Papua New Guinea

For this week's Sunday Stamps theme of "Ocean and Island nations of the Pacific" I had lots of choice from my 'Eye of the Wind' covers, the ship visited Fiji, Sulawesi (Indonesia), Cocos Islands and Papua New Guinea. I chose these headdress stamps from Papua New Guinea which I thought would brighten up any weekend.  The two on the right portray a man from Kundiawa (a town on the Highlands Highway), the other stamp is a masked dancer of the Abelam area of Maprik.  The bird of paradise whose feathers are sometimes used for these headdresses is the national emblem of the country, and appears on the cover above the map of Papua New Guinea.  The map shows the Strickland and Fly Rivers where the young explorers were navigating using inflatable boats.  Because the country has no railways and few roads the possibility of the rivers being opened for transport was the idea behind the project of mapping the rivers. Permanent low cloud and spray from the falls means detailed maps from aerial photography at this time were impossible. Reconnaissance on the expedition had to be on foot to identify the main hazards around which the inflatables would have to be portaged. During the navigation of these rivers a second party concentrated on a crocodile survey.  Which of those projects would you choose, crocodiles or rapids?  I'd have liked to be on the coast watching birds

This Little Egret stands in front of the stilt houses which stand about 4 metres high allowing for water levels at high tide.

The White Faced Heron possibly competing with the man fishing in the background; as night falls the Nankeen Night Heron appears; the Crested Tern on the beach and the Bar-tailed Godwin. Lastly

 in the golden light sits a Little Pied Heron as a canoe paddles past.

An entry to Viridian Postcard's Sunday Stamps