Author Archives: bryanjanetravels

We hung out in Kotzebue (see previous post) in the arctic for the next day, hoping the smoke would clear so we could fly out to the Brooks Range. No luck. Working in the the hangar shed of our bush … Continue reading →

Flying back from Gustavus to Haines, we found the truck as we left it at the Haines “Airport” – a little building with a desk, a small bathroom and a friendly dog – ID checks and the TSA have not … Continue reading →

Our magnificent three day journey up the inside passsage came to an end at the village of Haines Alaska. Located at the end of a fijord (Alaskans call them “arms”) off the Lynn Passage that leads a hundred miles south … Continue reading →

With this post, I bring you a new series of travels “off the beaten path”, this time north with our truck (canoe on top) from our home in Santa Cruz, CA through northern California, Oregon and Washington, fifteen hundred miles … Continue reading →

We’ve now moved to the southernmost major island in the Vanuatu chain – the beautiful island of Tanna. Tanna is still a very traditional place, with most people still living a self sustaining lifestyle – growing their own food, making … Continue reading →

ON TO VANUATU We’re now in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu, known before their independence from France and Britain in 1980 as the New Hebrides. Vanuatu is a chain of more than eighty islands stretching north to south five … Continue reading →

ON TO FIJI We’ve now moved south to Fiji – hundreds of islands sprinkled over thousands of square miles of the blue, blue South Pacific and about seventeen degrees below the equator – due east of Cairns on the east … Continue reading →

ANICDOTES AND OBSERVATIONS FROM NEW BRITAIN Before we leave New Britain here are two short stories….local stories…remembered from the Pacific War. “UNCLE AMERICA” In the immediate wake of Cyclone Ita, we arrived in Alotau and took a boat to a … Continue reading →

THE BISMARCK ARCIPELAGO: RABAUL, EAST NEW BRITAN We’ve now left the “mainland” of Papua New Guinea (PNG) and are on the three hundred mile long island of New Britain, the largest of the Bismarck Archipelago. New Britain is hundreds of … Continue reading →

Greetings from Enga Provence in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea. We’re sitting this afternoon at over eight thousand feet in front of a warm fire as the chilly afternoon rains set in. I’m reading (the recently passed) Peter … Continue reading →