Mt Diamond. 27.07.08

An easy walk, with a waterhole full of clean crisp clear water and only 20 minutes from Moresby. How cool is that?

There was a two hour walk there and back in Kunai grass and lowland sclerophyll forest but this added to the enjoyment as we negotiated a few stream crossings on route to our destination. And this was despite a few issues regarding land owners and the original track we were planning on following, but a lesson learned for next time.

The young students from the local High School acted as our guides and lead us into temptation before negotiations lead us away from the Lion’s Den and onto a path more prosperous. The amount of trekkers was huge with over 30 of us in total (including guides) trekking to our final destination; the Kiri kati falls. What a gorgeous location so close to town and really should be zoned as a National Park by the powers that be, if only such infrastructure existed…

Those of us with new walking boots for the Kokoda Track were able to test out the waterproofness, those of us with new digital cameras were able to test out their new equipment. Especially with the bird life on route to the waterfall and certainly the butterflies that flew around the falls themselves.

A great, easy day out.

Varirata. In July 2008.

The First Journey.

The POM bushwalkers arrived at Varirata on a pleasant Sunday morning with some cloud cover and cool temperatures. The freshly conceived plan was to circumnavigate the Park in a clockwise direction. We started out all keen as Mustard as we left the Park in order to find the re-entry point to our lap.

It wasn’t long into the walk where it was discovered that footwear was important as was trekking fitness, yet we all supported each other and survived to tell the tale. The first leg of the journey is a comfortable descent to a creek in which we rested up briefly. The dry season was well underway and the track surface was relatively dry.

From the creek, we headed up into the clouds and discovered a bit of rock scaling and a fairly steep technical ascent, before heading ever upwards towards Gare’s Lookout. From here it was decided to break up the group as one team would continue along the Boundary track and the others would descend back down to the team vehicles.

I chose to guide the crew back to the cars and it was here that we would head along the flatter part of the course to head off the rest of the walkers. We rejoined all together again, and returned to the cars.

About 7-8kms in travel meant for a good hit out for all concerned.

The Second Journey

A week later, around lunchtime, it was decided that a small group of Kokoda aspirees would head back to Varirata for a quick lap of the lookouts. Hastily we gathered up everything and headed east into the Sogeri plateau. At Varirata, we motored around the lookouts, firstly heading along the 30minute then left up to Gare’s and then back down to the vehicles.

The track was dry, yet there proliferated many fungi and again the cloud was heavy in the air.

A quick 6km loop of the track was a good tonic for a lazy Sunday arvo.

The Third Journey; Remembrance Day.

Remembrance Day fell on the happiest Wednesday of them all this year, and it was decided to honour the diggers by recreating our own little Kokoda by traversing the mud of the nearby Owen Stanleys and what better place then Varirata.

The Rangers of the Park must have known that a PNG MP was visiting on this day as they left the gatepost abandoned and were busy on brushcutters cleaning up the bottom lookout. They did a good job of it, long overdue but the outcome was decent. Not quite Bomana standard, but who am I to judge.

Anywho, the walk was fantastic, we left the carpark, headed for the bottom lookout, and then followed the track all the way around the boundary back to the Park entrance some 7kms away. We then turned around and retraced our steps making for a 15km total with some seriously technical climbing and descending. The Eastern side of the Park was considerably slipperier and tougher than the usual lookout loop.

After 6 hours of bashing around, a few moments chatting to aforementioned MP, a discovery that another POM bushwalker had been spotted in the park and admiring the longevity of the POM twitchers we left the Park satisfulled of a good decent walk.

And we spotted a few more fungi.

Bomana to Mt Erima. Another Reconnaissance. 6.7.8

Upon return from cooler climes down south, I awoke on a bright sunny warm Moresby winter's day and contacted a friend who I was hoping would get me up the western face of Mt. Erima, as I have previously (with the POM Bushwalkers) walked up the Northern steps and was keen to see if it could be done. At the end of the day, I am sure you can walk up the western face but my guide today decided we would stick to the track and circumnavigate the large rocky outcrop not far from Moresby.

We departed Bomana and straight away, the track went uphill, along a dusty and often ash covered rocky escarpment. Up and down we trekked and slowly got closer to the base of Erima. The ash and dust was sticking to the sweat and sunscreen on our exposed skin, and the sun was in its normal Moresby mood, sending down its bright hot rays. The shade of Mt Erima was a welcome respite.

