PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Our Approach

Secret Compass organises expeditions, not sightseeing tours. Our expeditions are team-centred, flexible and dynamic. Teams are managed on the ground by Secret Compass staff: industry-leading professionals and guides of the highest calibre who set the stage for an incredible experience while achieving your expedition’s aims. Secret Compass teams often go to places that others don’t. This makes our expeditions truly different, taking you beneath the skin and beyond the headlines of the world’s most remote reaches. Inspired by history’s great explorers and challenges, you’ll be set ambitious goals and will overcome similar hardships to those experienced on the audacious journeys of the past.

Remember this is not an organised tour. It is an adventure. More often than not expeditions don’t run smoothly! The nature of the areas we operate in mean that we will encounter a number of challenges that we expect everyone to meet and relish. Friction and hurdles are all part and parcel of an arduous expedition and also to our success as a team. These make the journey more interesting and are often the best and most amusing parts when looking back. Each expedition is thoroughly reviewed on its return and team members will have the opportunity to provide feedback which helps to inform planning for future expeditions.

Local Partners and Bureaucracy

Our teammates can only achieve the extraordinary with the help of people in the communities we travel through. NGO and aid workers, guides, fixers and interpreters all work extremely hard and are generous in their hospitality to us and our teams: visitors in their land. They are crucial to our success. Please remember and respect that their perspectives and concepts of time, environmental responsibility and customer service might differ to yours. Occasionally there is no established protocol for outside visitors which means we encounter local power struggles or disagreements. Our leaders have years of experience in delicate negotiations like these and conversational chess – especially through an interpreter – and these interchanges are often memorable parts of any expedition.

Infrastructure and Natural Events

The areas we travel to often especially remote. Transport infrastructure can be ageing, inadequate or non-existent. Flooded roads, collapsed bridges, fallen trees and vehicle break-downs are all par for the course. Our teams thrive on overcoming challenges like these – be prepared to get stuck in and push occasionally! Natural phenomena like desert sand storms, early monsoons, landslides across key routes, winter coming early, gale force winds and driving snow can all make for a more interesting time on the expedition.

Food

In some areas our teams explore, we rely on local food sources. This can often be outstanding (but can also be very average) and we always make the best out of the resources available. In other cases, we will supply filling and high-calorie dehydrated expedition foods (ration packs). Sancks will be provided but these may be different to your regular choice. Our journeys aim to highlight local culture and this includes working with what’s available in-country including as much local produce as possible. If you can’t do without your go-to granola bar, or any other western foodstuffs, consider bringing a personal supply.

Part of a Team

Secret Compass fosters a team mentality across all its expeditions and projects. Like all teams you will have a leader who will give direction to your progress. Crucial to your team’s success – especially when the going gets tough – is the attitude of the teammates working together to achieve the aim. You really are part of a team, not a cosseted guest on a tour. We ask teammates to muck in and help out any aspect of the expedition, from fetching water and helping to prepare and cook food, to carrying some group kit and equipment if required. The working language of all teams is English.

Typical Teammates

There really is no typical expedition member, though everyone needs to be fit, healthy and ready to take on the expedition’s aim by the time of departure. Participants range from 21 to 65+ in age and come from all over the world. Backgrounds include contract workers and engineers, IT specialists and students, teachers and literature lovers, journalists and keen photographers and so many more. What bonds our pioneering teams is their shared spirit of adventure and their sense of humour and positive outlook. A good teammate looks on the bright side when the 4×4 breaks down, the rain comes early and when a meal is distinctly pedestrian. Our teammates help each other, look out for each, encourage each other and help each other when needed. Our teams have done us proud in working together to achieve their common goal: the aim of the expedition. If this sounds like you, you’ve come to the right expedition company.

Teammate Mentality

You need a robust, spirited and can-do attitude to cope with demanding days and rough camping in rugged and wild places. You’ll cover good daily distances (generally carrying your own kit and equipment), eating expedition foods or relying on local food sources. These elements combine to create the unique character of each expedition. On expedition, challenges, frictions and changes to plans are inevitable, and teammates should meet and relish these as an integral part of any expedition and its ultimate success.

