In June we are having 2 film nights. The first is June 17 Indonesian Kayaking and the second is June 24 The Kokoda Track. Both film nights start at 7pm at our office 3/77 Beach Rd Sandringham. If you wish to attend, please RSVP us at info@noroads.com.au.

 

See you there!

 

Last year, two of our best PNG Porters, Javith and Gibson were entered into the Mark Webber Challenge in Tasmania. The men did themselves, us and PNG proud and soon became a crowd favourite with their smiling faces, there exceptional athletic ability and their beautiful voices.

 

Earlier this year, Gibson became the proud father of a beautiful boy who he proudly named Webber, in honour of the F1 Driver Mark Webber.

 

Well done Gibson and we wish you, your wife and son the best of health.

If you have not already heard of him, you soon will. The Diaries of Adventure Guy and Wapu (His trusty man servant), have just been released to the public.

 

Adventure Guy is a difficult character to describe. He is suave and strong on the outside but inside he is a trembling degenerate.  Larger than life, he wanders the world in search of adventure and misadventure. Disillusioned by his own grandeur, Adventure Guy has few skills other than the exploitation of his man servant Wapu, disdain for all humanity (especially his travelling companions), swindling and weaseling out of tricky situations and into the beds of unsuspecting women.

 

Each month we will publish excerpts from his outrageous diaries, purely for your entertainment.

 

Genetically 97% that of a Human and with the intellect of a 6 year old child, the Orangutan is a threatened species. Deforestation is leaving many infant Orangutans orphaned from their mothers. As part of the No Roads Big Fish Orangutan Project, we are giving you the opportunity to help us help our closest relative.

 

We have rarely seen a group so overwhelmed and so pumped by an expedition as the group that we met in Bali in early May.

The No Roads Big Fish team had just returned from their expedition to central Borneo, where they visited the remote Tanjung Puting National Park. Their mission was to see as many Orangutans as possible and to observe where the nearly $13000 they had raised for the protection of the Orangutans, was going.

The group spent 4 days in the park, aboard 2 klotoks or river boats. They journeyed up the tranquil river system that weaves its way through the park observing Gibbons, Proboscis Nose monkeys and a plethora of other creatures.

But it was the Orangutans that they had come to see. In the end they had seen over 25 individuals either in the jungle or from their klotok, including the famous Princess, an Orangutan that can communicate with humans through hand signals.

They were also given the rare opportunity to camp out in the park, to experience the jungle of Borneo up close and personal.

The No Roads Big Fish Expedition was a huge success in every possible way. So much so, we have already scheduled another for next year. If you are interested, get on board early as positions will be limited.

Want to know more about this expedition?

June 8 will mark a milestone for No Roads Expeditions and the global community of Porters. It is the day that Terrance David from Kagi, PNG, flies to Indonesia to undertake Gunung Rinjani. "So what!" you may say.

 

This is the first Porter to participate in what we believe is the first International Porter Exchange Program. The No Roads Expedition Foundation is funding Terrance to travel to Indonesia and to travel as a trekker on our Gunung Rinjani expedition on the island of Lombok.

 

The exchange program endeavors to bring the global community of Porters together through travel. This will enable Porters from different countries, to meet each other, exchange experiences and to appreciate that they are part of a much larger community than the one they work in back home. It will enable Porters to travel to places they would otherwise not have access to and to experience cultures, terrain, conditions, food, languages, sights and sounds that will be completely foreign to them. This, we hope, will give the selected Porters a broader perspective of the world they live in.

 

We will let you know how Terrance went on his return, in our next Newsletter.

 

Good Luck Terrance! Want to know more about our Gunung Rinjani Expeditions?

We could not have wished for better weather on our recent expedition to the Komodo Islands. Blue skies, a slight breeze and tranquil seas greeted us each day on our paddling expedition to see the awesome Komodo Dragons.

 

While the Dragons and the snorkeling are always highlights of this expedition, two events stood out on this trip. The first was a visit to the sea village of Papagaran. This small village of 300 people, is made up of an eclectic collection of cultures, souther Sulewesie Bugi, Florentines and Sumbawans, come together to form a vibrant community. We were greeted by enthusiastic school children and shown the school, hospital and mosque by our kayak guide Yusif. The island lives off sea food and surplus catch is sold in Labuan Bajo to obtain vegetables and fruits as well as rice to complete their diet.

 

The second highlight was observing the daily migration of 1 million fruit bats at sunset from a small mangrove island opposite Nusa Pimpe. From our kayaks, we watched these nocturnal Pteropodidae swarm into the skies toward mainland Flores, reminiscent of the swarms of flying monkeys in the Wizard of Oz. The following morning we could hear them return to their perch from our tents on the sandy beach of Nusa Pimpe.