PNG trip report by bicycle (july 2012)

Hi

I spent 2 weeks in PNG, cycling, camping and sleeping with the locals. We traveled with 26" foldable bikes (mountain bikes, which is VERY convenient if you want to cycle in PNG).

It begins in Jayapura... Sometimes you have to go get your exit stamp in the immigration office at Jayapura, sometimes it's at the border. We saw some guys working there, and we also slept at the military camp keeping the border (we arrived to late, they invited us), so here are reliable informations : if you have a Visa on arrival, you need to stamp in Jayapura. If you don't (like us, we did it in Malaysia) you can go directly to the border and stamp there. And if it's the week-end, as the immigration office is closed, you can go directly to the border, they will stamp your passeport no matter which visa you have.

They are about 60km from Jayapura to the border. If you do it by bicycle, be advised it's a though road. A good road but veeeery hilly. Anyway you can camp at the border if you arrive after 16h, and they will probably invite you to sleep inside the camp.

Vanimo is close and it's almost only a long descent. The road is really good. In Vanimo we continued to go to Aitape, 150km from here. After 20km the people from Blackwara camp invited us to sleep in their village. They tell us the road is really unsafe and they will find us a boat. Every day they tell us the boat have a problem or some other story. 4 days later we will discover it was only to keep us with them :P Anyway we spent 4 days nice days there. As soon you enter the village you are part of it and you can stay forever if you want. People feed you and give you a roof. You live among them, work with them if you want to, or just play in the water with the kids.

So we go back to Vanimo ourselves, looking for a boat (a dinghi, which is a boat for about 6-8 people) to Aitape. They are plenty boats leaving everyday, and some big leaving once a week. The boat is 100K (kina) per person + 20K for our big bags and bicycles (240 for 2). It takes us around 3 hours. Arrived there we unfold the bikes and cycle to reach a village and sleep. The road is quite ok then slowly getting worst. All along the way to Aitape the road condition is variable : sometimes ok, or sandy, muddy, rocky... It's doable, sometimes hard. Almost all the way flat. A lot of rivers you can easily cross (it's dry season while we traveled and we had almost no rain). There is only 1 big river difficult to cross. You'll have to carry your bike and the stream is quite strong. If it rained before you'll have to wait for a car to help you cross it. If you are allergic to mud, forget it ! We cycled and pushed the bikes in the mud until our knees. But you always know there is a river not far to wash everything ;)

After Wewak we wanted to go to Angoram to take a dinghi to Bogia (30-50K) and continue by bicycle. But locals strongly advised us to not go there. They consider it really risky. A spanish cyclist have been murdered there 3 years ago. And it's election time, so worst than usual. All locals agree on that so we follow their advices and take a boat from Wewak to Madang (leaving on tuesdays, 144K / pers).

The boat has a problem and arrive really late in the evening. We ask to sleep on it, in the port. They let us staying in a wharehouse inside the port. Then we cycled to Lae. The first 30km are flat and the road is good. Then it becomes really hilly (a lot of 20% rises) with no asphalt. We had to push the bicycle many time because of the rocks + rises. You have about 30km of shitty hilly road. Then it's flat and clean, all the way to Lae.

50km before Nadzab (Lae airport, 90km from Lae) my brother couldn't cycle anymore thanks to a bad knee infection. So we shortened our trip and took a plane to Port Moresby (Travel Air - 760K for 2 + 50K for big luggages. Be careful to have enough cash, no ATM or change there). We slept at Port Moresby airport (you have to ask the security because the airport close at night) and took a flight to Cairns the next day (Qantas, too expensive).

We only stayed 2 weeks instead of the 4 weeks planned. We wanted to go to Kimbe from Lae and cycle to Hoskins. Next time.
We always felt safe, no matter where and when. Of course we traveled by day and we avoided the cities. It's frequent that the people only know the place where they live, so they often say "it's safe there, but dangerous everywhere else". So it's either safe everywhere, or unsafe everywhere ;) For what we saw, it's safe.
Maybe we've just been lucky... But I can't wait to return there, even alone.

Everywhere the people are kind and helpful. If you have a problem, looking for a place to sleep, a boat, a car, anything.... just ask, they will help you. They liked the way we traveled and when we explained we camp because hotels are too expensives, they always help you to find a safe place to sleep.

Cycling was quite tough but it was a great way to avoid cities and expensive hotels. And you meet people who doesn't see any tourist, and they will love to share their home with you and talk about their culture.

I won't detail more here, I just wanted to share some useful informations I hope. If you want more details about road, prices and transportation, it's still fresh in my memory or in my notebook.

I forgot : take some food with you as it's very expensive there. Coffee, sugar, jam... Every biscuit is expensive there. I carried some Mentos and other candies I was happy to eat on my bike when I needed sugar.

Bring a lot of cigarettes if you smoke. It's really expensive there and people love if you give them some. In Vanimo the price is ok because it's directly from indonesia, but in every other places it's 1K / cigarette, really expensive.

I also forgot : the road from Vanimo to Aitape (which I haven't tried) is owned by a private loging company. They created the road themselves. So it's not only one straight path, but many across the woods and you can easily get lost if you take it alone, without somebody knowing the place.

I guess the best is to ask all the way if you have any doubt.

The road is made for big trucks and is not confortable by bike, not at all.

The government just asked if they could "connect" Aitape with the loging path.