Risk Management

Secret Compass is an expedition company not a tour company. Expeditions contain inherent risk. This is part of the appeal for teammates. We do not make expeditions safe as, by definition, that is impossible. We construct and implement a three-staged risk management approach to reduce risk to what we perceive as an acceptable level.

1. Risk assessment.
   We conduct a thorough risk assessment of potential hazards and threats that may be encountered on the expedition and provide recommendations to reduce the likelihood of harm occurring/ severity if it does occur.
2. Safety plan.
   As part of our expedition plan, we detail actions to be taken to implement and resource the recommendations of the risk assessment. This includes a detailed medical and communications plan.
3. Delivery.
   The expedition leader is responsible for dynamic risk management on the expedition itself.

Key Risks

Key risks encountered on this specific expedition include prolonged immersion in water, drowning, heat illness, sunburn, dehydration, coral cut infections, inclement weather, becoming lost or separated, fatigue due to poor fitness, blisters from incorrect handwear, injury due to slips, trips and falls, gastro-intestinal illness, injury from wildlife (e.g. crocodiles, snakes), Malaria and other insect-borne diseases, petty theft and crime, road traffic accident, lower standards of healthcare, extended evacuation (increased timeframe to reach professional medical help) etc. If you would like to see the full Risk Assessment for this expedition, please email info@secretcompass.com

Incident Management and Medical

As part of the safety plan, Secret Compass has a full incident and emergency plan for medical and other emergencies. This will be discussed in full at the arrival brief, so everyone is aware what action will be taken. In summary, incidents are usually managed on the ground by the expedition leader in the first instance with remote support from Secret Compass’s 24 hour Operations Room before evacuation to the nearest appropriate medical centre. The expedition leader holds a valid and relevant first aid qualification and will be carrying a comprehensive medical kit in order to provide initial casualty care.

Likely evacuation scenario
If evacuation is required, this will likely be by motorboat and then road transfer to a basic (Level 1) medical facility in Alotau for stabilisation. This could take half a day depending on location, time of day and weather conditions. If evacuation to a larger (Level 2) hospital in Port Moresby is deemed necessary, this would involve a further half day of travel including a flight and vehicle transfers in coordination with the casualty’s assistance company. Flights do not run every day between Alotau and Port Moresby, therefore a private air ambulance or charter flight may be necessary and is wholly dependent on aircraft availability and weather conditions. If the needs of the casualty are beyond the capability of medical facilities in Port Moresby, after initial stabilisation and assessment, the casualty will likely be transferred by international flight to Cairns for treatment at a comprehensive (Level 3/4) medical facility before repatriation (organised through the casualty’s assistance company). Realistically it could take at least 2 days to reach definitive medical care during this expedition.

Medical Facility Levels explained
Level 1. Local medical treatment facility with nurse and/or doctor. May be closed at night and on weekends.
Level 2. Regional hospital with general surgical facilities for damage control surgery / resuscitation. May not be open 24/7.
Level 3. Tertiary referral hospital / Level 1 major trauma centre (MTC). Usually a University Hospital in a large national city with major specialities including orthopaedics, GI surgery, ophthalmology and general intensive care unit. Generally open 24/7 for emergencies.
Level 4. UK NHS standard tertiary hospital with sub specialities including neurosurgery, cardio-thoracic surgery, infectious disease unit and general, neuro and cardiac intensive care. Generally open 24/7 for emergencies.

Emergency Medical Assistance
It is vital that you take out suitable travel insurance that covers you for the duration of the expedition. Any evacuation involving flights would normally be coordinated through your assistance company. Please note that assistance companies may only provide cover in medical emergencies, therefore if you leave the expedition for any other reason (e.g. poor fitness, lack of preparation etc.), the costs for extraction will likely need to be covered by you. Refer to the Insurance section under the ‘To Do’ tab of this document for more details.

Informed Consent

It is your responsibility to understand the risks associated with adventure travel in remote areas. You also must understand that medical evacuation will take an extended period of time (potentially 2 days) and will require wilderness extraction techniques and boat, plane or helicopter transfers. In-country search and rescue and emergency services are very basic or non-existent and the expedition may rely on internal resources for medical evacuation. By joining this expedition, you accept the risks associated with the venture. If you require any more information on specific risk management for this expedition, or would like to speak to us about our medical planning prior to the trip, please get in touch.