BULOLO District in Morobe staged its
first ever cultural show on the Sept 16-18 coinciding with the country’s 36th
Independence anniversary celebrations.
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| Thrilling the crowd at the Bulolo Show.-Pictures by PETER BOYD |
The event was staged in Mumeng Town.
Traditional singsing groups from the six LLGs of Bulolo, Mumeng, Buang, Watut,
Biangai and people from other parts of Morobe who live in Bulolo and Wau like
the Kabub singsing group took part.
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| Bulolo MP Sam Basil meets rider Daniel Hargreaves and others as show committee chairman Stanley Komunt, of MMJC (centre) looks on |
Bulolo’s own sons and PNGs famous
artists Lister and Amon Serum performed live to entertain the show goers.
Other entertainment included a string
band competition, greasy pole climbing, inter LLG tug of war.
The
highlight of the day was without a doubt a visit from Morobe Motorcycle Club
riders who stopped halfway through a two day fun race from Bulolo to Edie Creek
and back to Lae.
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| Waterfall near Buang on Snake River |
The large crowd was witness to a display of wheel stands,
jumps and riders riding without too much skill or control.
The invitation to
participate in a race at Independence weekend was extended to the MMC several
months earlier by show chairman Stanley Komunt and it proved a great success.
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| Ploughing through a quagmire |
The
'fun' race started with a small but enthusiastic group of riders in Bulolo on
the Saturday who rode to Wau via PNGFP tracks and overnighted at the Wau
Adventures headquarters, home to Tim and Danielle Vincent.
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| Crossing the Snake River...hoping not to fall |
The
first day’s easy riding determined the starting order for the grueling second
days riding.
Day two saw local favourite and PNG'S No.1 bike Rider Daniel
Hargreaves take a commanding lead in the first of the days special stages, a
savage hill climb to the summit of Mt Kaindi at 7800ft and back to Wau.
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| Rider about to crash near summit of Mt Kainti, at 7800 ft, outside Bulolo enroute to Hidden Valley |
This
section took its toll on riders and bikes with several riders crashing and Tim
Vincent of Wau Adventures, PNG'S Premier Adventure Tourism Company, suffering
badly bruised ribs - forcing him to pull out of any further racing.
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| Ow! That hurts! |
Leg two was
the reverse of the first day’s course from Wau to Bulolo and convincingly won
by Suzuki rider Michael Schulz with a clear gap to Hargreaves, who was unable
to maintain his first afternoons pace.
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| A steep descent |
A
short third leg from Bulolo to Mumeng saw the riders cross the line within a
minute of each other, the tarmac riding not being to anyone's liking as the
thought of crashing on tarmac was enough to deter anyone from risking life and
limb - all riders knew that the last section of 94km from Mumeng Station to
MMJV Headquarters at 9-Mile Lae would require all their energy and attention.
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| Riding in fog is an unbelievable experience, the forest is dead quiet except for the bikes' sound |
Thirty minutes were spent entertaining the crowd at the Bulolo Show and taking
advice on the route ahead from MP Sam Basil, one of the few people who had
actually driven down the Snake River to Buang and Gabensis.
The
route chosen followed the Snake River past Buang, Wagau and onto Gabensis on
the Bulolo Highway - a distance of 65km, and finishing off with a 30km road
stage.
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| Village people close to Wagau - experiencing a motorbike for the first time in their lives |
The only problem was that so much fun was had at Mumeng entertaining the
crowd that riders lost track of time and were very late leaving Mumeng.
Heavy
fog and fading light slowed the bikes to a crawl for over an hour past Buang
and Wagau.
Drops on either side of the overgrown track were vertical and deadly
and any thoughts of racing were set aside with safety of riders paramount.
Several of the bikes had no lights and this meant extra care needed to be
shown.
What
should have taken two hours took five hours and at 8pm the bikes arrived at
MMJV headquarters with riders exhausted having commenced riding at 9am that
morning.
Minister for National Planning and
Monitoring Samuel Basil officiated at the show which was attended by over 3, 000
people.
Basil thanked the show chairman
Stanley Komunt and his committees and all the sponsors for making the event a
success.
Major sponsors:
- Bulolo District - Joint District Planning & Budget Priority Committee (JDP&BPC) – K85,000 in cash
- Morobe Mining JV (MMJV) K20,000 in kind
- Hornibrooks NGI Limited – K5,000 in cash
- Bank of South Pacific (BSP) – K3,000 in cash
- Island Mobile Hirecar
- Lae Biscuits company
- ArmSec Limited
- Digicel PNG
- NBC Morobe
- Zenang Chicken
- Bulolo District Administration
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