ECOTOURISM MELANESIA LTD (www.em.com.pg)

EM201 2012 MT HAGEN SHOW AND SEPIK CROCODILE FESTIVAL TOUR 3-13 AUGUST
10 nights Wewak, Wewak Islands, Sepik River (Crocodile Festival), Mt Hagen Show
Fully escorted sign-up soft adventure tour, group size minimum 6 maximum 8.
Optional 3 nights extension to Simbai and Madang

The Mt Hagen Show is Papua New Guinea’s largest cultural extravaganza. The Show has its origins in colonial days when colonial administrators sought to reduce tribal fighting by promoting inter-marriage and channelling inter-tribal rivalry into positive forms of competition. Major sing-sing events like the Mt Hagen Show and Goroka Show became opportunities for tribes to gain status without bloodshed, by competing to put on the best cultural performance. The Mt Hagen Show today is still a competition, with tribal groups vying for sizeable cash prizes and of course the honour and glory that first prize at the “Hagen Show” brings to one’s tribe.

The Show attracts cultural groups from all over Papua New Guinea, even from Bougainville and the Trobriand Islands. The local crowd of 50,000 mainly flock in from the Highlands provinces plus Madang and Lae as these are the only places with road access to Mt Hagen. In contrast, less than 500 overseas visitors attend the Show, so it is still definitely a “local” festival and not something put on for tourists. Some very remote villagers come to town only once per year, for the Show, so you will see quite a kaleidoscope of faces in the spectator crowd, even before you turn your attention to the sing-sing arena.

Tourists sit in a private viewing area and have permission to enter the performance arena to take close-ups of the dancers. Apart from the Show itself, our tour group will also attend another, smaller sing-sing on the day before. This is held at Paiyakona village about half an hour’s drive out of town, is more informal without the huge crowds, and provides an authentic village backdrop for photography, with opportunities for watching the performers putting on their make-up and body decorations before the performance.

 Before the Mt Hagen Show we will visit tropical Muschu Island with a hike to the secret Japanese naval gun emplacement, volcanic Kairiru Island with its colourful cultural program and hot springs, and the Sepik River including the Sepik Crocodile Festival at Ambunti. The Sepik Crocodile Festival is a small rural festival with amazing traditional dancing with live crocodile mascots that you won’t see at the Mt Hagen Show, and hardly any tourists

There is also an optional 3-night extension to see the exotic Kalam tribe at Simbai (our answer to Tari’s Huli wigmen) and beautiful Madang.

NB This is a “wet foot” tour that involves climbing in and out of small boats, some optional hiking and sleeping in basic huts without electricity in a few places, so some physical agility and mental flexibility is required. Also note this is a unique small group tour program originally designed by Ecotourism Melanesia and not offered by any other tour company. The tour price includes a tour development levy to recover our outlays on designing, reconnoitring, organising and monitoring the remote area logistics involved, and a share of the group leader’s travel costs. Doubling the group size to 16 (2 charter flights) would bring the cost down but in the past we found such large groups to be unmanageable in the remote area context.

Click here to download a detailed itinerary for EM201 2012 with tour price, tour inclusions and trip notes (PDF document, opens in a new window)


Air Niugini F100 jet operates most domestic routes

Wewak Town, on a peninsula

 2012 ITINERARY

DAY 1: FRI 3 AUG 2012 PORT MORESBY / WEWAK
Arrive Port Moresby and connect through to Wewak.
See www.airniugini.com.pg or www.apng.com for details of international flights arriving today from Brisbane, Cairns, Singapore or Kuala Lumpur (flights from Asian cities depart the day before and arrive early morning in Port Moresby).

On arrival in Port Moresby Ecotourism Melanesia staff will greet you with a smile and a welcome gift  and you will be transferred to check in for your connecting flight to Wewak. If time allows between flights, our staff will take you on a short tour of Port Moresby.

NB Your domestic air tickets are provided by Ecotourism Melanesia as part of the tour package and will be delivered to you on arrival or e-mailed in advance.

15:30 Air Niugini flight PX126 departs for Wewak (via Madang).
17:40 On arrival in Wewak the group will be met by the tour leader and transfer 15 minutes to your hotel.

