Sepik river with guide

It’s hard to describe how wonderful my Sepik experience was and it’s something that I will remember for the rest of my life. I was lucky enough to spend 6 days with the most reliable, passionate, honest, kind Sepik guide one could ever find: Johannes Teven from Ambunti. The first day he told me “As long as you’re happy, I’m happy”, he really meant that and during all my experience he made me feel safe, looked after, joyful. I called him once I got to Port Moresby and in one day he arranged his canoe with a pilot named Denmar (the best skipper on the Sepik) and a carrier/paddler/handyman named Nelson. He charged me 5500kina for 5 days (I was on my own), the exact amount we agreed on the phone, food and transport from Wewak excluded and I payed him cash once I got to Pagwi. Alois Mateos asked me 9000kina food and transport included, which i considered too expensive. One might think they get a lot of money out of this tours. I don’t know about others but I saw exactly where all my money went and believe me if I tell you it’s a fare price. Considering the petrol only was 1500kina (one drum), they also have to pay accommodation for 4 people in villages, admission fees to spirit houses, plus they have to spend 5 days with you, it’s a big job. Johannes is a churchman and he also supports and takes care of many disabled people in the village of Ambunti, does a lot of charity and lives in a modest hut. You can trust him 100%.

THE ITINERARY
I arrived in Port Moresby the 23th of December, slept at the shady rest hotel (430kina one night) as at Jassie Wyatt guest house the reception was unattended for Christmas, although I stayed there when I got back from the Sepik (110kina, great place), booking is recommended. Taxi from the airport to Boroko cost 30kina, don’t take private cabs (one asked me 100 kina, I had to negotiate), go for the taxi companies.

The 24th I had my plane for wewak, where I arranged my transport for Pagwi and bought food for 4 people (5kg rice, 12 L water, 10 packs noodles, salt, sugar, heaps of coffee, 5 cans meat, 5 cans tuna, bread, 100 kina roughly). All the shops were closed for Christmas but I was quite lucky in meeting Andy, a Chinese man who owns the store in front of the BSP bank Wewak. He opened up just for me, got me the food and took me back to the guesthouse. In Wewak I highly recommend the CBC guesthouse (120kina for one night) which is a Catholic Mission located on the same street as New Paradise Hotel, 300 meters before and it’s the first or second building on the left, on your way up to the hill.

As the 25th was Christmas, and also Sunday, I couldn’t find a PMV and private cars were asking for 800kina to get to Pagwi (3hours trip), Johannes arranged a minibus for me for 500kina with a very nice guy named Gilbert. We met Johannes in Pagwi and my trip started straight away. First stop in Kanganaman and then Palambei to visit the spirit houses and villages, stayed in the latter for the night.
We spent the 26th in Chambri Lakes where we called in the villages of Aibom (famous for the clay pottery), Sangrigam and Wombun, where we stayed for the night.
We then continued to Wagu village the 27th and overnight there. If you’re interested in nature, that’s the place for you. We explored the forest, waterfalls and did some bird-watching.
The following day (28/12) woke up at 5am to spot the beautiful Bird of Paradise, came back for breakfast and left again, towards Ambunti. Afterwards we took our way to the upper Sepik and stopped in the villages of Maliway and Tangujamb 3 and visited the haus tambaran, came back to Ambunti for the night.
Since my flight back to Port Moresby wasn’t gonna happen until the Saturday (3 days later), I asked Johannes to stay one more day in Ambunti so that I had the opportunity to wander around this great village during the Thursday. He agreed and gave me a ride back to Pagwi the 30th, where I caught a PMV back to Wewak for 40kina.
WHEN TO VISIT
I’ve been there during the wet season. Pros : no other tourists, not too hot, not too sunny, less sunburns, less petrol required as more shortcuts are available on the river, cheaper. Cons : no sing sings, no rituals, no festivals. I’m glad I’ve made this choice. I loved the PNG culture in the villages, I was interested in their habits, lifestyle, people. It was awesome to wander around the houses, talking to people, getting to know them, their opinions, ask questions. That’s why I went there and there is no right time for this.
WHAT TO BRING
Lonely planet travel guide, sun cream, mosquito repellent (I had a 40% DEET), mosquito net (didn’t use it, in the guesthouses usually they have some), malarone for malaria, torch, toilet paper, food and cash.

TOUR, PRIVATE GUIDE, GOING ON YOUR OWN
I’m one of those people who hates tours and I always tend to stay away from touristy stuff, but you must bear in mind PNG is not a common place, you probably already know that, but it’s rather difficult to understand what all this is about if you’ve never been there. However the tour is excessively expensive and I didn’t have the time and neither the guts to go on my own. I’ve never regretted my choice of hiring Johannes, not even for a second. For some villages we needed the approval of the village’s chief, you need connections in this way you’ll be able to enjoy and make the most out of your experience.

