Roadtrips and birthdays

Richard was celebrating the beginning of a new decade. Since he was unable to spend his birthday with his twin brother and the rest of his family who traveled from Melbourne up to Newcastle to be with his brother I figured I better organise something memorable.

A few of us piled into two cars on Friday and made the road trip north to Madang. Our little Suzuki Escudo was fully packed. A reputably safe town where one is free to walk around without having to watch ones back to closely! It also has a great reputation for diving and snorkeling.

The road from Lae to Madang goes through the Markham Valley which kind of reminded me of the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand – just with some tropical coconut and beetle nut trees thrown in.

The road is pretty smooth for most of the way. You can travel at 120 km/hr. You just have to be constantly alert and watching the road as you never know when a pothole that seems to have been made by a meteor will arise. So, mixing it up between 120 and 5 km/hr ensures that you are kept alert.

The last hour of the 5 hour trip to Madang there is a hilly, rough, dirt road. A truck had unfortunately lost control and fallen over along with it’s container it was carrying. The container was full of ‘Crush’ cordial. The truck was surrounded by villages collecting their loot. There would be no way the driver could stop them. As we passed them they were already in entrepreneurial mode, trying to get us to buy their newly acquired commodity. Word must have spread for the next 10 km there were people running towards to crash in hope of collecting their share of cordial.

Madang was a good relaxing spot. Lots of swimming, snorkeling, a slight moment of being stranded on an island to keep things interesting.

On the way home two days later the cordial industry was still alive. Luckily we made it home alive too after a close shave with a PMV coming around the dirt corner at full speed towards us. I think someone must have been looking out for us. Richard was able to get through his first day of being 30!