Sepik River

Riding from Wewak to Pagwi in a PMV. The road just outside Wewak is paved, but most of the 8 hour ride is very bumpy and dusty. On the upside, one gets to ride thought many villages and meet may interesting people along the way.

Loading up the canoe after a night in Ambunti with help from Valentine and Angela's son.

Camera bag loaded and Valentine at the bow.

Scott at the beginning of the trip in the still quite comfortable cane chair. George steering the canoe at the aft.

A stop to pick up fule in Valentine's village and an introduction to a friendly pig.

The Pig enjoyed having belly scratched by everyone except Scott, who got his sneakers chewed by the pig.

Leaving Angela and Valentine's son and Valentine's village, which has one friendly pig and two not so friendly PukPuk magic men.

After traveling up against the flow on the upper Sepik River, we take off on the tributary named April River.

The vegetation on the April River is a dense rainforest, quite different from the grassy plains on the Sepik.

The currents on the shallow river can be treacherous and the muuddy water conceals sandbanks, logs and roots. One must navigate it carefully as a mistake might lead to the passengers joining the PukPuks in the river.

It is the womens task to make sago. She cuts down the sago palm, tediously grinds down the trunk into fiber pulp using a stone tool and then filters out the starch by sifting water through the sago pulp using a scoop make of a coconut shell and a filter make of falm husk. The resulting starchy paste is flatteed into flat cakes and cooked on a hearth.

Sago and fish are the staple foods of the people of the Sepik River and tributaries. This manis holding a Pacu, a Southamerican relative to the Piranha that was imported to the the Sepik to help contol the invasive and out of control water hyasinth.

The photocredit to this one goes to Valentine and this is one of the few images of me. As the photographer you always get to tell people "yes I was there too but there are no pictures of me", so I am very grateful for this one.

After 8 hours on the April river we arrive at Kaigiru Village

At first it was a bit awkward. The villagers were surely wondering why these two dimdims apeared in a canoe at their village. As neither we nor Valentine or George spoke their language we had to improvise our communications.

Having a camera with a LCD for instant viewing of images did wonders for turning those suspicious looks to beautiful smiles.

This young man showed us how to weave balls out of palm fronds. I showed him how to turn the balls into poi by adding some twine. Soon every kid and quite large part of the adult population of the village was playing poi with me. Hands down the most fun poi session of my life.

Playing poi!

Our first shared meal of sago and fish on the river.

Dinner time. Cooking sago in a pan on the embers and smoking the fish above.

The sago is ready

Waking up to have breakfast in Kaigiru.

A new day in Kaigiru

A woman is making a large billum out of fibers of a plant.

It is a rainy day. The houses are built on stilts as the river will rise during the rainy season.

The steep steps to the stilt house.

George holding a sago axe which is used to carving the sago pulp out of the sago palm trunk.

George holding the water scoopy which the women use to haul water from the river to pour through the sago pulp so filter out the starch.

Peeking out of the stilt house.

After 8 hours of the river the first question that comes to mind is "where is the bathroom?". In Kaigiru, the arrangement was a hut with a hole dug in the ground and a log across to balance on. Not an easy task for a first timer, espeially when surrounded by a whole bunch of curious giggling kids.

The joys of instant viewing.

Leaving Kaigiru

A farewell to our new friends on the April River riverbank

Thank you friends of Kaigiru, we will see you one day again.