Lonely Planet™ · Thorn Tree Forum · 2020 |

# Overland from Madang to Vanimo Country forums / Pacific Islands & Papua New Guinea / Papua New Guinea
puficek 22:35 UTC 09 Aug 2007 | Hi, we are going to PNG for about 2-3 weeks. After POM we will fly to Mt. Hagen (or Lae) visiting Goroka etc. Ideally, we would like to travel overland/river/boat to Vanimo before exiting to Indonesia. I have done some research and it looks like the only way to go in couple of places is boat (like Wewak to Vanimo). Is this true? If so, how frequent is the boat? Easy to get on? Also, are 2 weeks enough for this sort of itinerary? thanx heaps for all your info. Petr |
Laszlo 08:13 UTC 10 Aug 2007 | It is true. The boat is quite regular from Madang to Wewak, less so between Wewak and Vanimo. Once one is going, getting on is easy. I doubt you can cover all that ground overland in only 2-3 weeks though. See the PNG link in my signo line for more. | 1
puficek 08:25 UTC 10 Aug 2007 | Re #1 Hi Laszlo, I read your info about PNG, West Papua and Indo before. Very useful. We dont have much time, so I have decided to skip Kokoda and Alotau and stay just in those areas mentioned above. How much time you think we would need? Or what part should we miss in order to stay within three weeks max.? Cheers Petr | 2
Laszlo 18:24 UTC 12 Aug 2007 | Concentrate on one area of the Highlands (say Goroka OR Hagen and Mt. Wilhelm), the Middle Sepik, and Madang. You could cover these in 3 weeks, but be prepared to fly from Moresby to Hagen, and maybe Wewak to Vanimo. Hagen-Madang-Wewak should be easy overland. | 3
deano 11:55 UTC 28 Aug 2007 | I agree with Laszlo's advice regarding time frame. It's slow going anywhere in PNG. I just returned home last week from PNg and (just to make matters confusing) have some different advice for overlanding. Madang to Wewak is difficult (but not impossible). If you manage to time it for the now only once a month sailings on Star Ships you're okay but otherwise you will need to take a PMV dingy fromthe Ramu River to the mouth of the Sepik. Then a dingy if you can find one to Angoram from where you can take a PMV to wewak. Allow about 5 days to be safe. From wewak to Vanimo you can get as far as Aitape by PMV before switching to a PMV dingy. This is more straight forward. Watch out for dangerous seas. If is rough, don't go, many boats sink. | 4