Tari Lodge and Sepik River Tours

I'm planning to travel to PNG with a friend in early May and would like to know if anyone can make any recommendations as to how we could best see part of the Sepik River without a huge amount of expense. I realize that PNG is very expensive - so am anxious to know what we could expect to pay for a tour. Our interests are, in addition to the local cultures, wildlife (particularly reptiles, birds etc) - so if anyone can comment on the costs we could anticipate or recommend specific operators I'd really appreciate it.

I've seen a few postings that recommend Warili Lodge in Tari - can anyone tell me what I could expect to pay to stay there or how best to make arangements. i.e. is it necessary to book well in advance or would we get a better deal by just showing up? There's an email address on the lodge's web site but I'm not clear on whether that goes directly to the people running the lodge or to a middleman who will get his cut on any advanced bookings.

I don't think it is necessary to book Warili in advance - I just showed up myself.
Costs there seem to depend on how wealthy you look, but anyway, it's cheap by PNG standards.

The Sepik can also be done quite cheaply if you make your way to river villages by public transport, and hire a boat for further explorations once there.
The ways to do this, with village/person recommendations, have been posted in the past here, along with recommendations for expensive tour-operators.
Browse through the older posts on Sepik.

Tari will be great for birds, the Sepik much less so.

I stayed at Warili Lodge in September 2007 with my sister on her first visit to PNG. Click here to go to my trip report.

I had a great time and highly recommend it. I wrote to Steven at the PO Box number on his web site. He got the letter and had someone at the airport to meet us, although I had no confirmation that he received the letter. You will see in my trip report that there are now two mobile phone numbers that you can ring to make contact. I suggest that you try those.

I haven't heard of anyone who has had success in making email contact. I tried, but got no response.

You could just turn up, but there would be on one at the airport to meet you. You would then have to get a PMV to Warili or wait for the message to get to the guys at the Lodge and get them to come and pick you up. There are a couple of guesthouses in Tari where you could stay if you got stuck overnight.

If you do make your own way to Warili take some food as they won't have any if you just turn up. The cost of this food should be deducted from what you pay. When I arrived in Tari we went to the store and bought food, as the boys had no money. This came off the fee later.

I paid about K1,600 for two people. This was for three nights accommodation, airport transfers and all meals. It also included village visits and a couple of sing-sings. I had not had any discussion about costs before arriving and when I got there Steven was in Port Moresby and he was talking with the guides over the mobile about the itinerary and prices. This cost more than I thought, but it was hard to try and negotiate with Steven over the phone (convenient for him!). I felt a bit 'captive' as I didn't have any bargaining chips to bring the price down. In any case, I decided to accept his price rather than have hassles and potentially spoil a great weekend, particularly for my sister. So I agreed and off we went. So my word of caution is to try and negotiate a price before you get there and know what you are paying for.

Apart from this, we had a terrific time and I highly recommend staying at Warili. It is still about half the cost of staying at Ambua and the experience is much more authentic. Have fun!

Thanks for your replies - very helpful. I'll try to call ahead and negotiate a price before ariving - but good to know that if this fails I can likely just show up and get a reasonable deal (at least by PNG standards). I'll check out the older postings related to the Sepic.

Just to compare, I paid 40 Kina/night at Warili, and less than 20K/day for guiding directly to their best guide who knew all the best birds and also accompanied me to his village.
Don't tell Steven you've heard this from me, please! ;-)

I've just posted some info today on a great tour guide for the Upper Sepik - can virtually guarantee you'll see birds of paradise and crocs.

Hi,
I am close to Mr.Steven Warili -owner of Warili Lodge. He comes to my office for regular email checks. You can leave messages for him on payawivero@yahoo.com

Sure, someone will be waiting at the airport but let us know of your coming in advance.

regards,

Tari