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
