) keeping Jacquie down and out of the water. At least she can say she’s lived (literally) through a cyclone!

What we thought was simply unseasonably bad weather turns out to be the earliest cyclone experienced in the area in at least 20 years, and has affected at least half of the 9 passengers on board, keeping Jacquie in good company! As with hurricanes, cyclones are named as well, and this one is Guba, which is the Papua New Guinean word for “Strong Wind”. Of course it could also have been named something like “Cyclone Obstinate” or “Cyclone Stubborn” as she has refused to budge, keeping us essentially trapped just off the south shore unable to make way toward the Eastern Fields. The Eastern Fields, an awesome dive area that is essentially at the northern end of Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, lie 120 nautical miles from us to the south, and the storm has just hung there, day after day after day . . . .

One of the dozens of lionfish so far!

Can you find the Pygmy Seahorse? He's dead center, and in reality about 1 cm long!

Luckily, I quickly found my sea-legs, and have had a chance to get into the water for about a dozen dives so far. The volume of life and diversity is amazing, albeit a bit muted with visibility down to 20-30 feet. Normally, it is around 100 feet or better, but we’ve only experienced that on one dive so far. Sharks, lionfish, scorpionfish, and puffers have all made regular appearances, as well as – for us - a number of new species: several pygmy seahorses, lacey lionfish (Rhinopius), a sea-snake, and a crocodile-fish.

Of course, I saw most of the cool new stuff WITHOUT my camera, so you’ll have to wait until the next installment for any of those IF we see them again . . . and I really hope we do!
All in all, we’ve been able to keep relatively good spirits despite the lack of any sunshine. We’ll keep our fingers crossed for fair winds and more sun and hopefully report on an amazing ocean adventure! In the meantime, Jacquie is counting the minutes before she’s back permanently on solid ground in another 6 days…

Do you think I could keep an elephant as a pet in California? We came across a number of alternative pet ideas at Bangkok’s Chattachuk market over the weekend (chipmunk, anyone?) which may have planted the seed. And then we simply fell in love with our elephant hosts at the Four Seasons Tented Camp, outside Chiang Rai, where we spent most of last week.

Eye of the elephant

Most comfy animal we've ridden yet!

The main feature of the camp – and without which it wouldn’t be a tenth the experience – is the opportunity to spend time with a few lucky elephants rescued from a life on the streets. In previous years, elephants were widely used for logging in the region, but modern equipment is more cost effective, resigning the elephants – and their mahouts – to a life of ‘begging’ (usually in the form of cash-for-a-photo) on Thailand’s streets and beaches. Frequently, the mahout cannot afford to meet the elephant’s constant demand for food (more than 200 kilograms of bamboo, sugar cane per day!), leaving these massive animals hungry, grumpy and often dangerous.

Life for the six working elephants at the Tented Camp – and for the other elephants at the associated charitable organization – is significantly different. The elephants enjoy an endless supply of sugar cane, bamboo and bananas, in addition to a safe environment in which to live. The mahouts – too – are taken off the streets and hired to tend to the elephants.

For the lucky guests of the Tented Camp, the elephant experience is more intimate than we could ever have hoped. This is not a zoo-type experience. Instead, we learned to ride and command the elephants using traditional mahout commands. After graduating from the training area’s slalom course, we were allowed to take the elephants on a trek through the jungle (albeit on a trail very well known to the elephants, so we couldn’t really have gone far wrong!).

The first surprise was just how comfortable riding an elephant was! No saddles or baskets here – you simply sit on the elephant’s neck, with feet protected (or in my case, pinned back!) by the elephant’s ears. It was – by far – the most comfortable I’ve been on any animal during the trip, despite the lack of any blankets or other barriers. We were encouraged to frequently offer verbal and physical reassurances to our elephants and – for all these reasons - I quickly felt a real attachment to my elephant.

My second surprise was just how hairy elephants are! Sparsely distributed over their entire bodies, they have thick, black hairs several inches long protruding proudly. I got to know the hair on the back of my elephant's head and neck quite well over our four day relationship!

Not content with our day-as-a-mahout, Lloyd and I took advantage of additional opportunities to spend more time with our elephants. On two mornings, we volunteered to head up to the top of the hill just behind the Tented Camp to retrieve the elephants with the mahouts, and then bring them down to the training area for their morning baths! My elephant seemed highly skilled in collecting the most mud on her back overnight, and required serious scrubbing! And she seemed to adore having her ears scrubbed. After their – and, therefore our, bath, we used hoses to rinse off the elephants before riding them to the ‘stables’ where we were allowed to feed them sugar cane.

There’s no doubt that our time with the elephants was once-in-a-lifetime, and these gentle giants made an appropriately huge impression on us. They love their mahouts completely – and only at their command tolerate us ‘temporary’ drivers. In the mornings when I was driving my elephant down to camp, she was obedient but wouldn’t allow herself to be more than twenty feet from her mahout. When he wasn’t firmly by her side, she would stop and look back for him. At the same time, the elephants are almost perfectly obedient. When we watched the elephants being rinsed off, the mahout needed only shout the command and the elephant would perform unthinkable poses: sitting on two back legs, lifting front left or front right, lowering head, raising trunk etc.

These elephants were more obedient than most dogs we’ve come across! Which brings me back to my elephant-as-a-pet idea. Of course, my cat Tammy will try to object, but I think the elephant might have the size advantage...