But then, instead of making our way up the western face as I had hoped, we followed a small track around the base which ended up along the water treatment fenceline where once I have trekked before from PAU. So, we then trudged up the sunbaked track slaloming around the steel posts which lead to the beacon on top of the rock. On the top, we all stopped and rested, before heading back down to the road and then back to the Bomana community.

Only 2.5hours in length, but it could be lengthened to make a decent walk for the POM bushwalkers, or could be used on those days when people need to return to Moresby early???

Hombrum's Bluff. A reconnaissance. 22.06.08

A trio of intrepid trekkers wandered out on an unofficial POM Bushwalk to scope new terrain for future treks. Our journey would start at 15 mile at the small village on the other side of the Laloki River near the Bluff Inn. The villagers assured us that it would be okay to drive our vehicles across an old World War 2 Marston matting bridge, but we preferred to leave the cars on the same side that the road was on. With car guards in place, we headed across the Laloki and up towards Hombrum's Bluff.

Our guides from the Village outnumbered us and this didn't include the kids who came along for the walk. Many of the kids had never climbed the mountain before and they were keen to see what the view was like, so they ran up the ever steepening slope. Unlike the kids, we took our time. Resting frequently to catch our breath, we would often turn around and admire the view as it was a clear morning with little high level cloud. We saw Wallabies and a Bandicoot and this increased the excitement with the kids, as the area we walked through was the local hunting ground and the men of the village hunted in much smaller groups then the one we were amongst.

Our original plan was to walk up to the top and then return in the same manner, but we were soon to discover that this was perhaps a one way track with a descent thwart with danger. The grass was very tall and feeling your way with your boots was a recipe for a trip and a fall on the way down. So it was decided to continue across the top of the ridge until we reached the Sogeri Junction, this added another two hours or so to the two hours of climbing.

After negotiating a ride back to the Bluff Inn and back to our cars, we were able to head home, tired, bleeding and sore. But a good walk, and a good challenge. Special thanks go to the "Queen" of the walk who was very supportive.

A tough start with a super steep two hours up hill followed by a lengthy undulating 12kms back to Sogeri. Will investigate another spur which may prove to be a safer descent and therefore making a good loop instead of walking to Sogeri...

Bisianumu Bushwalk. 15 June 2008

It was a pleasant day for a stroll around the topside of Sogeri, overcast and not too hot. A good sized group of us headed out from the old Rubber Farm and wandered off past the puk puk inhabited swamp and into the sclerophyll forest. It was dry and dusty.

After a good descent we found ourselves on the edge of a ledge overlooking the Goldie and beyond to Kokoda and the Owen Stanleys. We made her way to a waterhole below and rested up for a spell. Some of us indulged with a short swim in the fresh mountain stream, plunging our heads under the invigorating waterfall.

It was a good walk back up to the old plantation, a good steady, consistent walk, up a good steady, consistent grade.

Perhaps we will work out a way to put the waterfall at the end of the walk, not two thirds of the way through…

Seeya CB, thanks for all the walks. Cheers!

Bisianumu Water Fall. This Sunday June 15th.

See this Bisianumu Review for a report of the last time we walked out to Bisianumu Falls.

This is a "Go Pinis" walk for one of the original crew who was on that first bushwalk of the reincarnated POM Bushwalkers and we all had a great time. I seem to recall spending more time relaxing on the rock then walking to and from.

This time we will hopefully walk it in the opposite direction to the link above, and save the shorter of the two legs for the return, after we have had our swim.

Varirata. June 8th 2008

Unfortunately, Imita Ridge didn't happen today. We didn't have enough 4wds to get us to Ower's Corner so we opted for an extended loop of Varirata. I haven't done the longer loop before and I am now kicking myself, because it was fantastic, a mixture of up and down muddy slopes with the odd technical descent or climb combined with bird songs, overcast conditions and the cool jungle surrounds.

It was just over 3 hours in length and opened up a whole new part of the Park and gave us some good ideas for future walks, everyone had a good time and no one was really exhausted by the morning's effort, although there were some sleepy heads on the way back down from Sogeri.

There were some spectacular scenery from gorgeous wildflowers to interesting insects, a small water course and some massive tall trees. Good fun. Everyone stayed upright, everyone stradled a large tree trunk and everyone held hands when it came to some of the trickier spots.

Rumours abound that next week there will be a walk to one of our favourite waterholes?