Overnight Windjammer Beach Hotel, Wewak (3 star deluxe room, room only)


Travel by "banana boat"


Muschu Island beach and canoes


Rainforest walk


Sup village guest house

DAY 2: SAT 4 AUG 2012 WEWAK / WEWAK ISLANDS (village stay)
After breakfast we check out of the hotel and carry our bags down to the beach in front of the hotel to board our open speed boat for a 30 minute boat ride to beautiful Muschu Island.

TOUR NOTE: MUSCHU ISLAND
Muschu is a luscious tropical isle, flat and low and covered in coconut plantations and light rainforest. The island is fringed with beautiful white sandy beaches and colourful coral reefs. There are only a few villages. The island was occupied by Japanese navy gunnery units during the war and some of the big naval guns are still there in the bushes. In September 1945 when the Japanese surrendered, Australian forces kept up to 10,000 Japanese prisoners on the island until they were repatriated to Japan in 1946.
There are no ferries servicing the island and the only way to get there is by squatting on the floor of a privately hired open speed boat (“banana boat”) which is a little intimidating for conventional tourists, therefore Muschu is not a tourist destination despite its appeal.

The morning hours are the best time to enjoy this lovely tropical paradise before the sun reaches its scorching zenith. Walk along the beach, swim in the warm waters and play games in the sand with the village kids who will view you as a novelty because hardly any tourists come here.
Snorkelling masks are provided for viewing the coral reef. Bottled water and fresh drinking coconuts are provided, then a local style tropical lunch at the nearby Sup village guest house.
Sup (pronounced “soup”) is a delightful seaside village, sandy paths between the houses, green coconut palms and ferns everywhere. There is a small village school for primary-age kids and when it’s time for high school the kids go to boarding school in Wewak or at St John on Kairiru Island.

In the afternoon our local guide will lead us on a hike through the coconut plantations and light rainforest to see Japanese war relics and other points of interest on the island. Walking will mostly be under shade but the heat and humidity will be high so bring a water bottle and something to fan yourself with.

Overnight Sup village guest house, Muschu Island (includes all bedding and local style meals)


Traditional dancing, Kairiru Island


Drama performance, Kairiru Island


Village guest house, Kairiru Island

DAY 3: SUN 5 AUG 2012 WEWAK ISLANDS (village stay)
After breakfast we depart Muschu Island and continue by banana boat to Kairiru Island. Unlike Muschu, Kairiru Is a volcanic island with mountainous interior and small crater lake. The island takes about 2 hours to circumnavigate by speed boat, but today we will travel around only the east side of the island to get to Shagur village on the seaward (north) side of Kairiru Island. From Shagur you cannot see the PNG mainland – only the Bismarck Sea (next stop: Micronesia).
At Shagur village the people will await us with an enthusiastic traditional welcome, a walking tour of the village and a tropical feast for lunch.
After lunch we take a one hour hike to the waterfall for a refreshing splash.
Dinner tonight will be a traditional-style “mumu” where food is wrapped with coconut cream in banana leaves and slow-cooked under hot stones.
In the evening we will be treated to a cultural entertainment extravaganza with all manner of traditional singing, dancing and drama skits portraying the island legends – be prepared to split your sides over some great slapstick comedy even if you can’t understand a word of what’s going on.

Overnight Polen guest house, Shagur village, Kairiru Island (includes all bedding and local style meals)

TOUR NOTE: SHAGUR VILLAGE, KAIRIRU ISLAND
Shagur village is literally a tropical paradise situated in luscious green rainforest. The houses are all traditional style, made of bush materials only. This contrasts with the inland areas of the Sepik River where the topography is fairly flat and dry, despite the presence of the watercourse. As Ecotourism Melanesia is currently the only tour company arranging visits to Shagur, the number of visitors coming here is small and each visit is special for both the village people and the visitor. The people here have a well-prepared repertoire of bona fide cultural dances, songs and drama to perform for visitors – one of the best village cultural experiences anywhere in PNG.


