Bo's PNG trip 10/98
|
Bo's
Papua New Guinea Dive Trip
10/98
|
 | Bo Mulder |
|
What I did
|
|
It has always a life dream to be able to dive the exotic waters in the Indo-Pacific. As a child my Father told me about the wonders of the Indo-Pacific Ocean when he sailed the Indonesian and Papua New Guinea (PNG) waters as a merchant marine sailor for the Royal Dutch Package/Freight Co. (KPM)
Finally the opportunity allowed for me to travel with a group led by famous wildlife photographer and friend Tom Campbell to the south province of PNG, Milne Bay. We dove for 12 days from the great custom 60ft trawler, skippered by owner Rob VanderLoos, live-aboard "MS Chertan" . The group of 11 divers were all interested in underwater photography and the documentation of the exotic marine life present in Milne Bay area. I made a total of 54 dives varying from depths of 115 ft. to 5 ft. Average bottom time was 1 hour. I usually took multiple underwater cameras with me and exposed close to 100 rolls of film on this trip. This page will just show a few of them which were taken with my "happy snappy" point&shoot camera with print film. All the rolls of slide film are still needing to be processed and edited, but more pictures will appear here when available.
|
 | MS Chertan at anker at dive site |
|
 | Some members of the group at the camera table, our daily work place. Left to Right: Richard H., Micheal B., Bob H., Art W....and Me. (photo by K.Bracken) |
|
The Islands in PNG are populated with many small villages. The people have a very basic existence that utilizes the immediate land and the ocean resources . The local children and adults would greet us in their outrigger canoes when we traveled from dive site to the next .
 | Village Greeter |
|
 | Local village children in outrigger canoe |
|
|
Additional to the diving we also had several land explorations. One was a visit to this cave on a steep ocean facing cliff. After entering this small narrow cove and a steep hike up a hill, we climbed using a rope up this cliff cave. The "Skull Cave" has the remains of the victims from the days when Papua New Guinea tribes were cannabalistic headhunters . After consumption of the body parts the skull would be kept in these caves. This cave was a smaller one, and contained hundreds of bleached human skulls. In our travel group we had medically trained members with forensic experience and it was concluded that most of these victims died from a violent traumatic death. Most were shattered with large hole from blow to head. Reportedly this activity was still active till the 1950's. There are still villagers alive that have a disease that you can only get from eating human brain tissue.
|
| Taking pictures at Skull Cave. (Photo by K.Bracken) |
|
 | Volcanic Island |
Another land excursion included a visit to an island with active vulcanic action in form of boiling hot water springs and geysers. We were met by two small local village women guides who brought us to this narrow hiking path through jungle terrain. Orchids and other exotic plants were everywhere. Our guides told us that it was very important to follow their steps closely, for the soil was in areas very thin and one could fall through into boiling water below easily. We saw several areas where the earth had given away and hot water or mud was bubbling beneath. We reached this collection of several hot water springs and pools. There was a cloud of steam rising high from them, eventhough the outside air temperature was a muggy tropical 90-100 degrees Farenheit. The guides took us to areas where they use the hot water to cook food, cooler streams to wash clothes and geyser's that like Yellowstone's "Old Faithfull" would spout hot water 20-30 feet into the air. The steam clouds of these geysers were visible from the ocean when we neared the island. I felt as if i was back in a pre-historic time and expected some large dinosaur creature to run up.
|
 | Warning Sign in Queensland Australia |
The last 2 days of the trip were spend in Cairns, Northern Australia Queensland. The area is well known for their saltwater crocodiles, which are being the most dangerous of the dozen or so crocodile species in the world. Currently the Australian government is catching the crocs in the wild and transferring them to crocodile farms for safety to the public.
And after having been close to these impressive monsters, I now understand why. The "No Swimming" warning signs around the swamp areas are there for good reason. Our group was able to hire two experienced croc handlers and was allowed to get inside the fenced pens to take picture up close of some up to 15 ft. long reptiles. We were able to witness them comming out of the water and mud puddles and explosively attack the whole chickens offered to them as food. It was unbelievable how quick these animals can move and how stealthy they can be in just inches of shallow water. The croc handling team only had 5ft. bamboo sticks with them to keep these monsters in line. I generally placed them between me and the croc's. Was able to witness the awsome power of their teeth and quickness of their massive jaws during the feeding and drawing them closer with these metal bouys which had giant holes from their teeth. I also obtained healthy respect for these crocs by seeing how they can hide in these what seems like way too small and shallow mud holes. Often our croc wrangler would tell us to stand back while he slapped the mud water in these small puddles before crossing them. Several times, out of what seemed nowhere, the puddle would explode with this wild, trashing and biting 12 ft. female hiding inside. Sure was an adrenaline moment. Offcourse I took pictures.
|
|
|
|
|
 |
The main reason for the trip was to photograph the beautifull and unusual marine life at the different dive sites we visited. Hopefully my photographic skills properly captured such animals as Lionfish, Scorpionfish, Stonefish, Whitestriped Catfish, Pegasus Fish, Stargazer, Rhinopius Fish; which all are very venemous fish and I photographed within inches from them. Wide variety of anenomies with associated clown fishes, nudibranches including the large "Spanish Dancer", small sand-burying blue octopus, large 2 ft. long egg-laying cuttle fish, crynoids of all color, soft corals and large seafans in all shapes, color and texture. Exotic multicolored tropical fish you see in aquarium stores. Schooling Jacks, Mackerel, Baracudas. Pipefish, Leavefish, Frogfish,...all masters in camouflage and blending in their specific surroundings. Nautilus, squid, cuttle fish and octopus in colors and textures never seen before. Weird and large seacucumbers, tiny cleaning shrimps associated with variety of host animals. Brightly colored and highly venemous sea urchins as the "Fire Urchin". Seahorses, needle nose pipefish, Giant puffer fish, Large Napoleon Wrasses, Large schooling BatFish.
OK...so now you know why I shot close to 100 rolls of film and need to get a new house morgage loan to pay for the developing costs.
As they get developed and edited for showing, they will start to appear on this page, so check back in next few weeks and see some of the most outrageous marine life I was able to photographicly record.
Bo Mulder
11/5/98
11/9/98 Update. So far I have developed 12 rolls of film (80+ rolls left to go). Captured some really exotic marine life. Will scan and post by next week. Come back and check it out. I also really like the e-mail responses I have been getting, thank you all who have been so kind to this webpage. Bo
 | Send me an e-mail |
|
|
|
