Young Kevin - my track hero
By BIG PAT
IN LIFE, everybody has a hero. On a distant little track which put my strength of mind to the test, I had the great fortune to turn to a little known hero.
Meet my young knight in shining armor Kevin Lipo, a 17-year-old grade seven student from Mazuz primary school, who turned out to be my champion on the Lambuar to Londolovit track.
Kevin is a likeable young boy who spends much of his time tending his parent’s garden after school. The foothills of Lambuar on the west coast of Lihir Island are his domain. He feels at home under the canopy of the rainforest.
When I joined a group of trekkers to attempt the west east crossing of Lihir Island from Lambuar to Londolovit on Feb 2, I thought it was going to be an easy jog on Miaru beach.
But the track turned out to be a lesson in fitness and survival - you have to be physically fit to attempt this walk and to survive, you must be willing to suffer some pain.
What normally takes locals two hours at an easy pace, took my group four hours at a laborious grueling hike to complete. The track uphill was so punishing for all of us first timers that it was inevitable to take a rest break every 10 minutes!
At places, the track was steep and narrow. That is where the fleet footed Kevin came in handy. As my personal guide, I could only wonder at his immense strength as he hauled me up the steep inclines and steered me over the obstacles on the ridge.
At one stage, he said to me, ‘yu hevi tumas’ (You are very heavy). I thought he was complaining about the weight he was pulling on until I realized that what he really meant was that I was well and truly overweight!
When you consider that Kevin hardly reaches up to my chest, and I am six foot two and weigh well over 100 kilos, Kevin was being very honest on that track.
To top it off, my little hero was doing it easy without the benefit of shoes, and here I was labouring up the cliffside, slipping and sliding in some cheap 115 kina feathertop trackers that I had brought from Streetscene in Port Moresby.
After four hours and 10 minutes, we emerged from the undergrowth in the Londolovit valley covered in sweat and grime.
It all began when Lihir Gold Limited Community Relations supervisor John Pong, a local from Kunaye village, dared his workmates to follow him through the tropical rainforests.
John issued the challenge after a particular lecture on obesity by CL Health coordinator Doctor Billy ‘Moskito’ Selve, who also asked that we catch mosquitoes on the way back to Londo town.
And so began the one day adventure. Pong organized a local guide Alois Opnai from Lambuar to lead the team. Fortunately for us, Kevin and another guide Jerry Salom joined the action.
Important on our job list was to - document and GPS the route of the track as part of LGL’s Cultural Heritage Management Program; test out the 2008 environmental terrestrial programs in megapode, vegetation and biodiversity surveys; encourage local participation in leisure trekking as a business opportunity; and photograph the route of the track.
The team members included LGL Community Impact Monitoring supervisor Walter ‘Wally Walrus’ Pondrelei (a seasoned mountain trekker from the slopes of Mount Wilhelm), Cultural Information graduate Patrick ‘Small Pat’ Turan, Commercial Services adviser Sylvester “Syl’ Kimsen, and LGL Environment biologist Chris ‘Black Tiger’ Sigere.
The Lambuar to Londo track is an old walking track used by locals over the years and more recently by geologists during pre-mining and post-mining activities.
Nowadays, the track is used mainly by local gardeners and pig hunters. We discovered lots of tracks left overnight by wild pigs.
Owing to extremely good sunny weather, we encountered a few juvenile boas, megapodes and other birds and saw a lot of tropical orchids that would have JT ‘The Happy Gardener’ happily flowering along the bush track.
Despite a few hidden snags that caught the unsuspecting trekkers once in a while and sending them into the undergrowth, the abundance of cool, clear cascading waterfalls and creeks allowed them to wash off the mud and sweat along the way.
These creeks on the western side of the Lambuar ridge wind their way into the valley to form the Londolovit River.
It is an excellent track for those seeking adventure, especially bird watchers, orchid lovers and trekking enthusiasts.
A relatively easy track, it can be crossed in less than two hours if you’re physically fit.
Alois, our guide has done it all before, and is more than willing to take you across.
However, there are some obstacles along the way and some sections of the track are quite narrow and require vigilant attention when walking as one false step can lead to disaster.
There is only the Lambuar Ridge to scale and at just less than 100 metres, it’s quite an easy climb for seasoned trekkers.
For his troubles, for his enthusiasm and for his honesty, Mr Kevin will be getting a set of KT runners when I next return to Lambuar. That is his prize for pulling me up the Lambuar Ridge.
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