Trip Report October - November 2018 (Part 3)

Language

Along the coast almost everyone speaks enough English to communicate. On the coast, the Sepik and in the Highlands literally every PMV driver speaks enough English to communicate and will help you with almost anything you need on arrival at your destination. Ordinary people in remoter villages don’t speak much English so once out on the Sepik or trekking in the Highlands it can be useful to have a guide hired from your guest house or the last major village.

Crossing the border from Indonesia to PNG

I came by Pelni ferry from Biak to Jayapura in Indonesia. On getting off the ferry I was offered a taxi to the border for 400,000 rupiah. I didn’t bother haggling, so I guess it might be possible to get it for 300,000 if you do. It might also be more expensive if you get it from a Jayapura hotel rather than the ferry port and if you don’t speak Indonesian. Tell them you are going to Skouw, the name of the border village.

I decided to take $1,500 in Indonesian rupiah with me and change them in Jayapura. There are only two places in Jayapura you can do this: one is in town not far from the PNG embassy and the other is at the border itself. The one in town could only change $750 and had a slightly better rate than the border (3700 rupiah to the Kina as opposed to 3800). Both were vastly better than the official rates on xe.com, which was showing 4,800!

The drive to the border took 1.5 - 2 hours. After changing my rupiah at the border I got through very quickly, in about 10 minutes. I got a PMV on the other side to Vanimo which cost 15 Kina and took around 40 minutes.

From Vanimo to the Sepik River

The next morning I went down to the waterfront at 07:15am and was on a banana boat bound for Aitape at 08:30. It took 3.5 hours and cost 150 kina. The road from Vanimo to Aitape is no longer passable. At Aitape I got in a PMV pickup truck which left about 1 hour later. It took around 5 hours to get to Wewak and cost 60 Kina. There are dozens of river crossings with no bridges and apparently in the wet season you can get stuck at them for days.

There are two roads from Wewak to the Sepik: to Angoram on the Lower Sepik and to Pagwi on the Middle Sepik. The one to Timbunke is apparently no longer passable. There is, however, another road under construction from Wewak to Yentchen, one of the Palembei villages, which has only 2km left uncompleted. That will be extremely useful once finished, as Palembei is one of the most interesting areas.

From Wewak you could probably get an overnight PMV direct to Pagwi, which apparently mostly leave around 10pm, but by this stage I was too tired to look for one. Although most people told me the road was safe, one or two said it was better to travel in the day, so I decided to overnight and got a PMV to Maprik the next morning. I think it cost 20 Kina.

At Maprik they told me there would be no more PMVs to Pagwi that day. It was a Friday, and on Fridays there is usually only one PMV to Pagwi which had already left. On other days it would have been possible, if I understood correctly, as there are two PMVs each day. In the end a friendly guy at Maprik market said his dad could take me direct to Pagwi for 100 Kina in a private vehicle, which I agreed to.

Upon arrival in Pagwi I found a guide and we left by canoe for Kaminabit village. Over the next few days we visited Chambri Lakes, Palembei, Kaganaman, Korogo, a few smaller bush camps for hunting / fishing, all at a very reasonable price. If you just want a basic introduction to the Sepik, this is the way to do it. If you want to visit more remote regions or the tributaries like April or May River then you’d need to spend a lot more or be willing to wait for days or weeks for canoes. However, unless you have already visited Palembei and Chambri, or you are aiming to see certain types of birds or you have a very specific interest in different types of art and architecture, the area around Chambri and Palembei is probably best. They (apparently) have the most impressive art and spirit houses and are cheapest and easiest to reach. The way to Chambri also has spectacular bird life with huge white egrets flying across the river every few seconds, sometimes dozens visible all at once, and many other species seen regularly too.

The price of the PMV back from Pagwi to Weak was 40 kina.

As for trip costs - firstly, the Sepik is perfectly doable by public transport if you are not on a strict schedule or planning to go anywhere very remote. Like this you could really spend very little on your trip. Expect 50 Kina for a seat on a PMV canoe from Pagwi to Palembei, 30 kina for a guest house, 50 kina per day for a guide, 10 kina entrance fee to spirit houses. Secondly even if you want to hire private transport this can be done, as I did, at a fraction of the prices repeated on this and other forums or by guides you contact in advance. Just turn up in, for example, Pagwi and find a guide and boat there. If you can’t find an actual guide then just hire a canoe to take you to one of the guest houses in Palembei, Kaganaman, Chambri Lakes or Kaminibit where the owners or their relatives can act as your guide. These guest houses all cost 30 - 35 Kina a night, or about $8. Canoe hire and petrol are the most expensive part of these trips. Petrol alone to visit all the villages mentioned above would cost around 500 kina on a private canoe. Canoe hire and guiding fees can be whatever you manage to negotiate.