Victoria Bay, Kairiru Island


Bubbling hot springs, Victoria Bay

DAY 4: MON 6 AUG 2012 WEWAK ISLANDS / WEWAK
This morning after breakfast we commence a scenic hike around the eastern coast of Kairiru Island to the hot springs at Victoria Bay. The hike is quite challenging, following the undulating coastal path along cliff tops and through sections of rainforest. There are blow holes in the cliffs that will spray water beneath us if the waves are right. It’s a very pretty hike with much coastal ocean scenery and verdant light rainforest. At one point we will be “up lifted” by our banana boat across a difficult section of the walk.
(If you are not able to undertake this hike you can spend more time at the village first and ride in the banana boat later).
By early afternoon the hikers will arrive at beautiful Victoria Bay where a picnic lunch is served under the shady trees growing along the beach. Enjoy a rejuvenating swim in the bay where cool sea waters mix with hot spring water that gurgles out of rocks on the beach and drains into the bay.
14:00 Depart Victoria Bay for Wewak, alighting on Windjammer Beach and checking back into the same hotel in time for sundowners at the patio bar.

Overnight Windjammer Beach Hotel, Wewak (3 star deluxe room, room only)


Sepik River motor canoe


Washing sago by the river


Ambunti station from the air

DAY 5: TUE 7 AUG 2012 WEWAK / SEPIK RIVER (AMBUNTI)
08:00 We board our mini bus and commence our 4-hour drive from Wewak to Pagwi, our jumping off point on the Sepik River.
The road from Wewak to Pagwi is bitumen sealed most of the way and quite a pleasant journey. First we climb steep winding curves from the steamy coastal strip to the cool forests of the undulating Prince Alexander Range. Two hours into the trip we will stop at a roadside market where you can buy tropical fruits, cooked vegetables and delicious green coconuts to snack on (pay as you go).
Back on the road, we soon see fleeting views through the trees of the Sepik plains, with the river itself a fuzzy brown ribbon on the horizon. Descending onto the savannah grasslands of the Sepik basin, we pass through a number of villages before arriving at Pagwi mission station on the Middle Sepik by midday.
At Pagwi we transfer to our waiting motor canoes (4 passengers plus crew to each canoe) and head up-river approximately three hours to Ambunti, including a stop at Avatip village en route.

TOUR NOTE
Ambunti is a pindrop-quiet little township with a number of small government offices, a few tiny shops and churches, an airfield and one or two minor cottage industries. The population is less than 1000. There are no streets, just grassy lanes between houses and other buildings that are used by a few tractors with open trailers for hauling loads around the station – the rest of the time people just walk because nowhere is far from anywhere at Ambunti. The township normally seems asleep during the hot days, but comes alive in the late afternoon when various football games sprout on the airstrip runway and other open spaces and draw small social crowds. There is a little “hotel” called Ambunti Lodge which caters for tourists, plus a few other guest houses run by the church missions.

After settling in at your accommodation, spend the rest of the afternoon exploring Ambunti station and drop in at Ambunti Lodge for a cold beer or soda. Our guides are available to walk with you but it is quite safe to move around the township on your own. You might meet the occasional harmless drunk warming up to the festival atmosphere but just smile and say good afternoon and keep walking, as you would anywhere.

Overnight local guest house at Ambunti (includes catered meals and bottled water).


