Birds, whales and animals

Here are a few of the birds, whales and animals that I saw in Scotland.

Puffins

Killer whales/orcas

Lovely white sheep

Dark sheep

Big cows

Deer (sorry, not the best photo)

Squirrel

Toilet guests

Have you ever gone to the toilet and there’s a fly in the room? I’m sure you know what that’s like. Where might that fly land? Fortunately, we don’t seem to have flies in our village toilet very often, but we have some other toilet guests whom I will now introduce to you.

Spiders: These are the guests I don’t mind so much, they just stay in their little corner and keep to themselves. They don’t run and attack me.

Toads: They often guard the entrance to the toilet and might randomly jump and hit my leg as I walk past, which freaks me out and I squeal!

Crabs: Some crabs dig their holes inside our toilet house. Usually they run away deep down inside their hole when I come near, but there have been a couple of times where I’ve seen a crab on the ground and worried that it might attack my leg.

Cockroaches: Never a pretty sight, especially when they’re scuttling around near the toilet seat! Thankfully, they are afraid of people and never accidentally touch you!

A mother hen: Stupid hen! I was not at all impressed when she decided that our toilet house was a good place for her and her chick to rest for the night. Especially when my foot got a little too close to the hen and she attacked my foot! She got a good telling off in Teop for that.

Most of these toilet guests are only around in the evening (except for the spiders), so most of the time, there isn’t really a problem. I’ve probably made it sound worse than it is! Going to the toilet where we live is not an unpleasant experience. There are much worse village toilets in other parts of PNG!

Port Moresby adventures – Botanical Gardens

On our way to Buka we had to stay at Port Moresby for two nights, so we had a whole day to kill there and we decided to go and see a bit of the place, since there was three of us single ladies and we’d all only been in Moresby by ourselves previously and it’s not wise for single women to go round Moresby alone. We started by taking a PMV to the botanical gardens. It was a bit of a scary ride for me as the sliding door of the bus was open the whole trip and I was sitting opposite it. I was worried that if we turned too sharply, I would fall out the door!

Picture that I took from the bus:

The botanical garden was PNG style, not really classy, as evidenced by the dirt and leaves on the top of the shadecloth in the picture below.

However there were lots of nice plants and flowers, especially orchids. We were shown around by one of the security staff there, and we were even taken through to sections that said ‘No entry – staff only’. There were also animals in enclosures there too, including the bird of paradise, which is often hard to see in the wild. Some of the other animals/birds we saw were: cuscus, crocodile, cassowary, wallaby, hornbill, tree kangaroo

Here are two pictures of orchids and one of a tree kangaroo.

Village – Animals (post by Bill & Liz)

Most villages have various animals running around, such as pigs, chickens, dogs and cats. Our village did not have pigs due to its proximity to the local medical centre and the disease risks pigs cause.

Villages have quite a lot of dogs, but they are not pampered pets as we treat them. The village dogs accepted us very quickly and never barked at us, yet when strangers walked along the track close to the village, they would give warning barks.


Here is Liz’s ‘friend’. This rooster would start welcoming the dawn from about midnight and Liz wanted to wring its neck.

Animals

We saw a lot of animals when we were in the village. Some were living and some were dead when we saw them (for example the snake mentioned here). There were cows, ducks, chickens, pigs and crocodiles that the people were looking after to either eat or sell. There were a few cats and lots of dogs and puppies in the village.

One day we went to the market and we saw some people carrying a baby crocodile, so we had a look at it and had our photos taken with it. They were just carrying it that, they weren't selling it at the market, but sometimes when they are bigger, they sell them, either at the market or to private buyers. They get good money for the skin. In our village, one family had about 13 crocodiles in a pit that they will sell once they are bigger. The bigger the crocodile, the more money they get when they sell it.

Here's me with the baby crocodile:



Close up of the baby crocodile in my arms. See, it's mouth is fastened shut. They took the band off after we held it, and it was snapping quite a bit!

Another day we were sitting under a shelter doing some work, when some people came back from being out in the swamps, and they had with them a large lizard that they had killed and they were proud to show it to us. Here is a picture of me holding the dead lizard:

And the lizard full length:

And now for the dogs. The poor dogs have a hard life out there, but they got a bit of love and affection from me.

Here's me with a puppy:

The two puppies in the picture below are litter-mates, but one was weak and rejected my the mother and wasn't getting fed for a while. Correna took that puppy under her wing and cared for him, giving him food and washing him. We saw a lot of improvement in him and the mother dog accepted him and let him feed. As you can see in the picture, there is a huge size difference between him and his brother. When we left, someone was going to look after him for Correna, but he was still so small, we don't know if he will live to adulthood.

The next picture is of a young dog, maybe a 6 month old. She was about adult size, but still a puppy. I really loved her, she had such spunk and energy. She had already learnt to be cautious of human hands, so it was often hard for me to get near her. I usually gained her confidence by patting the baby puppies first.

When she let me near her, she just wanted to play. Playing involved her mouth and my hand, but she was gentle and never hurt me. Dogs know how to control their jaws well.