Karawari Bonus Day. 1 July

I haven't mentioned it much before, but there are gorgeous butterflies here, all over the place.   There has been one blue one (papilio ulysses) that I would have loved to photograph, but they are impossible to capture on film, well, unless you kill one.  Which, of course, I'm not about to do.

A new guy shows up late this afternoon, a Canadian man named John Fairfull.    Another character, you can be sure.   Sometimes when you travel, you meet the most interesting people.   He is quite friendly and pleasant.   He tells us that he is the manager and captain of the Sepik Spirit, the large floating hotel that goes up and down the Sepik River.   (Which is non-operational at the moment due to lack of tourists.)  We ask if he has ever seen Robert-Bob, the cassowary, who has been a no-show to date.   He grimaces.

"I am scared of him."   He suppresses a shudder.

We want to know the story, of course.   John explains that the Lodge manager Augus purchased Robert-Bob some 14 months ago, and John was here when he arrived, as a tiny handful of feathers.   All went along smoothly until Robert-Bob reached puberty, not long ago.   John explains at that point, unfortunately, he placed himself "in a bad position" with Robert-Bob.   John sat down on the ground, unwittingly making himself small in relation to the large bird.   Robert-Bob sauntered up and looked at John with new eyes, now seeing him as a small, unimportant creature.   He decided to attack.   Thankfully, John saw the bird coming at him with blood in his eyes and took off running, barely making it to a small hut and slamming the door in Robert-Bob's face.   John explains that while cassowaries do not have big brains, they have good memories, and the big bird has not forgotten this encounter.   Every time he sees John Fairfull, Robert-Bob gets a murderous glint in his eye, and remembers his one lone thought:  "Must kill John!   Must kill John!"

Cassowary, Sydney Australia.   Apparently, it's the large center toe on each foot that's the problem;
it can eviscerate a human in a single kick.

Still, we are sorry that we have not yet seen the Robert Bob.  His name makes us laugh.   Maybe we'll just keep our distance though.

Cassowary attacking a man with shield.  From Wikipedia.
Note that big tow at gut-height, ready for full-on
evisceration.

John tells us that he's done the same "Croc Boy" scarification ritual that we saw in the men in the villages nearby.   We're intrigued.  We want to know if he'll show us.

"Sure.   You can even take photos if you want.   But the light is not good now.   How about tomorrow morning?"   We tell him he's on.

Of all the places we visit in PNG, the Karawari Lodge has the largest number of insects, butterflies and moths.    Tonight, while we're getting ready for bed, we notice an enormous long-horned beetle on the  eaves of our room, just a few inches from the ceiling of our room (and next to a giant gash in the window screen that keeps at least 60% of the insects out of our room.)

Long-horned beetle on our eaves.   Measures about 12", maybe more from tip to tip of
his antennae!

We see many other moths, a few brilliant weevils, and a legion of geckos, who feast on all the moths.