The other Lihir islands

Ed has been working on his sea legs and getting off Lihir's main island, Aniolam, to a couple of the smaller islands that we stare across to from our deck. Last weekend we headed over to Malie for a bit of a snorkelling/fishing session.

It's ok, Ed wasn't driving. Although it's only a 20 minute trip in a straight line, so maybe he could have.

Plenty of people live on the other smaller islands that make up the Lihir group. At least a few hundred. On Snambiet, which is right next to Mali, there is even a school and a pub with an atm. Banana boats leave from the main harbour of Londo town on Aniolam, and it's 3 kina ($1.50) for a taxi ride across for the locals. Kids commute from the surrounding islands to go to the school here.

When we got over to the beach that we were going to go snorkelling off, Ed and I headed to shore to chat to some of the locals (in our basic yet slowly increasing tok pisin vocabulary). So friendly, they climbed up a palm and got us a fresh drinking coconut to wet our whistles. 

In a few weeks we are heading across to Masahet, one of the bigger islands nearby, to hike around the perimeter and then up the top where there is a Japanese plane wreck. One of the guys who works at the mine but comes from Masahet is going to organise us a 'mumu' where we'll cook in a dug out fire oven. Can't wait.