As an example, I wrote to a well-known guide often mentioned and recommended on this and other forums and asked for a 2-day tour to visit the Sepik River villages of Palembei, Kaganaman and Chambri Lakes, not including transport from Wewak. He quoted me 6,000 Kina - $1,500!!! Obviously you can get the same tour for a fraction of the price if organizing it on the spot, but these kind of prices are still often condoned by regular posters on this and other forums. The quality of guide / level of English spoken will also not necessarily be better if booked in advance, as the guides you can book in advance are the same ones you will find in these villages and at the guest houses! If you have a very deep / almost academic interest in the area and really need a top-quality guide to western standards you would probably need to book a tour through one of the long-established mega-expensive tour companies operating in PNG.

Fron Vanimo it’s also possible to go direct to the Upper Sepik at Green River, as there is a road. There isn’t any regular public transport but cars do occasionally do it and you may be able to get a lift. Once there, however, you are a VERY long way from Pagwi, Wewak or almost anywhere else! Fuel costs alone to go by canoe from there down to Pagwi would be astronomical (think thousands of dollars) and hitching a lift on a canoe might take a very long time (think weeks, unless you are very lucky).

thanks for the report

you say just turn up in pagwi and hire a guide and canoe - this is optimistic - it may be possible but it is likely to take a day or two at minimum to find someone trustworthy and for them to find a canoe and motor and crew - sometimes
pagwi is busy with people travelling to and from market but more often it is very quiet - travelling on a budget on the sepik is only recommended if you have a very flexible schedule

regarding prices for guides there are so many variables it isnt really easy to compare

at the very high end (the foreign companies asking USD 1000 per day or more) you should get well organised knowledgeable experienced guides, a fast canoe with chairs (so less time travelling), clean mattresses and sheets with good mosquito nets, private washing facilities perhaps with hot water, a clean toilet, selection of hot fresh tasty food with clean plates and utensils, clean drinking water, solar power and/or generator for lights and charging, helpers to carry luggage, cook etc. - they should also organise a small welcome sing-sing in at least one village and perhaps some other music or story telling for one evening - in addition they should have some back up in case something goes wrong or plans change - wewak to pagwi could be in a fast private 4x4 with a/c (or at least a private vehicle)

for a once in a life time visit for a few days many people consider this worth paying for for their comfort safety and security - the problem of course is that sometimes people pay the premium but dont get what is promised

as you go down the scale then you start to lose these benefits - the guides are disorganised, the canoe is small slow and you sit squashed on the bottom, no proper washing or toilet facilities, poor food and unsanitary conditions, dirty sheets and nets with holes, you have to buy own supplies (and provide for the guide), there is nobody to help, etc etc

for some people this kind of adventure is either something they can put up with as they dont have much money or are actually seeking anyway - take your choice !

if you are there for just a few days in the villages which do get visitors then it is easy just to take some bottled water, energy bars and rough it but for a longer trip or going far up river or on tributaries it is more of an expedition and there is a lot to think about and plan

Hi majordom. Am just speaking from my own experience. I arrived in Pagwi in the afternoon, found a guide and left an hour or two later. It’s of course possible I was just lucky and this may not always be possible.

Of course you get what you pay for but for a really decent price I had a good canoe with chairs, good local food, good mattress and mosquito net, pretty sanitary conditions and a guide happy to help with bags, although I only had one backpack so that wasn’t really necessary.

I was only there for a few days in the villages that do receive visitors and are not more than a few hours from Pagwi. I fully agree that if you want to go upriver, up tributaries to remoter areas you would either need a lot more advance planning or a lot more time to organize things on the spot, plus of course a lot more money.

i think you were lucky - i would advise someone looking to travel on the sepik on a budget to head to maprik
and link up with a group returning to their village from market - if you can get a boat to ambunti then once in ambunti you should be able to find a guide and canoe more easily than in pagwi if you then wish to travel independently

question to OP - did you have a PNG visa or were you able to get visa on arrival at the land border ?

I had a visa already, which I got quickly and easily at the Australian Embassy in Moscow

do you know if VoA is available ?

in theory it should be

According to my pre-trip research VOA was only available at Moresby airport, not at land borders, at the time of my trip, which is why I got it in advance. I also remember reading that they had temporarily cancelled VOA even at the airport in November due to some political event. Am not sure what the situation is now.

This was really good info about Sepik river.

I have experienced similar low prices for the villages nearby Pagwi, Palembei, Korogo, Chambri lake, when you try to find a guide in Pagwi directly. low as in 100 USD or so.

However, for further remote villages up north like more north than Ambunti, e.g. Wagu village or villages in the upper sepik, the story is very different. The gas prices north of Pagwi is very expensive and the prices easily reach 1000 USD for 4 days or so.

I have however noted the people in villages of upper Sepik and especially in Wagu village very very friendly and more curious about the visitors when compared with the middle sepik villages. I recommend the extra effort if you have the flexibility of time for the social experience. Otherwise, the best art carvings are in the Palembei/Korogo region of middle sepik.

I have written a post about the Sepik trip including transport from Wewak:

https://landscape-routes.com/wild-green-papua-new-guinea-sepik-wagu/

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