This year, improbably, I’m going to some of the most important places visited by the famous British explorer Captain James Cook on his third great voyage of discovery almost 250 years ago. In May and June Steve and I poked around Alaska. And next week we’ll fly to Hawaii, which Cook and his crew were the first Europeans to find (in 1778). Cook returned to these “Sandwich Islands” a year later and never left, not because the scenery enchanted him. Some angry natives killed him in a confrontation.

Steve and I are unlikely to irritate any of the locals on Oahu. We’ll only spend an afternoon and evening near the Honolulu airport, then we’ll get on the first of a series of flights that will eventually land us in Papua New Guinea (PNG for short). If you can’t instantly find New Guinea on a globe, don’t feel bad. Few Americans can. But you could find Australia, right? Hovering over its northeastern quadrant like some great ungainly bird is the second largest island on earth.

The western half of the island of New Guinea (Irian Jaya) is a province of Indonesia, while the eastern half, Papua New Guinea, became an independent country almost 50 years ago. We will be in the capital, Port Moresby, for the birthday celebrations. PNG ranks among the most exotic, most isolated places I will have ever been. I won’t be surprised to see it take the #1 slot.

It’s such a wild, undeveloped place, independent travel is tough, so we have uncharacteristically chosen to join a group of about a dozen other tourists. A British guy named Christopher Bartlett, who has led folks to PNG for more than a dozen years, will be our guide. In the highlands, he’ll show us around one of the splashiest cultural festivals on the planet. There and elsewhere, I also expect at least to glimpse some of the country’s stunning biodiversity. We’ll spend time in one of the world’s great river systems, the Sepik, and hike down some fairly unbeaten paths.

None of this will hold a candle to Captain Cook’s adventures, and it should be a bit more comfortable. I hope to write about some of the more interesting aspects, and when I find WiFi, I’ll do my best to send it along to here. With luck, our trip will all have a happier ending than Cook’s last voyage did.