Live crocodile mascot at Sepik Crocodile Festival


Dancers from Upper Sepik at Crocodile festival - skin blackened with soot


Dancers from Middle Sepik at Crocodile festival


Dramatist performs at Crocodile festival


Ladies group dances at Crocodile festival


Tourist poses with performers at Crocodile festival


Riverside path, Yessan village

DAY 6: WED 8 AUG 2012 SEPIK RIVER (AMBUNTI)
Today we attend the Sepik Crocodile Festival.
Activities will get under way about 08:00am and continue until mid-afternoon.
The festival venue is the lawns around the district office at the far end of the airstrip, about 20 minutes walk from our guest house. The venue will be ringed by stalls selling very good Sepik artifacts and handicrafts at bargain prices so buy up big. Tourists and officials will be given seating on the front steps of the district office and the performance area will be on the grass in front of the steps so you will have ringside seats. You will also be able to take your camera into the performance area to get those close-up shots. There will be big crowds of friendly Sepik people – mingling with the masses will be half the fun for you today. You won’t have to worry about drunks or pests as the local police will be around and they don’t tolerate trouble-makers at these community events. There will also be a food market outside the main venue where you can buy all manner of fresh fruit, cooked foods and coconut drinks so there will be no lunch provided at the guest house today – just buy what you want from the market. If you are busy with photography, send one of our guides to gopher. The festival venue will be hot and sunny so wear a hat and plenty of sun-screen, and drink plenty of water. A carton of bottled water from our supplies will be carried up to the venue and available for you to help yourself from.

TOUR NOTES
Crocodiles play a major part in the lives of the Sepik people. Apart from their centrality to spiritual beliefs, crocodiles are important for the local diet and the village microeconomy. Everywhere in the Sepik River basin, the crocodile is an occasional source of protein for the village diet, and crocodile skins are sold for cash to outside buyers. The collecting of crocodile eggs in the wild and hatching them in crocodile “farms” is an ongoing threat to the wild population. WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) is educating locals about sustainable harvesting of wildlife resources and encouraging them to turn to alternative sources of income such as ecotourism.
The two species of crocodile prevalent in the Sepik basin are the common saltwater crocodile (Crocodilus porosus) and the New Guinea freshwater crocodile (Crocodilus novaeguineas).
These days the wild populations of both species are retreating to the more remote tributaries of the Sepik that are furthest from their major predator: humans. It is unusual to see crocodiles along the main human-occupied areas of the Sepik River proper these days, as the constant passage of motorised dinghies and other small boats has driven the crocodile population up into backwaters. Very large crocodiles are rare these days and no “monster man-eaters” have been caught in the past 10 years.

The Sepik Crocodile Festival is an initiative of WWF and aims to promote controlled harvesting of the wild crocodile population. The festival takes place at Ambunti on the Upper Sepik where WWF’s conservation activities are focused, and is scheduled in August, the middle of the dry season, when the festival is least likely to be disrupted by rain. The Crocodile Festival celebrates the centrality of the crocodile in lives of the Sepik people and also provides a venue for WWF to conduct conservation awareness with locals who flood in to Ambunti from all over the Sepik basin for the festival. Village groups will perform crocodile-themed traditional dances and dramas. Sepik handicrafts will be for sale, especially crocodile carvings and crocodile tooth necklaces. The pride and joy of your souvenir collection will be a crocodile-head canoe prow if you can buy one. Sepik canoes normally have an animal totem carved into the prow and when the canoe becomes old or develops un-patchable leaks the prow is sometimes cut off with a chainsaw or axe and sold as a souvenir (about 40 centimetres long by 20 centimetres wide, and weighing about 3kg). Of course, it’s not really a tourist souvenir but a genuine cultural artifact. Fumigation and special packing will be required if you want to take a canoe prow home with you.
in previous years the cultural performances at the festival have been superb. Dance groups come from as far afield as the Blackwater Lakes and the far Upper Sepik. The quality of the traditional costumes is exquisite and some groups dance with live crocodiles. Amazingly, each village’s traditional dress and dance routines is very different from each other – it’s amazing that so many diverse cultures have all evolved along the same river! Some of our tour group members have commented that the Sepik Crocodile Festival far outshines the Mt Hagen Show for authenticity and photography. In fact this is the only opportunity during the tour to witness bona fide Sepik River culture as there is nothing similar from the Sepik region seen at the Mt Hagen Show later.


Mid-afternoon after the festival program has concluded, we will travel further upstream about one hour by motor canoe to Yessan, a typical Upper Sepik village. Yessan has a decorated meeting house and a riverbank path which enables us to walk the breadth of the village houses which are mainly spread along the mud cliffs of a wide bend in the river. Late afternoon, return to Ambunti.

Overnight local guest house, Ambunti (includes catered meals and bottled water).


