Solo travel on Sepik River

Hello!

I come from Bulgaria (Eastern Europe) and am going to make a trip to PNG in September. After buying all my airplane tickets (I am visiting Oz as well) I realized I will not have enough money neither for an organized tour on Sepik river nor for a guide. I wrote to several guides and the lowest price I got so far is K 4800 for a 5 days/4 nights trip which is still too expensive for me. That's why I am wondering if I can travel entirely on my won - take a PMV to Pagwi or Timbunke, take passing canoes between different villages and stay with local people at their places. That should be much cheaper.

Has anyone done this or thought of doing it? Should I take all water I need from Wewak or can I get drinking water in villages? Are there raskols and bandits on the river? Any dangers I might not have thought of?

Well, I am an adventurer, after all living in Bulgaria is also kind of dangerous, but I would appreciate any useful information and advice about my trip. I know about malaria, I am going to take Malarone pills with me, as well as mosquito repellent. The other problem I have is that I am vegetarian. I do not need much food for 5 days but do you think I could insult locals very much if I politely refuse to eat pork? If I don't travel with a guide, would communicating with local people be too difficult?

If there is anybody traveling on Sepik River between Sept 14 and 20, please write!

Thank you!

yes, you can do a trip there independently. from wewak there are daily/nightly PMV's to pagwi and kind of public connection boats early in the morning on to ambunti further upriver. beside that there is really not much 'public' boat traffic on the river. so if you have limited time and cant wait for boat rides with some locals you should organize a boat in pagwi or ambunti. the problem is always the high price of the fuel. in pagwi theres a petrol station on the river, so your best bet would be to ask around for a boat there and buy the fuel directly from the station. I got a very fair deal in ambunti though for some days on the upper sepik and its tributaries ( of course after bargaining ). it was with george, the son of ambunti lodge manager valentine. but cause of the fuel it was still quite expensive but I can recommend him.

communicating with people is easy - most of them speak some english, many of them even very well. and the hospitality is just awesome. no experiences or stories about raskols in that area but watch out in wewak.

and dont worry about the vegetarian thing.. sepik people eat almost exclusively fish and sago and sometimes chicken. I would consider it as sensational if they offer you sth like pork.

Hey, thank you, the information you gave me is quite encouraging! I had just given up going to the Sepik river and was thinking where else in PNG to head to... The prices are really crazy! I had wonderful time at the Orinoco delta in Venezuela for about USD 50 a day and here it is minimum 300! Besides I just read a story about "a couple held with others on the bus up at gun point when they travelled by public transport" in the region. But man should never give up! Do you by chance have the mobile phone number of George or do you know how I can get to him? I had already read about this guy and tried to contact his father Valentine at the phone number of Ambunti Lodge (856 1516) several times but with no success.
Thank you once again!

Yes, don't worry. #1 is right about getting to Pagwi. Try to get there on a market day (thursday) and you'll easily be able to find a public boat. I made it all the way from Pagwi to the ocean for almost nothing (outside of fuel....really pricey).

good morning bulgaria,if you like "the adventure",you have picked a great trip!give yourself plenty of time to pull this trip off...they can be long days!!plenty of patience.most pmv(public motor vehicle)leave wewak for pagwi around miday from the town centre(market),arriving at pagwi at 4pm,then connection on huge dugout canoes to ambunti by nightfall.my good mate chris baras has trips available,negotiate price to suit your needs,fuel is very expensive in the remote regions,but you can do a great 1 day trip for around 350kina....take plenty of small kina to buy at markets/trade stores.his moble is 675 6548288.see my story on sepik trips...at www.donstravelstories.blogspot.com
don

Good morning, Don! Thank you for the information! I just read your article, it's very interesting! Seems that you are an expert in the region, so I will follow your advice. :o)) I can't get in touch with Chris Baras but will try again later. If I can't reach him, I will take a public boat from Pagwi to Ambunti and try to find him there. If he's not there, I will look for Valentine at Ambunti Lodge and try to negotiate a trip with his son George. So, it seems that Ambunti is my place, I do hope I can get there relatively quickly as I do not have much time to lose...

try chris on his mobile...not sure what you dial out from europe..from australia it's 0011...then country code then mobile...thats him on my blogspot with me...his cousin runs canoes from pagwi....how long do you expect to stay on sepik,it is a fascinating area of the world...plenty of supplys available at stores in ambunti...great fresh foods at local markets(lots of fish)main thing to bring is strong mosquito repellant...rid roll on with tropical strength deet is good.if you make contact with him mention you know me...ask him to take you to see alphonse's crocodile farm!!!
any qs drop me a personel message.good luck.

I tried several times, he is out of coverage, probably making a trip on the river. I will keep on trying. I saw him on your blogspot, looks like a nice guy. I should make a blogspot too, but don't have enough time. Before I do that, I keep uploading my photos on the following website: www.photo-forum.net/second
The photos are arranged in albums, on the left side of the profile you can see folders from the places I've been to.
I've been to a crocodile farm in India, I am more interested in people and indigenous cultures though, so I guess PNG must be the place! I wrote down the names of the villages you recommend in the article, I'll do my best to visit at least some of them. Everything sounds so uncertain and unsafe in this country, this is probably its charm. :o)) Can't wait to visit it.

350 kina for a day is crazy.... I paid 350 for four days....

Wow, that's cheap! To be honest, I don't expect to get such a low price!... But I am not going to pay K 5000 for 5 days either...

Edited by: second

Zachleigh - who with ??

Am-1974 - With a guy named Jacob in Palembei. He's a friend of mine so I dont know if he'll give others that kind of price. But, its so easy to make friends in PNG that I bet if you just show up somewhere and hang out for a couple days, somebody in the village will offer to help you out for cheap.