Konrad Borowiecki, Author at No Limit Adventures

No Limit & Alison’s Adventures rock Papua New Guinea (March 2023)

by Konrad Borowiecki | Jun 16, 2023 | Blog

In March this year (2023) we spent an amazing couple of weeks exploring Papua New Guinea with Alison Teal and Kellen Lovell from Alison’s Adventures. It was a PNG adventure tour months in the making…

Alison is an explorer, conservationist, film-maker and influencer and Time Magazine’s “female Indiana Jones”. She is from Hawaii and has millions of fans following her adventures across her social media accounts – check out her TikTok for all the exciting videos from our PNG adventure. Her quest is to create family friendly content that educates through entertainment. Alison strives to positively educate her viewers on nature, wildlife, conservation as well as other cultures, their traditions and way of life.

Our PNG adventure tour began in Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea. After months of planning the trip, daily Whatsapp calls and voice messages we finally met each other in person. With no time to waste we kicked into gear and headed to Fischerman’s Island, home to our good friend Joel from the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority, who invited us to see his home. Fisherman’s Island, known as Daugo Island, lies a short boat ride from Port Moresby. We got picked up by Joel and whisked over to the island by banana boat, where we spent the afternoon taking in the village life, meeting the local people and enjoying a swim and snorkel at one of the fringing reefs. It was a relaxing start to our adventure topped off with a nice dinner with new friends back in the capital.

The next day it was an early flight to the scenic and breathtaking Papua New Guinea Highlands. We arrived in Mount Hagen, one of the biggest cities in the country. From Mount Hagen airport we traveled a short 45-minute drive into the mountains where we arrived at Rondon Ridge, our home for the next 3 nights.

Rondon Ridge is an eco lodge located on a mountain slope overlooking Mount Hagen city with magnificent views of the peaks of Mt. Giluwe and Mt. Hagen on the other side of the valley. Built in the 70’s Rondon Ridge has been welcoming international visitors for years including Mick Jagger himself. Our rooms were spacious, comfortable and exceeded our expectations. After a wonderful Rondon Ridge lunch we were taken on a guided tour through the high-altitude rainforest on the property where we learned about the native flora and fauna. We had no luck in spotting the national bird of PNG, the Raggianna Bird-of-Paradise, but we did meet the local deer family that is kept on the property.

Over the next 2 days we were treated to a PNG cultural tour by Trans Niugini Tours. We visited numerous local villages and got to experience the culture and traditions of the native residents including a presentation of the Mudman tribe, the Skeleton men and the Melpa tribe. We experienced traditional Sing Sings, particularly in one village where the local villagers decided to stage a cultural mini-show for us. It was an amazing display of the distinct dance, culture, and music that was shared with us.

Whilst at Rondon Ridge we had the pleasure of sharing stories with tourism pioneer and owner of Rondon Ridge Bob Bates as well as hanging out with former PNG Prime Minister Paias Wingti, with whom we discussed our predictions for the 2023 NRL season.

Having enjoyed the PNG Highlands it was now time to continue on our next part of the journey, which took us to Kavieng, New Ireland. We traveled back to Port Moresby and connected with our flight to Kavieng. Once in Kavieng we quickly grabbed our boards and bags and transferred to the Kavieng waterfront where our boat transfer to Lissenung was waiting for us. A short 20-minute scenic boat ride and we arrived at Lissenung Island.

Lissenung is a tiny island popular with divers, surfers and guests looking for peace and quiet from all over the world. It is literally PARADISE! With only a handful of guests on the island at any given time, the remoteness of the island and limited connectivity allows you to disconnect from the outside world. The island has been run by good friends Ange and Dietmar for over 27 years offering their guests world-class Papua New Guinea scuba diving adventures, access to amazing surfing, nature, village visits as well as turtle conservation. With the latter they have dedicated a lot of their time, efforts and resources to educate and raise awareness for endangered turtles amongst the local people in and around Kavieng.

