Goin' Feral One Day At A Time: Alotau, Milne Bay Province, Papua New Guinea

Hey hey, this is my first post about our trip over to Papua New Guinea, yep I was going hardcore again, no not walking the Kokoda Track or climbing Mount Wilhelm, no this was even more hardcore, I was hanging out on a cruise ship for a few weeks with Pauline Hanson’s supporter base…..well that’s what it sounded like to me in the snippets of conversation that I had the misfortune to hear, and I learnt a lot too, did you know that Australia’s most noxious weed is a green, yeah neither did I! Anyway after 3 days at sea, braving the zimmer frames and flat earth theories I was ready to get back onto land for awhile.

Alotau was a bit on the damp and grey side today, it was still bloody warm though.

Our first port of call on this trip was the small town of Alotau on Milne Bay and here I did truthfully increase my general knowledge. You see I’d always thought that the first time that the marauding Japanese forces in WW2 had been defeated on land was at Kokoda, but actually this town marked the spot of the battle of Milne Bay, where after a short but fierce battle the Japanese army had been pushed back into the sea. It turns out that the battle of Milne Bay had a few similarities with the upcoming Kokoda campaign as well, like Kokoda the battle at Milne Bay featured a fighting retreat by the allies as the Japanese over whelmed them before the allies regrouped, were able to hold their ground and then repulsed the Japanese back out to sea. The Japanese Navy called the invasion off after just 12 days (unlike Kokoda which stretched on for what must have seemed an eternity to the fighters), now 12 days doesn’t sound too bad does it, but it was still long enough for an estimated 161 Australians and 750 Japanese servicemen to lose their life.

Heading out of town to the spot where the Japanese first landed at Milne Bay, we had to ford a couple of these rivers in our PMV.

So anyway I’m waffling on a bit here but there is a bit of a reason for that, the first bit of site seeing that Sam and I did in Alotau was a guided trip around the old battle of Milne Bay area. After stretching my legs for around a nano second after disembarking onto the dock at Alotau we were bundled into a PMV and with my knees now conveniently close to my chest we headed off south east around the murky Milne Bay to check out the spot that the Japanese landing force first came ashore. Unfortunately Alotau wasn’t at her best today when it came to weather and we travelled through steady rain to get to the site, the PMV even braving a couple of very swollen rivers to get there. Standing on this black pebble beach with the murky water of Milne Bay lapping at the pebbles I tried to imagine what the 2400 strong Japanese army had been thinking when they landed here, probably something like, fuck me its hot, fuck me its wet, fuck me there are a lot of mozzies and fuck me if I haven’t forgotten to take my malaria tablets! But then again maybe that was just me. Like I mentioned earlier the Australians fought hard as they retreated, the local guide telling us that the Gama River had run red with blood. We now headed west to airstrip number 3 where our local guide told us how the Australians had managed to hold their ground and after withstanding three Japanese offensives began forcing the enemy back and eventually out to sea. It was a very moving spot, the misty rain probably adding to the foreboding atmosphere if anything, if you ever find yourself in Alotau then its worth making your way out to airstrip number 3 to pay your respects, the war memorial on the foreshore of Alotau is also a must see as well. By the way the locals are incredibly proud of their history in this conflict as well, you can almost see them grow 6 inches as they tell of how the local Papua New Guineans fought and helped in the battle.

This is the spot where the Japanese first came ashore on their offensive at Milne Bay.

There was a bit of security around today, this is at the old Turnbull Field.....the spot the Australians started to push the Japanese forces back.

One of the Japanese field guns at Turnbull Field.

We had a bit of local entertainment while we were out at Turnbull Field.

After our little tour around the battlefield of Milne Bay we headed to a festival at the local cultural centre to check it out. The rain was by now starting to ease a little and we were able to make our way through the small festival site at the cultural centre without getting too wet. If cultural dancing is your thing then this is the place to visit, there was a big stage set up outside as well another stage inside kind of like a Papuan New Guinean Soundwave. One thing that I really liked about our visit to Alotau was that the locals all seemed as enthralled with us as we were with them, and our visit to the festival only reinforced that perception, the dancers all looked like they were having a great time sharing their culture with all us pasty white fat dim-dims (dim-dim is pidgin for pasty white fat bloke!). After checking out the war canoes and some of the extensive craft work that the locals were selling we headed back to the ship for a change of footwear and a cold shower before heading out on our afternoons adventure.

Checking out the dancers at the cultural centre.

A war canoe that some of the locals had bought to town for the day, I don't reckon I'd be able to shoe horn my fat
arse into one of these.

