PAPUA NEW GUINEA SNAKEBITE PROJECT
INTO THE FIELD (AT LAST)

The UPNG medical campus is still on high alert, the front gates are locked, the students moved to other halls of residence on the main campus on Waigani Drive, quite a long way away but if hardly matters as lectures are cancelled for the present. We still have access via the back gate near the snek haus so we pick up last minute items and prepare to depart one day late for Eduvu. If Troopie packing becomes an Olympic event we are in with a good chance of a medal as we load all the kit plus Owen, Jasper and Ben into the back, with Dave and me up front. After a stop for kerosene and Jasper's buai, we are finally off.

Jasper, Ben and Owen ready for the off

It takes about 40minutes to reach the turn-off from the Hiritano Highway at Brown River and about another hour to reach the point where we must unload and carry the kit to Kevin's small village. We cross a dry creek where only days ago he saw two large Papuan blacksnakes (Pseudechis papuanus) mating. There have been snakes all over the place, we are told, "please hurry and come!"

We drove past Edevu main village	This is the road

This the river	and this the drop-off point

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