Port Moresby domestic terminal was small and chaotic even at 0440. Our departure wasn't until 0645 but we had been warned the "New Guinea time" made this sort of lead time necessary. Scheduled time was 0645 to 0720.

Everything sort of worked at the Airlines PNG check-in desk which seemed equally occupied with groups of trekkers and locals. Through a rather dated security setup and we found a waiting area with old, torn and dirty seats. There were 2 kiosks where you could buy bad coffee, cakes, pies, cold drinks, snack bars etc.

At the appointed time we walked out the terminal, through the early morning heat to our Dash8-102 which was soon to celebrate it's 25th birthday. Well, that's a small exaggeration, but it's first flight was 24-4-1990.

This flight had a low load factor representing about a 50/50 mix of trekkers and locals. One of the locals could not be woken for the safety briefing and was at risk of being offloaded but managed to get it together enough to keep his seat. There were maybe 20 passengers and the flight was about 2/3rds full. Props started turning at 0637 - ahead of schedule.

According to the Australian pilot we were cruising at 15000 ft, but it cloud only have been for seconds because the flight was basically up, scrape over the ranges then down the other side landing about 40 mins after departure from POM.

Popondetta airport is just a tin shed with toilets that are an afront to the senses. Lots of locals were waiting for the "big plan" which I presume is a 737 run by Air Nuigini.

Popondetta is about 30 minutes in the back of a track on a mostly sealed road from the Popondetta township.