Where culture shines

A MUDDY plume expands across Morobe Harbour as our shimmering white ship, Coral Adventurer, sails into the bay just after dawn on a Sunday morning in mid-November. The recent late onset of monsoonal rains has brought a long dry period to an abrupt end. Since then an incessant heavy downpour has transformed local rivers into powerful deluges that barrel down from the highlands, eroding riverbanks, inundating floodplains and sweeping mud, timber and other debris into the bay and out into the great wide Solomon Sea beyond.

An occasional sharp mountain peak pierces the lowslung, rain-laden clouds, hinting at the steep, rainforested range providing a lush backdrop to the traditional beach village of Mou, where a small community eagerly awaits us. The ship’s tender, Explorer 1, whisks us from the ship to the shore, while the beat of drums and sound of voices raised in communal song grows ever louder.

We’ve become accustomed to these lively, colourful village welcomes. It’s the fifth such landing in as many days for the passengers of this Coral Expeditions voyage to Papua New Guinea (PNG). Each arrival is thrilling and unique, but today’s community