Destination: Mt Hagen (the actual mountain)
Closest town: Mt Hagen
Accommodation: Magic Mountain Nature Lodge
Cost: K200/room/night (we had 3 in our room)
K20 each breakfast
K60 each land access fee
K40/guide (we took 2)
Difficulty: Quite a challenge. No defined path in many places. Very slippery in parts as well as steep. Took us longer than mentioned on website. 10hours return and we only made first summit.
Contact: Pym +675 7685 8183, paiyatours@dates.net.pg
Birgit and Melina asked me to climb Mt Hagen with them. The town is actually a little way away from the real mountain.
The girls organised for us to stay at Magic Mountain Nature Lodge. Pym Mamindi owns the lodge and although he wasn't there he was fabulous. He phoned us each step along the way to make sure everything was great. His wife, Elis, came and met us at night and we enjoyed "storying" with her.
At the start of the driveway there is a sign that says you need to use low range 4WD to get up...Yes that is true. Our car (all wheel drive) couldn't make it up the steep drive. Melina phoned to find out how far it was to walk the rest of the way. We were told it was "close to". We all knew what this meant in PNG - anything from 5 min to 2 hours! They assured us we could easily walk. We loaded ourselves up with all our things and set off for goodness know how long. Less than five minutes later we arrived. So while you need a 4WD to get to the door you can catch a PMV and then walk up the drive.
The Lodge is really nice. Each bungalow has a bathroom and bedroom. The inside is made of bush materials and it is nice to sit on the verandah and have an afternoon drink. There is hot water.
We took our own food for dinner which was no problem and ordered breakfast. The lodge organised for guides to take us on the hike. They were great and there is no way we could have found our way without them.
There is an amazing deck with breath taking views. It was ideal to watch the sunset over dinner and sunrise during breakfast.
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