January 13, 2004-Kavieng, the Final Outpost

wingssail image-fredrick roswold
Kavieng Harbor

The final outpost in Papua New Guinea is Kavieng, a small, rough, and dirty town with a violent history (Japan conducted atrocities against Europeans here during WWII).

But Kavieng has a good harbor and at times there will be a few yachts anchored here as in this picture. The population is mostly native Papuans, many seem to be just out of the jungle, but there are a few expats hacking out a living in what looked to us to be tough conditions and we didn't quite understand why they were here, but then there are always a few foreigners hanging out in even the most desolate of third world outposts, so why not Kavieng? I think we met them all and made friends with each.

We stopped in Kavieng to provision and to fix the alternator. For that it had to be flown to the mainland, and things did not move so fast in Papua New Guinea. We were here over Christmas and New Years.

Fred & Judy, SV Wings, Kavieng, Papua New Guinea