Day 11- August 16th

Early in the morning our phones went off with a series of buzzes and beeps. Katelin groggily rose from her bed and began rousing the other sleepers, including Jessie who seemed to growl at her. We needed to leave soon for our fishing trip. After being sure that everybody was up, we made our way down the stairs of our hotel and to the parking lot where a white van was waiting for us. The fishing company provided transport to Galley Reach and back to Port Moresby. We hopped in and soon were on our way. In the van, we ate some Ritz crackers, apples, and pop tarts for breakfast. We didn't have time to eat at a restaurant. 

Galley Reach Day Trip - Fishing (Sports): Inside the van, we chattered about what we hoped to catch and how excited we were to go fishing today. We soon pulled up to a white building that had a small wooden ramp leading up to the doors. 

The company we went fishing with.

Upon entering the doors of the Wild River Fishing PNG building, we were struck by how the interior of the building was completely white. The walls had been painted this clean color, the ceiling was a light grey, and the white-tiled floors squeaked as Jessie walked up to the front counter. The lady behind the desk gave her a clipboard with a pen to sign us in as ‘present’ for our trip. Before leaving, Jessie noticed the pile of papers on the desk.  She grabbed one and brought it back for us to look at. It read as follows:

TOUR ITINERARY:

6:00 am - Depart for Galley Reach

7:30 am - Start fishing

4:30 pm - Back at boat ramp

6:00 pm - Back in Port Moresby

Other than a counter, the fishing building also included a room to wait for your tours, two back doors, and a clock hanging on the wall. We all looked at the clock. At the moment it was 7:15, so we all took a seat in the waiting room and twiddled our thumbs. With us in the waiting room was a young couple who had been to this fishing organization before. We knew this because they were both wearing T-shirts with the fishing company's logo on the front.

The Bullshark vessel

Two older men accompanied us in the room. Their wide-brimmed sun hats were lined with fishing hooks and bobbers. Suddenly, the back doors of the room busted open, and a man who sported a beard stepped into the room. He introduced himself as Benjamin, saying that he would be our guide today. Everyone all followed him out of the room and to the back of the building where two buses were waiting for us. Strapped to the roof of the nearest bus were five boats. Three were cobalt blue and had white stripes down the sides. Printed on the side of the neat boat were two bull shark drawings and a logo. The other two boats were white with red words on the side that said Proline. All the boats had a low railing, plushy fishing seats, and a motor. 

The Proline vessel

Benjamin told us to enter the buses, so we all clambered aboard. Finding seats next to each other was not hard when there were only 10 people on the bus. After we settled down, Benjamin came aboard and informed us that the ride would be about an hour long. Our spirits were only temporarily dampened by the thought of a long, boring bus ride, because Benjamin assured us that he would be providing some entertainment today. As the bus pulled away from the building, Benjamin began, “What do you call a fish with no eye?” The next hour was a steady stream of fishing jokes.

An hour later, our bus came to a smooth halt beside a magnificent river. Light reflected off the smooth surface of the water, making it look like the river itself was dancing as it lapped against the sandy banks. Tropical forests sprang up around the body of water to provide a green frame. A mixed bag of unamused and humorous feelings were washed away by the amazing sight. 

Benjamin walked off the bus and we followed him, thanking the bus driver for driving us as we passed by her. Our tour guide was atop the bus, carefully removing each boat from the roof. As he did so, we admired the river, and Jessie and Ayesha took out their phones to take a picture. When the last boat had been placed on the ground, our guide called us over and pointed to two large cement ramps nearby. The ramps disappeared under the calm current of water. Benjamin handed out rods and a small bucket of meat to everybody before asking us to place these items on the ramp and to help him move the boats into the water. With many helping hands, the tiny ships felt not nearly as heavy as they should have, and we were able to easily get all the boats to the water. Before long, all the vessels were bobbing gently in a row in front of the boat ramps.