With Lissenung being our base camp our next few days were filled with surfing awesome uncrowded breaks, scuba diving and snorkeling pristine reefs, searching for Nemo as well as learning about turtles! With the guidance of Lissenung’s awesome surf guide Simon from Lissenung we were lucky to get nice clean waves at the local surf magnet Ral Island and enjoyed surfing for the first few days. However, one of our goals on this trip was to raise awareness of the turtle conservation program run on Lissenung.

The team at Lissenung Island has had a love and dedication for the oceans and marine life for years raising awareness for turtle conservation with the support of neighbouring villages and traditional landowners. During the nesting season Ange, Dietmar and team will scan well-know nesting spots around Kavieng and relocate turtle nests to Lissenung ensuring the nests are safe from poachers and other natural threats. They have passionately dedicated their time, energy and funds to protect turtle nests in the area and see a higher success rate of hatching of nests. Their efforts have seen an average turtle hatching success rate of over 90% each year, with valuable data collected and sent to Conservation organisations in Australia and beyond. This data is invaluable to turtle researchers, and provides groundbreaking information on turtle numbers, species, migratory patterns, feeding grounds and more. Furthermore, they have looked after countless injured and sick turtles rehabilitating them and then releasing back into the wild. During our visit we were fortunate to be there for the release of two turtles as well as a nest of healthy young hatchlings. It was an amazing end to a fantastic Papua New Guinea adventure.

If Papua New Guinea is on your bucket list, get in touch. Incredible diversity of nature, mountains, culture, adventure, reefs, surf and wildlife await. We have been offering tailor-made tours and travel arrangements to Papua New Guinea since 2009.

Want to get involved with turtle conservation at Lissenung, check out our program here.

The trip to Papua New Guinea with Alison and Kellen was an amazing experience, particularly after years of not being able to travel. It was great to be back in PNG, exploring the PNG Highlands and our adventure out of Lissenung Island.

Our journey to Papua New Guinea was possible thanks to the support of the Papua New Guinea Tourism Promotion Authority, Trans Niugini Tours and Lissenung Island Resort.

PNG Surf Trip to Vanimo Surf Lodge

by Konrad Borowiecki | Jun 8, 2022 | Blog, PNG

PNG is called surfing’s last frontier and for a reason. Papua New Guinea offers surfers guaranteed uncrowded waves thanks to the surf management plan implemented by the PNG Surfing Association. The management plan limits the number of surfers to a maximum of 20 surfers in each PNG surf region. When you take a PNG surf trip you directly support sustainable tourism and the local communities, with each visiting surfer paying a daily $12 environmental levy. This levy is in fact an access agreement to use the local breaks, goes directly to the local communities and provides needed support to the area.

If you haven’t been on a PNG surf trip yet then what are you waiting for? We are planning our annual PNG surf adventure to Vanimo Surf Lodge, one of the best PNG surf camps in November and then to Kavieng in February for a surf & dive adventure. In the last couple of years we have had a great bunch of people travel with us to Papua New Guinea. Everyone was surfed out by the end of their stay and enjoyed the great conditions on offer each time.

Here’s what one happy surfer had to say after his PNG surf trip.

I recently took a PNG surf trip to Vanimo Surf Lodge, booked through No Limit Adventures. From the first email, No Limit was fantastic to deal with, providing me with extremely clear details, going the extra mile to ensure all went to plan. All flights, stopovers and connections went smoothly, Vanimo is a really well run surf lodge, everything well organised and the food fantastic. I’ve been to both Nusa Island Retreat and Tupira Surf Club and Vanimo is easily on par, even better, having cake and donuts baked by lovely kitchen ladies 🙂
Was there for a week and got a great range of waves, always uncrowded in PNG, with breaks to suit differing wind directions. Anyway, all I have is positive praise, which is well deserved.

David, Melbourne 2016

We have limited spots for both of our PNG surf trips. We have spots for 12 surfers traveling to Vanimo Surf Lodge and 10 spots to Kavieng. Don’t miss out, contact us and join in on the fun on our PNG surf adventure!

