09 Oct 2019

Discovering New Worlds on the Porunai River

This morning we set forth to discover and explore, heading to one of those spots that makes you wonder when you look at a map.

The plan was to navigate deep into the forest that blankets the lowlands along Cenderawasih Bay. Shortly after dawn we departed Spirit of Enderby and, after carefully picking our way across the shallow Porunai River entrance, we found ourselves in an entirely different world.

Flanked by lush forest and trees crowding the banks we navigated away from the coast under the steady procession of birds passing overhead including pigeons, hornbills but numerous lorikeets and parrots with their raucous screeching ringing out over the jungle.

We continued for several hours navigating away from the ship before coming around a bend arriving at Tutu Besi Village. We were the first foreigners that had ever come to visit them and we enjoyed a warm welcome from the entire village.

Back on board Spirit of Enderby for lunch, we then sailed to Ahe Island where we spent an enjoyable and relaxing afternoon on the beach and exploring the nearby coral gardens. Among our discoveries were the remains of a Japanese plane that had crash landed here during WWII, the engines were ashore while one of the wings was in the water.

While ashore we noticed one of the local children was struggling with an infected foot, so Dr Conrad cleaned the wound and bandage it for him before we left, bound for Biak.