CONTACTS
Johannes Teven, the guide (removed) he has an email address now, I suggested him to check his emails regularly every day.
Gilbert, the minibus driver (removed) call him if you need a ride to Pagwi
Andy, the owner of the shop in front of BSP bank in Wewak (removed) call him if you need help in Wewak
Alexia, the owner of CBC Guesthouse in Wewak (removed)
Jassie Wyatt guest house (Gemo) (removed)

Cheers, thanks for the report!

sounds a great trip

i have met johannes a few times on the river and the small groups travelling with him always seemed happy

Thanks man! Great information!
This helps a lot to plan my trip :-)

Majordom,
I have seen your name all over the forums and I think its wonderful that you are willing to offer as much as you can to people travelling to PNG! Thank you for doing that.

My brother and I were born in Brisbane and lived in PNG when we were little. I was almost 6 when we moved to the US, which was enough time to really shape my formative years. My parents were missionaries in Finschaffen and Kabwum.
I will be returning to PNG for the first time since we left 30 years ago. My mom and brother will be going to. I have done extensive research trying to put together a trip on a budget. We are not wealthy and this is a once in a life time kind of deal. The airline prices were contingent on certain flying dates, so we will only have about 8-9 days in PNG, and a few in Australia to see old friends.

My mom never got to go into some of the highland areas that she wanted to while she was there, so I am arranging to travel to Tari from Fri., July 21 - Mon., July 25. The plan is to then head to Wewak on Mon., July 25, arriving in the afternoon, which should give us time to get supplies. I have gotten conflicting information about PMVs. I have heard that they run Monday night to arrive at market in Pagwi early Tuesday morning but I have also heard that they wont leave Wewak until they are full or that there is no consistent schedule for transport. Can you confirm or deny any of that information?
I would like to hire a guide and a canoe, and while I know they are extremely expensive, we are on a tight time frame and a limited budget. Assuming we got to Pagwi early Tueday morning, we would have all of Tuesday and Wednesday in the Sepik, and probably most of Thursday. Our flight from Wewak to Port Moresby is Friday at 11:10 am. We don't want to miss that, but it would be good to know if we would have to go back to Wewak on Thursday or if we could go early Friday morning and maximize time in Sepik. We would really like to do Chambri lakes, Aibom, and Palembei--more if time allows, but we know thats probably all the time we will have.
I have seen Johannes name a lot and he seems to be popular. Do you know of any other guides and/or contact information? Perhaps a suggestion for other alternative?
I was also looking into seeing if MAF could take us directly from Tari to Ambunti and go from Ambunti down the river over a few days and catch a PMV back to wewak from Pagwi and then fly out that way.

Any wisdom would be very welcome!

even using private transport wewak/pagwi you have a very tight schedule for the sepik - relying on PMV could easily see your plans adrift

PMVs dont run on a formal schedule but generally they are either early morning or late afternoon - often they will
wait to fill up with passengers but eventually they will decide to leave - it is rare for them to not run due to lack of passengers as it would mess up their plans

i have not taken the overnight PMV wewak to pagwi - i understand it runs mon, tue, wed, thur and arrives at something like 4am ! personally i would not travel that road at night due to its poor condition and the possibility of accidents and raskols

sundays there are usually no PMV, saturdays as well they are much reduced

you can always get wewak to pagwi by PMV to maprik and then another PMV to pagwi but this will take most of the day

taking a PMV from wewak direct to pagwi on tuesday is probably possible, you do not have time to return to wewak on friday for that plane - you would need to do it on thursday which means being at pagwi for the PMV and i am not sure when they are - usually they are leaving early which is not good for you

i think you have to arrange private transport to pagwi on tuesday morning and back on thursday afternoon - cost is 500-800 kina each way depending on size and age of vehicle

if you did this then you could head to palembei and overnight there leave on wed to middle sepik and possibly chambri and overnight there and then head back to pagwi on thursday morning

for a guide and canoe try johannes but joseph kone has some good reports on this forum

you could try MAF but generally it is not possible to book far ahead (if at all) so making plans now i think is difficult - anyway try contacting them and see what they say

also the tripadvisor forum is worth looking at but here is generally better for more adventurous travel

Thank you for that very useful report!

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**there are koseph kone imposters about - see other recent about being scammed

We used Johanness . He was reliable and good.

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hey etchi - i saw johannes in august and he said he was planning a hunstein trek - would love to read
a trip report as not many people get off the sepik river

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