PAC750 aircraft at Ambunti airstrip with 2009 tour group - Bob Nelson second from the right


The Sepik River from the air

DAY 7: THU 9 AUG 2012 SEPIK RIVER / MT HAGEN
This morning we will pack up and walk up to the airstrip to wait for our charter aircraft to arrive. The weather at Ambunti is usually cloudy early in the morning so our charter flight will be booked for mid-morning which gives time for the weather to clear up. Our charter aircraft will be a 9-seater Cessna Grand Caravan or 9-seater Pacific Aerospace PAC-750.
From Ambunti to Mt Hagen is a one hour flight. We will be met at Mt Hagen airport by our own tour bus and transfer to our hotel in time for late lunch (pay as you go).

Later in the afternoon we will take a familiarisation drive around Mt Hagen town and surrounds.

Overnight 2.75 star hotel accommodation, Mt Hagen (eg Hotel Poroman, Hotel Kimininga or Kanges Hotel (room only)


The chief of Paiya village and his three wives


Asaro mudmen at Paiya singsing


Western Highlands boys at Paiya singsing

DAY 8: FRI 10 AUG 2012 MT HAGEN (Paiya Sing-sing)
08:00 After breakfast, we will take a scenic drive out through typical highlands countryside to Paiyakona (Paiya) village where a sing-sing is held the day before every Mt Hagen Show. Arriving early before the sing-sing commences you will be able to watch the performers adorning themselves with feathers, shells and ochre paints in preparation for dancing. This is an experience that is in many ways more fascinating than the sing-sing itself because it gives you an opportunity to meet the dancers before they perform. They will be happy to explain their traditional dress (“bilas”) to you and pose for photographs. About 10 different dancing groups will perform, mainly from the Highlands. Some of them are groups that will perform at the Mt Hagen Show tomorrow.
The Paiya sing-sing includes lunch cooked at the village and a tour of the cultural displays in the village including the men’s spirit house and the ancestors’ skull house. The chief and his three wives will be introduced to you and some traditional customs like courtship behaviour and marriage rituals will be demonstrated.
In previous years our tour groups commented that they enjoyed the Paiya sing-sing even more than the Mt Hagen Show itself, because the village setting made the experience (and the photography) more natural and the smaller crowd from just the one village area was easy to socialise with.

After the sing-sing our tour bus will scramble up the steep driveway to Magic Mountain Nature Lodge for a walk through the native fern gardens which feature many varieties of orchids, ferns, colourful funghi, lichens and mosses.

Overnight 2.75 star hotel accommodation, Mt Hagen (eg Hotel Poroman, Hotel Kimininga or Kanges Hotel (room only)


Crowds thronging the Mt Hagen show ground


Kaleidoscope of traditional costumes, Mt
Hagen Show

DAY 9: SAT 11 AUG 2012 MT HAGEN SHOW
09:00 Depart from the hotel for the 30 minute drive to the show grounds. Our staff have already been out to the show grounds earlier in the morning to set up shade cloths and chairs.
10:00 Sing-sing program begins in the main arena.
13:00 Depart from the show ground and return to the hotel for late lunch (pay as you go)

15:00 After lunch we will take an excursion to a typical Mt Hagen cluster village, for a brief village tour and an opportunity to look inside a traditional highlands roundhouse, see the gardens they live off and some of their tribal artefacts.

17:30 Return to hotel.

Overnight 3.75 star hotel accommodation, Mt Hagen (eg Hotel Poroman, Hotel Kimininga or Kanges Hotel (room only)


Wapa dance, Mt Hagen Show

DAY 10: SUN 12 AUG 2012 MT HAGEN SHOW
Second day at the Mt Hagen Show, same itinerary as yesterday.

15:00 After lunch we will take an excursion to a coffee plantation in the Waghi Valley near Mt Hagen, which is the agricultural powerhouse of the Highlands.

17:30 Return to hotel.

Overnight 2.75 star hotel accommodation, Mt Hagen (eg Hotel Poroman, Hotel Kimininga or Kanges Hotel (room only)


Stilt village, Port Moresby harbour

DAY 11: MON 13 AUG 2012 MT HAGEN / FLY OUT
After breakfast we check out of the hotel and transfer to Mt Hagen airport for a morning flight to Port Moresby (this flight is included in the tour package). In Port Moresby you can connect with your international flight to Asia or Australia in the afternoon. Our staff will be on hand at the airport to assist and farewell you.