PNG Cultural Festivals – Mount Hagen Show

by Konrad Borowiecki | Jun 8, 2022 | Blog, PNG

The Land of the Unexpected, Papua New Guinea, is gearing up for another season of amazing cultural festivals with the spectacular Mt. Hagen Show taking place in August. You will witness the diversity of song, dance, traditional dresses and colors showcased by the local PNG tribes over the 3-day festival. If you are enthusiastic about photography the PNG Cultural Festivals are a photographers dream, so make sure you bring spare memory cards for your camera. Best of all Papua New Guinean’s will happily pose for photographs allowing you to capture some great shots!

If you can’t make it to any of the PNG Cultural Festivals this year be sure to plan ahead for 2023 as these are must-see events!

Contact us for a tailored PNG Cultural Tour and book ahead for the next shows.

Turtles on the Great Barrier Reef, Cairns, Australia

by Konrad Borowiecki | Aug 9, 2016 | Blog

We Love Turtles!

Gliding effortlessly in the vast ocean wilderness, riding the currents from one reef to another, she scours the sandy bottom for tid-bits of algae to snack on before she surfaces, taking a few big gulps of air and then retreating down to nestle herself comfortably in amongst the soft corals of a shallow lagoon for a quick nap. The Green Sea Turtle is the most commonly encountered sea turtle at beaches and reefs around the world, and has a deep connection to many different cultures and peoples. In Chinese mythology, she represents wisdom. In New Zealand, Maori sailors would carve turtles into their maka (canoes) as a connection to their homeland, recognising that Green Sea Turtles will swim great distances to return to their breeding grounds. Hawaiian legends tell of Kauila, the mythical mother of all turtles, who would change herself into a girl to watch over children playing at Punalu’u Beach on the Big Island.

What is it about turtles that invoke such romantic, idealised images? Thousands of visitors from around the world come to the Great Barrier Reef each year, scuba diving and snorkelling, hoping to see a turtle. Catch some dive instructors in just their board shorts or bikinis, and chances are you’ll see a turtle incorporated in an elaborate tribal tattoo. Even visitors that watch from above-deck marvel and snap photos when the turtles come to the surface for a breath. What humans have learned about turtles, and what we still have to learn, is the driving force behind conservation efforts to ensure that this iconic species survives for future generations to enjoy. We know they’re old; the earliest sea turtle fossils date back 150 million years. We know they travel great distances, sometimes thousands of kilometers, between their breeding and feeding grounds, to mate and lay eggs. We know that females will lay 50 to 100 eggs in a carefully dug nest, cover the eggs with a layer of sand, and then abandon them, leaving them at the mercy of the sun and elements. And we know they’re disappearing.

Conservation biologists use the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, where “endangered” is the second most severe conservation status for wild populations (following critically endangered) to describe species likely to become extinct; Green Sea Turtles are on that list, and for a variety of reasons. Large resorts and housing developments along desirable coastlines have meant a decline in breeding grounds. Introduced species such as dogs, cats, wild pigs, and foxes dig up nests around the world, and can destroy entire breeding seasons in certain areas. Green Sea Turtles’ shells, illegal to trade under the United Nation’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) are highly prized decorative ornaments around the world, with poachers getting huge payoffs for quality specimens.

But there is good news. As governments and conservation groups around the world rally to protect breeding habitats, ban indiscriminate fishing methods (of which Green Sea turtles are often by-catch), and crack down on poaching, populations have seen a decrease in the rate of decline; in some places, populations are even recovering. But more is needed to ensure these iconic creatures remain in the ocean‘s ecosystem, and not just as wood carvings, photographs and memories. To do your part, only travel with responsible reef operators and refrain from handling all wildlife, including turtles. Write to your elected officials asking for more protection of marine ecosystems. And lastly, decrease your use of plastic bags, which all species of turtle can mistake for food and die trying to eat.

Thanks to our Marine Conservation Partners Passions of Paradise – As part of our Marine Conservation Program we conduct important species counts on a variety of marine life – including Turtles, this data is then sent to the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority to be used to help protect and conserve the Great Barrier Reef.

Remember: We have one planet; let’s take care of it, you can make a difference!

Blog & Cover Image Credit: Passions of Paradise.