However, the groups weren’t allowed to get in the boats yet. Benjamin briefly went over the basics and proper procedure for using fishing rods and motor boats. Ten minutes later, the young couple was clambering into their boat. The older men and Benjamin both waded out to the other blue boats, leaving us with the two Prolines. Ayesha and Sarah went out to one, while Katelin, Jessie, and Sierra made their way to another. We agreed to fish near each other even though we were in separate boats, that way we could talk to each other as we fished.

We learned that fishing takes an immense amount of time and patience. As the sun rose, so did the heat, and with only a few nibbles on our fishing lines per hour, we weren’t sure we were going to catch anything. Eventually, Katelin’s rod gave a tug so hard that she almost fell in. With the help of Jessie and Sierra, the three of them managed to reel in a huge black bass. The fish flopped around desperately, but Katelin managed to get a hold on it. Before we let it go, Ayesha got a snapshot of the magnificent bass. Two more hours of heat passed without event except for Sarah’s catching of a feisty minnow. The poor minnow nibbled on the meat chunk at the end of her hook, so when Sarah pulled her rod out of the water, the little fish was yanked from the water and thrown into her and Ayesha’s boat. Catching the flopping minnow proved hard, but luckily it was returned to the water before it was too late.

The black bass that Katelin caught. 

The minnow that Sarah caught.

As our watches read 12:00, our stomachs began to growl. Jessie pulled out a bag of apples and water for us to share, which we gratefully ate. Before long, our rods were back in the river, but there was little excitement. Deciding that maybe we would have better luck fishing somewhere else, we revved our motors and made our way further down the river.

The mangrove jack that Jessie caught.

Before long, Jessie had caught a mangrove jack! Its scarlet scales glinted in the sunlight as it flicked its tail back and forth indignantly. Sierra caught a Saratoga fish, which had yellow-tinted scales with an iridescent purple glint. The fish’s lack of a dorsal fin made it easy to identify. The Saratoga was about a foot long and looked very young. As we gently lowered the fish into the water again, Katelin pushed her waterproof camera under the water, hoping to get a great picture.

Saratoga fish

By the end of the day, Ayesha had also reeled in another black bass, though this one was much smaller than Katelin’s. Caught up in our great fishing spot, we nearly forgot to return to the boat ramp on time. Ayesha checked her phone when she suddenly realized it was already 4:15! Turning our motors back on, we regretfully had to abandon that part of the river. By the time we got back to the boat ramp, all the other groups had already left their boats behind, and were entering the bus. Not wanting to keep the other groups waiting, we hurried to catch up and Jessie nearly fell over and back into the river during our haste.

Benjamin strapped our boat to the roof of the bus, and we were ready to begin the ride back to the Wild River Fishing PNG building. Taking our seats on the bus, we couldn’t help but talk excitedly about all that we had caught! The bus lurched forward and the ride there was quite similar to the one this morning. Cheesy fishing jokes were all we heard in the next hour. Katelin pulled out her phone and googled “Best restaurants in Port Moresby” at about 30 minutes into our ride. A place called The Cellar was at the top of the list. It was an Indian restaurant that had amazing reviews. We decided to give it a try.

The sight of the fishing building was a welcome one because our stomachs had begun snarling once again. As the bus finally shut off its engine and came to a stop, we hopped off with nothing but hunger for dinner in our minds. We hailed a taxi, jumped in, and drove off to The Cellar.

Outside the Cellar restaurant 

The food at The Cellar was incredible. Katelin ordered the curry while everyone else ordered huge bowls of soup. Convinced we would love it, Katelin had everybody try a bite of her curry. Although Sarah and Ayesha thought it was incredible, the curry was much too hot for both Jessie and Sierra who chugged down their glasses of water. The food left us stuffed, and though we had heard from our taxi driver that the cheesecake was fantastic, eating one more bite was going to cause everybody to explode. So with a wistful gaze back at the cheesecakes on display at the front desk, we paid for our meals and walked out into the night of Papua New Guinea to call a cab. The moon ahead lit up the ground with streaks of silver light, and constellations of stars surrounded us. We wanted to enjoy every last bit of our last night in this tropical world, so as we drove away, we looked out the window and pointed constellations out, thoroughly enjoying the night ride.