Welcome committee at Simbai


Kalam tribe sing sing, Simbai


Cane framed beetle shell head dress


Cuscus skin head dress with black cassowary feathers


Tribal museum, Simbai - priceless cultural artifacts


Orchid gardens, Simbai

OPTIONAL EXTENSION 3 NIGHTS SIMBAI AND MADANG

DAY 11: MON 13 AUG 2012 MT HAGEN / SIMBAI
07:00 After breakfast we check out of the hotel and transfer to Mt Hagen airport for a charter flight to Simbai (9 seater PAC750 or 18 seater Twin Otter).
08:00 (approx) we depart on our charter flight for Simbai (flying time: 45 minutes).
On arrival at Simbai airstrip the group will be met by our local Simbai guide with a few extra guys to help carry your bags. From the airstrip it is a 45 minute walk to the Kalam Guest House, your home for the next two nights.

TOUR NOTES
Simbai is an isolated district in the highlands. It is located approximately halfway between Mt Hagen and Madang. Administratively the area falls within the Madang Province but culturally the people of the Simbai area are more similar to the highlands tribes than the coastal peoples of Madang. The area surrounding Simbai airstrip – the Simbai River valley to the east and the Kaironk River valley to the west – is populated by the Kalam tribe. Archaeological digs in this area indicate that the Kalam people have occupied the Simbai area continuously for more than a thousand years. The dialect spoken by the people here is one of PNG’s most unusual languages, characterised by glottal stops. The traditional culture here is also unique among Papua New Guinea’s eight hundred tribes. Native houses have a trademark hexagon shape, men’s initiation ceremonies feature nose-piercing and pig-killing, and on special occasions the initiated boys and men wear huge cane-framed head dresses – the largest in Papua New Guinea – decorated with animal skins and the exoskeletons of thousands of luminescent green beetles collected from the forest. Just an hour’s walk from the airstrip brings you to primitive villages where time has stood still and the local people still live in grass huts, still wear traditional dress and still hunt game and harvest food the forest trees and plants for their diet.

Kalam Guest House is a rustic but clean and comfortable facility built in local style, operated by the local community. The guest house has ten twin rooms with clean bedding supplied. The bathroom, which has running water and a flush toilet, is shared but it is unlikely that there will be any other guests staying apart from your tour party. Electricity is supplied by a small generator. Well prepared local style meals are served based on fresh local produce. In front of the guest house is a large open area that the locals use as a meeting place and sing-sing ground.

On arrival at the guest house you will be welcomed by a traditional Kalam tribal sing-sing procession with men wearing their trademark head-dresses decorated with green beetle shells and women wearing animal furs and orchid stem necklaces. As they dance and sing they beat small hand drums fashioned from small hollowed logs with a lizard or mammal skin stretched over one end creating a tympanic membrane.

After the sing-sing you will be introduced to the performers who will show you their costumes and body decorations, describe how they are made and applied, and talk about their ritual significance.

13:00 Lunch is served at the guest house and will be your first opportunity to sample some local fruit and vegetables including sub-tropical varieties of banana, yam and sweet potato. Starchy vegetables are usually served with cooked greens such as watercress and long beans, or salad vegetables like tomato and cucumber.

in the afternoon your guide will take you exploring in the vicinity of the Kalam Guest House. Adjacent is the Kalam Tribal Museum which is a local style hut housing a collection of tribal artifacts, some of which are quite old and rare, and represent a microcosm of the Kalam tribal history and culture. Your guide will explain the historical and ritual significance of the pieces on display which include everyday utensils, weapons, musical instruments, head dresses, nose pieces, traditional clothing, shell money for making bride price payments, and heirloom ornaments.

Also nearby are the Simbai orchid gardens, lovingly tended by community volunteers, displaying a full range of wild and cultivated orchids which grow prolifically in the mid-montane Simbai climate. Orchids play an important part in the lives and rituals of the Kalam people, not so much for their floral beauty (the flowers are exquisite but each plant may only bloom every two or three years) but the usefulness of their stems which when dried are hardy and hollow, useful as straws for sucking food and water, and for threading necklaces.

