Favorite Thing: Mount Hagen is the capital of Western Highlands province, the most populated in Papua New Guinea (440,000 people as of 2000). The early western explorers of PNG were totally surprised after either flying in or slogging their way up off the hot and humid coastal areas when they found far more inhabitants hidden away in the fertile, open and cool valleys of this mountainous area! Mount Hagen is located on the southern side of the central spine of mountains running along the middle of the island of New Guinea and the nearby snow-capped peak of Mount Wilhelm is the highest in the country at 4509-metres (14,800-ft). After climbing around the spectacular 10,000-ft high peaks of Glacier National Park in Montana during the summer of 2006, it really makes me appreciate the oddity of many peaks near Wilhelm's height on this tropical rainforest island!
Mount Hagen itself is situated in the large Wahgi Valley along with coffee plantations and groves of beautiful casuarina trees.
Fondest Memory: What I liked about Mount Hagen was that its relative remoteness from the coastal areas enabled it to still retain the frontier atmosphere that is not long disappearing in most places discovered by the western world. My main problem was that (combined with early darkness near the equator) I usually did not have much leisure time to check out the many cultural and geographical things that the town offered. Most trips were in and out affairs to deal with maintaining as reliable a power system in all of the Highlands areas as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances.
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Mount Hagen
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on Mar 16, 2008
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