Five Senses Coffee Blog

Mud men and blackouts

My flight to Port Moresby and then onto Goroka was reasonably uneventful. Jerry experienced some delays on the way in from Simbu so wasn’t at the airport when I arrived. This is not to say I didn’t have a warm welcome. The famous mud men had made their way onto the tarmac by the time we’d taxied up to the arrivals shed and provided us all with a bit of light entertainment while we waited for our bags to be offloaded. Jerry wasn’t that far behind. By the time I’d checked in the Bird he’d arrived with his offsider David – we had a drink, dinner and quite a few laughs as we reminisced about old times.

I’m off to visit some of the growers today and will end up staying Mt Wilhelm Hotel in Kundiawa. I’m going to do a bit of roasting training with Jerry’s guys and also teach them how to use the espresso machine that they have just purchased. It’s going to be really interesting – many photos to come.

I’ve got to be thankful. The Bird of Paradise Hotel has had enough experience in PNG to know that back up generators are an essential part of their infrastructure – last night it had a real work out.