This is a village in the Louisiade Archipelago West.

A village with an interesting name and one which wasn’t expecting us. To be fair they had been expecting us yesterday but not today.

So with an apology from Duncan, the organiser, we were treated to a boom box contemporary sing sing which was much fun as members of the crew and guests joined them. Carol Kidu our invaluable lecturer on PNG, reminded us that in as much as the sing sings are important culturally to the groups to remind them of the traditions, it was also important to realise that development was an inevitable part of these islands – complete with contemporary dances and boom boxes.

We were able to walk around the village, talk to the villagers, bird watch and look at the trees and plants growing here. Not to mention the lovely dogs who were enjoying having a nap in the sun or in the shade at home. Most families seem to have a dog.

I loved this Lantern Tree – its a magnificent tree, producing beautiful yellow fruit with a black centre which apparently the birds like as they have some moisture in them, but when they fall to the ground they harden up and tinkle.

In the afternoon we went over to Nivana Island.

During WWII the Japanese had a seaplane base in the lagoon. The allies were at Port Moresby on the mainland. Both Japanese and American planes litter the land and sea of this area.There is Japanese Zero in the shallow water between the two islands which is quite visible, and now inhabited by beautiful tropical fish. The rest of the lagoon is full of sea grass. Perhaps a fertile area for turtles. Photo is courtesy of Paul Perrett.

This spectacular fishing boat accompanied us for some of our return journey to the ship this evening.