PARADISE – TAMI ISLANDS – April 14thI am not sure that I mentioned that there is a journalist and photographer from Australian Geographic traveling on Orion. They have had the opportunity to go ashore with Justin Friend Orion’s Expedition Coordinator early each morning and everyone on board can’t wait to see the coverage of PNG as we are all wondering how they will ever select photographs from the thousands taken.
Today, April 14th, we arrived at the Tami Islands and trust me if there is a perfect set of islands that you would like to just pull up a teak deck chair, grab a cold drink and never leave this is probably them.
We boarded the Zodiacs in groups of 10 and headed across to the islands so that we could all arrive for a village welcome. The Tami Islands is a seldom visited group of islands in Morobe Province, not far from the town of Fischafen and is comprised of 3 islands, two inhabited and the other very small island used for local farming.
Tami Island is famous for its wooden bowls and we were not disappointed as we had the opportunity to visit the market set up for our visit after the official Sing Sing which was performed. There are 800 languages spoken in PNG and I can honestly say that every village Sing Sing is also unique and stunning in its own right. The village had set up a wonderful shade area for the Orion guests with sago palm and local flowers; we also had the chance to view to very large Coconut Crabs that were on display.
Once again I have purchased some fantastic items to take home, let’s just say my bags runneth over!
I don’t think I have mentioned the Children of PNG as yet. Everywhere you go you are surrounded by the most amazingly beautiful children, I have hundreds of photographs as every child wants you to take their picture and then show them, what a difference digital photography has made for all of us. Every time you turn around there is another photo……..
After our Tami welcome we jumped back into the Zodiacs and left the idyllic white sandy beaches and wooden outrigger canoes to travel the 200m to the coral cay for swimming snorkeling and kayaking. The coral was amazing and Barbara and I found ourselves hovering over anemone full of Clown Fish, I have hundreds of photos of NEMO………and that was just the start WOW! We then took the Snorkeling tour to the outer reef which was just as spectacular with soft and hard coral.
Did I mention the beach BBQ, white sandy beaches and stunning blue water………well we would be here all week just talking about Tami Island. At 4:00pm the last Zodiac was sitting on the beach and the final 6 stragglers, including Barbara and I were advised that it was now or never……it was hard to leave!
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