Madang Transportation

The easiest and most common way to reach Madang is by aircraft, usually from Port Moresby after about a 1-hour flight over the intervening central mountain ranges of PNG. I travelled that way a few times but the trip I most enjoyed was when I drove overland to Madang by myself in an Elcom Landcruiser.

On that trip, I had to visit all substations in the central mountains to carry out tests at each one. I flew into Mt. Hagen from Port Moresby, where I picked up a Landcruiser for my journey. After performing tests at Mt. Hagen, Kundiawa and Goroka, I spent the night near Kainantu with Elcom friends who worked there. The next day I checked out the Kainantu sub before heading down off the mountains toward the eastern coastal plains. It was on these flatlands that I had to veer off the main sealed Highlands Highway (which went to Lae) and instead took the un-sealed road to Madang. Because this road ran parallel to the Ramu River, which flows out of the mountains and toward the north coast, the trip entailed several fords of smaller tributaries where there were no bridges. It was quite an adventure to be travelling along by myself in this remote part of PNG! The day after finishing work in Madang, I back-tracked on the same road and ended up in Lae for my final tests before flying out from there! A recent (2004) posting on the web by a tourist says "we take the Ramu Highway south out of Madang in a convoy of 15-seater minibuses in various states of disrepair. They are crammed with people, pigs, chickens with cargo on the roofs: bananas, buai (betel nut) and sweet potato. This road to Lae is the only 'interstate' in the country and, despite its extraordinary convolutions and steep pitch in parts, is mostly sealed and in good condition. Once over the tortuous Finisterre Range the road opens out into the vast Ramu Valley. Gone are the coast's omnipresent coconut plantations - this is cattle and sugar cane country".

This photo was taken near Kainantu on a back road that was not in as good a shape as the road to Madang!