Gold in them hills

 Wau landscape

 Wild West Wau

 Digging for gold

 Taking a break 

Easter trip to Wau so a 7am start but the pmv bus is not going anywhere until it has found a full load of passengers and bags of beetul nut cargo for exporting to Lae. 10.30 we set off but arrive in Lae too late to get transport up to Wau so a night in a cheap hostel for delf, my guide Jimmy from the Council’s nursery gardens (whose family come from Wau) and his friend who has come down from Wau to meet us.

So then at last – up into the hills, the truck winding its way around the contours at the edge of precipitous chasms in dense forest with just glimpses of the rocky rivers below. As we rise so the climate becomes more temperate with pine trees and bamboo and clearer views of the rivers where individuals and families are all panning for gold that they can sell in Lae. At Wau Jimmy’s family are away somewhere so we walk (if that’s the right word) out of the village  which is the last one in the valley and amazingly looks like an American gold rush outpost. We stagger across long deserted gold mining quarries, through the bush and across rivers in the pouring evening rain to our companion’s abode which he shares with half a dozen other earnest, hardworking and teetotal colleagues (so much for the cans of beer that Jimmy has been carrying!).  we are well looked after and in the morning greeted by hoards of children who have come from far and wide to see and marvel at the waitman

The serious gold mining has moved to the Hidden Valley just over the ridge where we can hear the helicopters and machinery. On this side nevertheless gold is still found, one sparkling piece in a rock I lost clambering about, such is life! One guy recently found a good size nugget which he sold for 6 million Kina following which everyone speaking his small clan’s language naturally came to congratulate him and share in his good luck. Another clan claimed that the gold was found on their land so wanted their property back – a few battles, not many deaths and the the police arrived and characteristically demolished a dozen houses before leaving it to the village court to resolve matters.

On our return the truck left early but then encountered a number of landslides that had blocked the road to traffic. Rather than going back we climbed and slid in the mud without falling into the valley to meet another truck attempting to travel in the opposite direction and so, home safely after a 12 hour journey and ready for work the next day.