Tuesday, 21st October.
At sunrise I go to to hunt for Citrus warburgiana.
I decide to go to the agricultural station at Bubuleta. The track is good and the PMVs go there. It seems that the plant is close to the track which avoids a trudge through the forest or in the mountains. The problem is that my information dates back to 1976. In 38 years anything could happen, such as the death of the plant ...
The site is halfway between Alotau and the East Cape.
The PMV drops me well before the GPS location that I have on my smartphone. This is a construction site. I inquire, and a young man who works at the station explains that the old agricultural station was abandoned long ago and they are building a new one. He showed me around. A small goat breeding centre and some fish ponds - not very grand. As he does not know where the old station was, we ask some old people in a group of houses where the employees live. They know roughly where it was but now it's in the forest. We go in that direction, but finding a plant in the forest is difficult.
We are starting to get discouraged when Mathew (this is the name of the young man helping me) asks me why aren't we going to the exact GPS co-ordinates? I explain that 40 years ago GPS did not exist and that the coordinates were very approximate. But as this is our only chance we follow the GPS exactly in the forest. At the place indicated there is nothing. Two women arrive and when we explained what we were looking for, they say they know this plant. It was just 15 meters away!
Tree 12 metres tall. The part on the photo is about 8 metres but it is very unbalanced and continues on the right.
Trunk diameter is 25 cms.
My companions at the discovery: Mathiew, Eddy, Yuna et Lino.
I make a work-table with a banana leaf placed on the ground.
A fruit.
The pulp is green but the women tell me that the fruit is yellow when ripe.
The peel is sweet and the pulp acid even when mature.
All fruits are parasitized by a black wasp. There are no seeds. We didn't find any flowers either.
Leaves.
Under the tree there are many seedlings. The leaves are incredibly different from those of the adult plant.
This leaf dimorphism is common for citrus in this region, PNG and Australia.
We go back to the track and while waiting for a PMV I take some pictures. A small island near the coast.
A beach of black sand.
I return to Alotau just in time to get my plane ticket for Port Moresby. The departure is for tomorrow noon.
I abandon the idea of spending a few days holiday. Too bad for the coral dives and walks in the forest and the mountains.
As I had neither drunk nor eaten anything during the day, and as I wanted to celebrate the 100% success of my mission, I had a big meal with two beers and a cigarette (I do not smoke).
I returned to sleep in the Transit Hotel.
It felt like the end, which made me a touch sad with a heavy heart!
| 
