Title – Local Traders
Date – August 2001
Location - Papua New Guinea
Your contribution can make a very positive difference to the economies of not just the government of the country you visit, but also the micro economies in towns and villages you come across along the way. While on a dive trip in Papua New Guinea, these local traders paddled all the way out to sea to pull along the side us, with a view to trying to sell some local goods.
People have different opinions on buying from hawkers, but here there can be no doubt that these were local villagers looking for legitimate income from an honest trade. I decided to buy some fruits and coconuts, despite not really needing them, but they proved useful gifts for a later stop at a local village. I avoided buying the shells on offer as the nature of the shell trade at every level, is having a serious effect on the populations of some species. I believe that shells are much more beautiful in their original environment then on a shelf in your home.
Beyond The Blue’s Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop is designed to help people travelling to do so responsibly and without damaging local ecologies. We believe travel should make a positive contribution in the countries you visit.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – World War II Guns
Date – August 2001
Location - Rabaul – Papua New Guinea
Sometimes temptation gets that little bit too strong and you can’t stop yourself taking the ‘classic’ photo. But when WWII gun stations are still lying at the side of the road, sixty years after they were last fired, it can be hard to resist having a closer look… and maybe a play.
But be warned, WWII left a lot of debris behind it and it more remote parts of the Pacific Islands you can also come across unexploded munitions, they may have been laying there for sixty years but that doesn’t make them safe.
Beyond The Blue examines assessing risk both in the planning stage of your trip and once you have left by carrying out dynamic risk assessments in what ever situation your may encounter along the way. Our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop is designed to help you to make choices based on good judgement and all the available information.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Idol Carving
Date – August 2001
Location - Sepik – Papua New Guinea
In many countries round the world Idols are carved and either worshipped or used as traditional decoration. In this case the idol was decorating the ‘Men’s House’ in a Papuan village.
The ‘Men’s House’ is the traditional house where the men meet to discuss the important village issues. In more violent time, this was where raids on other villages would be planned from. To this day women are forbidden from entering the house and you must respect these rules.
During our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop we examine the cultural differences between different destinations and how you should act when visiting different locations. Beyond The Blue have the experience to advise you on cultural sensitivities and the particular challenges for Women Travellers.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Local Market
Date – August 2001
Location - Sepik – Papua New Guinea
A true free market economy can be found in most parts of the world, even if it is on the smallest of scales as here on the Sepik river in Papua New Guinea. There are no timetables; if you come across the market it’s your lucky day and a chance to pick up some fresh local fruits and vegetables to supplement your diet.
Two points worth remembering the first is to take small enough change, the nearest bank is 8 or 9 days away and as I found out even the small coins are not small enough and tipping would be considered rude here. The second tip is to make sure you don’t buy too much. This type of market has almost no produce, you going through with your wealth and buying the most and the best you can buy, will often leave the locals with nothing to buy or barter for until the next market day, that may be weeks away.
Beyond The Blue helps individuals get the right balance to their travel experience. To enjoy the experience with the skills and knowledge to make it safe and rewarding, we recommend our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Dinner Party
Date – August 2001
Location - Sepik – Papua New Guinea
Electricity is not something that is always available in the far corners of the world and in central Papua New Guinea it certainly is a rarity. Dinner is made on an open fire and you really have to have all of your own food, enough for your guide, boatmen and where possible your host. With just the light of a candle to see, you are never quite sure who is there with you, when you are having dinner.
This picture was taken thinking I was having dinner just with three or four people, it wasn’t until I got home that I realised half the village was looking on.
Beyond The Blue runs Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop during which we examine every aspect of your planned trip, including such issues as electrical supply in your destination and those places in the world where charging your ipod will be impossible, without a solar panel.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Moonscape
Date – August 2001
Location - Rabaul – Papua New Guinea
If you ever needed proof of how different one side of the world is to the other, then Rabaul in Papua New Guinea is the place for you to go. A scene more familiar to astronauts then the rest of us stuck here on earth, this landscape represents one of the most geologically active parts of the earth’s surface and a great place to explore, without almost any chance of bumping into another western traveller.
Our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop helps individuals to realise their dreams and travel, to see for themselves, the vastly different environments the world has to offer.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Village Chiefs Hut
Date – August 2001
Location - Sepik - Papua New Guinea
Being invited to stay in the chief’s hut bestows a great honour on you and on the village chief himself and is an opportunity that should not be missed. But seeing that the chief’s entire possessions can be contained in two small suitcases is a stark reminder. The value of your backpack alone probably exceeds the value of his entire belongings.