If any time remains this afternoon you guide will offer to take you on a short scenic walk further afield from the lodge, following one of the walking tracks passing through grasslands, wooded areas, mountain streams and tiny hamlets of grass huts.

Overnight Kalam Guest House, Simbai (basic twin room, includes meals)


Typical Simbai family


Village food preparation, Simbai


Simbai men ready to hunt wild pigs

DAY 12: TUE 14 AUG 2012 SIMBAI (full day village experience)
 Today you will have the opportunity to get close up and personal with a Kalam family living in the hamlet of Wechenrau about one hour’s walk from the Kalam Guest House. The family will be aware of your visit and will have a range of traditional activities prepared to show you including samples of typical foods that they eat and how they prepare them. They will take you to their nearby food gardens and show you what they have planted there, and show you some of the trees and shrubs in the nearby bush that they harvest roots, flowers, berries and pulp from for both cooking, medicinal and handiwork purposes.

The women will actually walk you through the process of preparing one of their traditional staples for lunch which you will be able to sit down and share with them when cooked.

After lunch the men will take you a little way into the bush and show you some of their methods for trapping birds, lizards and small mammals both for game meat and for their valued skins.
Your visit to the hamlet will also include some time to play games with the village kids – amaze them with your best card trick :)

The whole day will be one continuous magnificent photo opportunity as you fishbowl the daily lifestyle of this self-sufficient people living a stone-age lifestyle just a short flight and short walk from the modern towns of Madang and Mt Hagen.

Overnight Kalam Guest House, Simbai (basic twin room, includes meals)


Flying out of Simbai airstrip


Barbeque fish market, Madang foreshore


Hobe village Madang


Hobe village Madang


Butterfly dancers - Hobe village Madang

DAY 13: WED 15 AUG 2012 SIMBAI / MADANG (half day tour)
 07:00 After breakfast, your guides will walk you to the airstrip to wait for your charter flight to Madang. On arrival at Madang airport you will be met by our local Madang guide and transfer to your hotel.
12:00 Lunch at hotel (pay as you go)

13:00 Departing from the hotel after lunch, your guide will first take you for a short familiarisation tour of the Madang town area including the market and the Madang cultural museum.

From the town it is a 30 minutes drive south out of town to Hobe village, a small rural community inland from the Gum River.

All homes in the village are of traditional bush material construction and there is no electricity.

The villagers farm the land to grow fruit and vegetables to sell at Madang market as well as for home consumption.

The village is situated adjacent to a tract of tropical forest where the locals hunt for game and harvest bush materials for building and repairing their houses.

On arrival you will be greeted with a welcome sing-sing and the village children will perform their butterfly dance.

Locals will show you around their village and you will be able to go inside family homes and see how they live.

You may also be able to see men and women engaged in daily activities in their homes such as food preparation, weaving sleeping mats, weaving large string bags (billums) for carrying garden produce and firewood, caring for young children (often they are carried around in billums too!) and working in their nearby food gardens.

If time and weather allows your village guide will lead you on a forest walk to experience the tropical rainforest – with possibly even a little rain to verify the experience :)

In the forest is a wide variety of native flora including wild orchids. It is also possible to see and hear birds, small mammals, lizards and insects especially butterflies.

You will be shown which trees and other plants can be harvested for used for food, medicine, weaving thread and building materials.
Late afternoon, depart Hobe village for Madang town and drop off at hotel.

Overnight hotel, Madang (room only)

Madang Lagoon

DAY 14: THU 16 AUG 2012 MADANG / PORT MORESBY / FLY OUT
05:00 Transfer by hotel shuttle to Madang airport to check in for your flight to Port Moresby.
07:20 Air Niugini flight PX125 departs Madang for Port Moresby (aircraft: Fokker F100 with 98 seats)
08:20 On arrival in Port Moresby, Ecotourism Melanesia staff will meet you and assist you to check in for your connecting flight to Singapore or other destination.

NB If not connecting out of Port Moresby today you are welcome to request a later flight out of Madang (or even an extra night) and enjoy more time in Madang.

TOUR EXTENSION ENDS