Trip Report - Sepik River

My wife and I just got back from a month in PNG. The highlight was our trip on the Sepik River.

We didn't want to book a package tour in advance for a bunch of reasons, not least of which is the incredibly high prices that most tour operators charge. However, you need to organize something in advance because it takes forever to organize anything in PNG. We contacted Sue at adventurepng@datec.com.pg a couple of weeks before our arrival to get the ball rolling. She offers a service for budget/backpacker travels to help put together individually organized trips with local guides using public transportation. She charges a fee for the service but otherwise the rest of the money you pay goes directly for the food, fuel and services you choose. Even so, PNG is not a cheap country. For a six night trip for four people the cost worked out to 1400 kina per person, roughly $470 US. That included everything: transportation to/from Wewak (car to get there, PMV to get back), a drum of fuel sufficient to take us anywhere we wanted during our trip, basic accommodation in private homes in the villages, all food, entry fees to haus tambarans, hire of a motorized dugout canoe, and fees to the guide and boat captain.

Once we arrived in Wewak we met up with Sue's partner Kris Caris and our guide Cyril Tara to finalize our itinerary and negotiate the final price. Once we agreed on the price there was no skimping on their part. Before we departed we went shopping together and bought a ton of food (whatever we pointed at went in the shopping cart), and when we were on the river Cyril bought fresh food whenever possible, including prawns, fish and fresh vegetables, and also arranged sing-sings in a few of the villages for which I'm sure Cyril had to donate money. We hadn't been promised any extras and wouldn't have noticed if they didn't happen, but once we had agreed on the price Cyril's priority was to make sure we had a good experience and he didn't seem concerned about additional money he had to spend.

We had originally thought that it made sense to do a river trip in one direction, say from Pagwe to Timbunke. That way we wouldn't have to backtrack and would see more. However, we read several postings in this forum saying that the river widens as you go downstream and the scenery becomes less interesting. Also, the road from Wewak to Timbunke is impassable so you would have to go all the way to Angoram. We also read that some of the villages downstream are more touristed and less secure. In the end we decided on an itinerary that started in Pagwe, took us downstream on the main branch of the Sepik, then back to Pagwe via the Blackwater Lakes and Lake Govermas.

We had six nights on the river. That's a lot more time than most people would want to spend. We're glad we did, but we were certainly glad to get back to town at the end of it. The heat and humidity is oppressive (although it's really comfortable on the water once you get to the village it's sweaty). The mosquitoes were unbelievably numerous although some villages were much worse than others. Kanganaman village has more mosquitoes than I've ever seen in my life and I grew up in Winnipeg where in the early summer mosquitoes darken the sky at noon. All I'm saying is that if you don't have a week to spare you could still do a 3 or 4 night trip on the river and still see a lot. The distances we travelled each day weren't long - the total travelling time on the river was probably no more than 12-16 hours to go to all the places we visited.

If someone wanted to arrange an individual trip with our guide Cyril Tara he can be contacted via his sister Lina Singu at sepikarts@yahoo.com.au Cyril knows the river and the surrounding area well and he was totally professional.

The above is all about costs and infrastructure. Here's a brief report of what we actually did.

We hired a private truck to take the four of us, our two guides and all our stuff from Wewak to Pagwe. We piled into our canoe and set out. Our first stop was Korogu, which has an impressive if somewhat run down haus tambarans. At this village and almost all the ones we visited, the haus tambaran is full of carvings and other artefacts made by local men. Except for a few particularly important items almost everything you see is available to be purchased. Bargaining isn't the done thing in PNG although it seems acceptable to ask the price, chit chat a bit, then ask for a second price. We found that honestly complimenting the artist on his work was a good strategy for getting a good price although in general we found that you can get excellent quality work at a very fair and reasonable price.

Our next stop was Kanganaman where we spent the next two nights. They have what they call a guest house which is really just a hut like all the others in the village, made entirely out of bush materials. It's basic but perfectly acceptable. As in all the villages there's no electricity or plumbing or anything like that. The outhouse was OK. The haus tambaran here was particularly beautiful, and there are good quality carvings. People are extremely friendly. The mosquitoes were voracious.

The next day we went to the visit of Palambei, which is on a smaller tributary of the Sepik. This village has two haus tambarans still standing, and between them are the massive supporting posts of a third one that was bombed during WW II. For us, this village had the best quality carvings we saw on the trip.

In the afternoon we went to Yentchen, which has a massive haus tambaran with a pronounced lean. Get there before it falls over.