Showing respect is a very important part of being accepted on your visit to a new country. Be aware of those who are offering you hospitality and what effect your visit will have on them. Bringing a gift is a common way of showing this respect, but cash in the middle of Papua is of very little use, more sensible gifts that will have a positive impact on your hosts are much more appreciated. This can be as simple as food stuffs or something useful like a pen knife or similar implement.
Beyond The Blue recognises the benefits of generating a positive reaction from your host. As part of our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop we look at non verbal communication and win-win situations to help you achieve this positive impact.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Giant Stride
Date – August 2001
Location - Papua New Guinea
Diving is one of life’s great pleasures to those who have experienced it, the feeling of taking a giant stride into the ocean anywhere in the world takes you from your familiar world into a completely new one where all your senses are transformed and where you feel weightless and relaxed amongst one of the world most beautiful environments.
Diving isn’t for every one and common sense has to prevail when taking part in this activity. Many people learn to dive during a round-the-world trip or gap year. You should choose your diving school carefully, make the right choice and you’ll end up with a diving school and instructors who teach you how to dive responsibly and safely, go for the cheapest option and you might find yourself with an Open Water Certificate, but not the fundamental skills required to take part in the sport safely.
Beyond The Blue believes in the value of training individuals attending our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop to understand the basics of decision making, when dealing with subjects that are unfamiliar in their normal day to day lives.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Welcoming Committee
Date – August 2001
Location - Sepik - Papua New Guinea
Arriving at a new village in the heart of Papua New Guinea you can be guaranteed a welcome and you can guarantee a welcoming committee. At this village there was a complete lack of any males about on our arrival, having walked round the village with our new friends in tow, it was discovered that all the men were out on a hunting trip. They had taken their spears and bows & arrows and headed off up river to hunt crocodiles!
When they got back I was shown to the chiefs hut, who turned up shortly afterwards with a sack over his shoulder. It had been a good hunt and his share of the bounty (the villagers always share the bounty out amongst the whole village) was three small crocodile heads and several live turtles that he delighted in empting on the floor in front of me.
Beyond The provides Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop that help to prepare individuals planning to travel for all the different types of cultures and environments they may encounter along the way.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – On Top of the Tuvurvur Volcano
Date – August 2001
Location - Rabaul - Papua New Guinea
The top of an active, unmonitored and unregulated volcano that sends columns of smoke and ash out on a daily basis, is no place to go without making sure you have a good plan in your head and have told others of these plans. Take advice from locals and don’t put yourself at any more risk then you have to.
When you find yourself on your own on the rim and look down into the abyss, you will never feel as insignificant, but don’t fight, the fear it’s a good thing. Fear provides the little voice in our heads that helps us make a sensible decision and move as soon as we get any indication the volcano doesn’t want us there anymore.
Planning a trip can be a daunting prospect, when you start to look into potential destinations there seems to be hurdles to jump at every corner and the warnings and bad luck stories abound. Sometimes you feel like staying at home, might just be the smart move. Beyond The Blue runs Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop to help you overcome these hurdles and to break down the fears you may have and put them into perspective. In short we’ll help you get on your way with confidence.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – World War II Bomber
Date – August 2001
Location - Rabaul - Papua New Guinea
The Second World War left much of the Pacific region littered with debris, artillery, crashed planes and munitions. There can be no stranger sight then walking along and finding a WWII Bomber lying at the side of the road, after 60 years almost untouched and half buried in the ash that fell after several eruptions from the local volcano.
The west went out to the Pacific to fight a war and when it left, life just went back to normal in the islands or as close to normal as can be expected after the damage done to the region and its people.
At Beyond The Blue we realise that when we travel to another country, it should be a positive experience both for the traveller and for the host country. Understanding the environment and culture of your host country can help you enjoy your trip and leave a positive experience behind with the locals. Our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop helps you to prepare for your travels and gives you the tools to make a positive contribution.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Giant Barracuda
Date – August 2001
Location - Papua New Guinea
The Giant Barracuda is really a fish worth giving a wide berth to. As the magpies of the sea, they love nothing more then taking a snap at any shiny object in the sea, be that your watch or chrome attachments to your diving gear. Its razor sharp rows of teeth will mean your wetsuit provides about as much protection as a wet tissue.
The trick is to check your suit for shiny objects before you dive in areas where they are found and turn your dive watch onto the inside of your wrist to stop it reflecting.
Beyond The Blue instructors have a hundred different tips that they introduce when relevant into our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Sunset Islands
Date – August 2001
Location - Papua New Guinea
This is the dream for so Many People.
