Riding in Port Moresby
Posted: 16 Oct 2009, 12:35
I was listening to 702 this morning and one of the guests was a Salvation Army Major posted to Port Moresby. He's a bit of a bike tragic, but only took his bike over with a static trainer, expecting the streets of PNG would be too dangerous to ride.
He was wrong!
A group of riders goes out a few mornings a week, but knows there are parts of town in which they simply must not stop as expats will get beaten and or robbed in those neighbourhoods.
The bunch also travels with a following ute, as if they have to stop for a puncture or a mechanical the risk of attack is significant. So if you flat, your bike goes in the ute and you get a ride home.
This stuff is not paranoid: the interviewee was mugged by a gang in broad daylight!
I thin we can scratch PNG off the DHBC travel schedule ...
He was wrong!
A group of riders goes out a few mornings a week, but knows there are parts of town in which they simply must not stop as expats will get beaten and or robbed in those neighbourhoods.
The bunch also travels with a following ute, as if they have to stop for a puncture or a mechanical the risk of attack is significant. So if you flat, your bike goes in the ute and you get a ride home.
This stuff is not paranoid: the interviewee was mugged by a gang in broad daylight!
I thin we can scratch PNG off the DHBC travel schedule ...