After our second night in Kanganam we left in the morning for Kaminabit, a fairly large village that extends quite a way along the river bank. Our guide Cyril is from this village. He has a little hut there that is crammed full of carvings including some very impressive (and massive) ones. There are two haus tambarans here. As soon as we arrived the villagers set up an impromptu open-air market displaying artifacts, not only carvings but wicker, shell necklaces, bilums (string bags) and so on.

The next stop was Mindimbit where we stopped for lunch at Peter Bai's guesthouse. Tony Wheeler stayed with him back in the day. Peter was nice enough and it was interesting to see his signed first edition of the LP PNG guide, but I was just as happy not to stay overnight, especially after I had a look at the outhouse.

From there we backtracked up the Sepik a short distance then went up the Karowari to Mamere where we stayed in a room in a private house. There were mercifully fewer mosquitoes here. Our hosts Ben and Filomena were very hospitable and Ben is a talented carver.

The next day we went to Tungimbit, a small village with a precariously leaning haus tambaran with an impressive gable mask. There wasn't much in the way of interesting art but as always the people were extremely friendly.

From there we entered the Blackwater Lakes region using a small channel that was almost completely blocked with weeds. We had to force the canoe through the narrow opening. The region is very beautiful. We stayed overnight at the village of Govermas, again in a someone's home.

In the afternoon we crossed the lake to visit the village of Meriama. The haus tambaran is dark and gloomy, with some ancient-looking wooden carvings and wicker figures slowly decomposing in the corners. Incongruously, on the hill overlooking the village a family of American missionaries have built a suburban-style bungalow.

When we got back to Govermas village we went for a dip in a small pool underneath a waterfall. This was really great. It was so hot and sticky, we hadn't had any place to wash except for the muddy river, and it was just great to jump into cool clean clear water. In the evening the villagers gathered in the haus win near the river to hang out and sing songs.

The next day was Sunday. We went to mass at the big Catholic mission at Kaningara. There's a market afterwards where you can buy fruit, vegetables and smoked grubs (which were surprisingly juicy, not what I was looking for in a grub). This village is quite large and has a fantastic haus tambaran. Inside were about a dozen men being initiated, which requires them to stay in the spirit haus for a month.

The next day we went back to Kaminabit to spend the night. The following day we went to Chambri Lake, stopping at the village of Aibom which is famous for its pottery, then to Wombun where the wooden carvings are highly polished which we were told was typical of the Chambri style. The men are building a new haus tambaran, and its mainly younger men who are doing the carving. It's reassuring that the next generation want to maintain continuity of their culture, and have the traditional skills necessary to do it.

We crossed the wide expanse of Chambri Lake, rejoined the Sepik and travelled a short distance upstream then turned off on a narrow channel to the village of Niaurengei. This is where our boat captain Sebastian lives. It's not really of much interest to tourists - we had picked it because it was close enough to Pagwe that we could leave at dawn and get there in time to catch the early morning PMV back to Wewak. We stayed in Sebastian's older brother Kevin's house. We had a great last meal of fresh fish and prawns, and a stew made from fresh bamboo shoots.

Our last day was May 1. We were on the river just as the sun was coming up. Wisps of mist rose from the water. There were millions of mayflies skimming the surface of the water, their tiny wings glowing in the first rays of light. We got to Pagwe in lots of time to catch the PMV which was surprisingly comfortable - not at all crowded by third-world standards, and very cheap (30 kina or $10 US pp).

We spent a month in PNG in total, and loved the country. The election campaign had just started and that caused some unrest - we didn't visit the highlands because we were warned that there was violence and insecurity. We crossed into the country from Jayapura and travelled Vanimo-Wewak-Madang-Port Moresby-Milne Bay. Despite what you read about rascals and crime, at no time did we feel threatened or unsafe. People were uniformly friendly and hospitable and we had a great time. I'd go back in a second.

Awesome trip!!

just tried to e-mail Sue at the address you gave - adventurepng@datec.com.pg - but it was returned undelivered. Do you have any other contact details for her?

Hi traveller202,

I may have another email address for Sue but I don't have it with me at the moment. I'll be home in about a week and I'll look for it then.

You could try emailing Cyril Tara, our guide. He doesn't have email himself but his sister does: sepikarts@yahoo.com.au

I know that email address works because I just had a message from her.

/Phil

Note: emails / internet messages are sometimes down for days at a time, and can be returned. Just keep trying every couple of days and it will probably work. This problem is more common than one would believe.

I am on my way to the Mt. Hagen Sing Sing in August but I have 2 nights I have to layover in Moresby. I don't want to spend a fortune on a hotel but I do want safety. Any one got a recomendation? Also has anyone been to PNG Arts recently and are there any other artifact stores to look at in Moresby. What else to do in Moresby? I remember enjoying the Museum there. Cyn