rodeime

Our Princess Makes Her International Debut A true-blue Aussie Princess hitches up her breeches and heads north to the seldom explored waters of Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Sea. Words and Pictures by Roderick Eime A sea so blue and clear lay beneath the bow that the ripples in the sand, metres below, were plain to see. Small bands of bright tropical fish played tag around the anchor line, oblivious to the 2,000 tonne vessel moored in their front yard. We had just dropped anchor some 500 metres from little Dobu Island, a former missionary station within the D’Entrecasteaux Group, east of PNG, and adjacent the much larger Normanby Island. A dormant volcanic cone loomed above the disused church and derelict minister’s h... read more

I was beginning to believe that the old adage, "a country mile" can also be attributed to the time taken to travel that "mile" - call it "a country hour". We set out from Sydney in a brand new Ford Explorer, destined for Birdsville - only we were running 24 "real" hours behind schedule - and weren't sure whether we'd make our accommodation in time. Preemptory phone calls to local "authorities" had resulted in a wildly differing array of suggestions about how long this folly would take us. "Innaminka to Birdsville mate, fifteen hours minimum, the road's shot!" said one "Six hours on a good day buddy, but there's been a lot of rain. She's pretty slow going - say eight hours," opined another. Just some of the reassuring approximations we'd heard from publicans, roadhouses and ... read more