Beyond The Blue can help you get there.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Silver Tip Shark
Date – August 2001
Location - Papua New Guinea
The Silver Tip Shark is just one of the many sharks to be found just under the water in different parts of the world. Different species of shark are found in every ocean of the world and we have all seen at least one of the jaws films… we should probably never dip our toes in the water…
At Beyond The Blue we know that the key is not to ignore opportunities because of potential dangers but to understand the dangers, assess them, analyse them and then act in a safe manner. This Silver Tip Shark didn’t stop us going in the water, on this occasion we actually went out looking for them, when we found them we had the most exciting dive watching them feed and when we assessed that the situation had suddenly got out of our control, we made a hasty exit and returned to the boat, the sharks followed us…. It seems we made the right choice!
Our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshops help the individuals attending, to assess risks before and during their travels.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Papua Time
Date – August 2001
Location - The Sepik – Papua New Guinea
Papua-time, much like Fiji-time, is the local description for the pace of life and sense of any lack of urgency that abounds throughout the South Pacific. Take any task you complete ay home and add an infinite amount of time to it and you can work out how long the same task will take in the South Pacific. Put more simply there is no timetable.
Invited as always to stay in the chiefs hut overnight whenever visiting the villages in this part of the Sepik, you can find yourself abandoned as the chief attends to important duties in another part of the village. These duties can take fifteen minutes or many many hours, the time you spend sitting back waiting, that’s truly Papua-time.
Beyond The Blue’s Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop helps prepare the individuals attending to survive in environments and cultures very different from our own and with very different priorities.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Missionary Air Force
Date – August 2001
Location - The Sepik – Papua New Guinea
There are two ways into the interior of the Sepik river area of Papua New Guinea, the first is overland, this involves a very long ride in the back of a pick-up truck to the nearest loading point on the Sepik itself and then negotiating a ride in a dug out canoe all the way into the centre and will take several days. The second is to hitch a ride on the Missionary Air Force plane, for a negotiated fee and the willingness to be preached at for the duration of the flight, you‘ll get a ride in the cockpit.
Our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop examines Transport Options at your destinations. Beyond The Blue run these workshops to prepare individuals for where ever their dreams may take them.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Play Time
Date – August 2001
Location - The Sepik – Papua New Guinea
Kids all round the world play similar games that demonstrate how much we have in common, but games in Papua New Guinea have an ulterior motive. These kids were collecting these reed stems and sharpening them to use as little spears. They then went on to hunt small birds and frogs, not just for fun but to supplement the evening meal.
Beyond The Blue run Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop to help individuals to prepare properly for wherever they intend to travel to. We examine subjects including; Travel Equipment, Travel Health and vaccinations and Cultural Awareness, these workshops are tailored specifically to meet your needs.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Football New Guinea Style
Date – August 2001
Location - The Sepik – Papua New Guinea
It is really no exaggeration that football is a global language. It seems sometimes that nowhere in the world is there a place that you can’t buy a Coke or find someone to talk to about the English Premiership. With a player from almost every country in the world playing for one Premiership team or another, the people in their home countries follow their every move and often know a lot more about our football, then we do ourselves. It’s a great way to get to know people and to start a conversation with the locals.
However here on the Sepik River in Papua New Guinea you are unlikely to get any response to your questions about Steven Gerrard, with no electricity, communication and transport connections (with the exception of the dug-out canoe) news travels very very slowly and the priorities are as different as they can get from a Saturday afternoon in the UK. But give them a little free time and a ball made of rolled up rags and the difference between this setting and your local common at home are much less obvious.
Beyond The Blue as part of a Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop examines the aspects of communication that we all have in common no matter where we come from. We run communication exercises to demonstrate communication blocks and how to overcome them.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
Title – Tuvurvur Volcano
Date – August 2001
Location - Rabaul – New Britain – Papua New Guinea
Don’t underestimate the force of our planet and don’t put yourself in its way when it decides on demonstrating who the boss is. This lava rock didn’t just appear from nowhere, it popped out of the top of this volcano in Papua New Guinea. Don’t fall into the trap to think this all happened thousands of years ago; this volcano is as active as any accessible to the experienced traveller, sending plumes of smoke out at regular intervals and covering Rabaul every day in a thin layer of ash. It also has a tendency to throw rocks out hundreds of meters from the core.
Volcanoes in many parts of the world are active and dangerous and you should seek advice from local specialist before you attempt to climb them or get within spitting distance. The specialists spend hours looking at the signs and symptoms before deciding on the threat level.
At Beyond The Blue we train individuals to recognise the signs and symptoms of threats as part of our Gap Year and Independent Travel Safety & Awareness workshop, so that they can avoid risk in the first place. We can’t predict when volcanoes will erupt, but we can read the signs put up by the experts.
Please visit our website at www.safegapyear.com
Image – ©Peter Mayhew