Our afternoon in Alotau was basically spent wandering around town in a fairly aimless manor, being a Sunday afternoon most of the locals had finished with church and were now also seemingly wandering aimlessly around town, the main difference between them and us was that we were sweating profusely in the humid air and we also weren’t high on beetle nut yet..although the the day was still young. We were now well and truly on island time though as we ambled along, any movement quicker than a slow shuffle was guaranteed to have sweat pouring out of us, the locals have this fairly well sussed out though so we just melded into the slow moving conga line and shuffled our way around Milne Bay from the port to the centre of Alotao. There are a few things to take your mind of the stifling humidity on the walk into town though, the main one being the views out across the turbid water of the bay, now with rustic fishing boats in the foreground and our big ship in the back ground. The other interesting diversion was to the formal market and the informal market (don’t ask me), it’s always interesting checking out these traditional markets although it looked like the other 1998 punters on the ship didn’t share our enthusiasm. After the locals gave us a quick crash course into what was needed to not only chew beetle nut, but also how to clean you teeth afterwords (I kid you not) we moved on.

Heading into town on a bit of a walk, Alotau is a little rough around the edges but still a fascinating place to visit.

The locals seem to really like twisties!

And Beetle Nut.

The locals are really proud of the war heritage, a local girl was washing the monument in-between the punters off the ship visiting it.

Alotau isn't the most inviting spot for a swim really.

Leaving the markets we continued on at glacial pace to watch some of the locals play a bit of soccer for awhile, grateful for the shade of some massive fig (maybe) trees. After a bit of a break under the trees we headed back through the middle of the town, the main street, all but deserted on this Sunday afternoon. Checking out the wanted posters in the widow of the local supermarket we continued up the main street, expecting a tumble weed to roll past at any minute. No tumble weeds today though, instead we arrived at a new building that had obviously been designed by our own mad monk Mr Tony Abbott, I could tell our Mrabbott had a hand in this building because it featured about a hundred flags flying from it, a well known Mrabbott fetish. Tearing ourselves way from the flags though our attention was drawn to a staircase that seemed to be climbing towards the clouds, yep that would be our route. Sam appeared a little dubious about an ascent on Mt Alotau but I promised her an unrivalled vista over the turbid brown waters of Milne Bay, so up the steps we went.

The local Toyota dealer had a few rugged 79 series for sale...

As well as the transport of choice for most of the locals.

10 kina for a huge muddy, that's around 5 Aussie....not bad!

Not a lot of dim dims made it down as far as the market.

Once again we found ourselves in the middle of a group of locals, so we used them to pace ourselves and slowly but surely climbed our mountain (actually I may have embellished the Mt Alotau a bit). After climbing up to the hospital we veered right and headed up the road, eventually arriving at the lookout over Milne Bay, a couple of the local guys almost falling off the edge when they turned around to be confronted with the sight of a couple of red faced dim-dims. On this overcast day you wouldn’t really describe Alotau as a scenic town, but it was fascinating all the same. With the sweat dripping off us I wondered if you would ever be totally dry if you lived here, judging by the dark clouds now returning across the bay it looked as though we may be getting a bit damper by the time we got back to the ship. There was no choice of kicking the hiking havaianas up a gear today though it was just a matter of chugging along, to be honest though a little rain wouldn’t of been a bad thing really. Of course with us kind of hoping the brooding cloud would drop some water on us it was odds on that it wouldn’t, well it didn’t until we got back on the ship and headed up for a swim, of course then it pissed down (a meteorological term that out local guide used more than once this morning in all innocence).

The main shopping strip in Alotau, it was a Sunday though.

Hmmm, I wonder if this means the same thing in Papua New Guinea?

The building that Mrabbott must of designed ......maybe.

Follow the locals up those steps if you want to go to the lookout.

The Dirt.
Ok, what’s the dirt on Alotau. Well first up I don’t think you’ll be swimming close to town, Milne Bay was a turgid cloudy brown colour, although there had been a lot of rain in the area in the previous few days so there was a lot of water flooding down out of the hills, so much that there was a bit of flooding about. The Milne Bay tour is totally worth doing, not only do you find out about the battle but you also get a bit of a lay of the land in and around Alotau as well. The festival at the cultural centre is put on for the cruise company and while it was a bit too touristy for me it was still an interesting little interlude on the day, the locals genuinely seem pleased to share their wonderful culture with us. We also walked into town from the port to explore a bit. the further away from the ship the less punters from the ship we saw, until they dropped off all together at the markets. To me Alotau felt like a very safe place to explore on your own, obviously use common sense, but we never felt unsafe. The lookout over town is reached along the road that runs just below the local hospital, pass the hospital and keep walking for a few hundred metres and you’ll reach it.
Relevant Posts.
Kokoda Trail, Papua New Guinea - 2006