Sepik River

I am lucky to go up with the Sepik river every year or so with Coral Princess Cruises, on board the Oceanic Discoverer. It is one of the highlights of their New Guinea trip. Cruises ships and other vessels any bigger than this generally can not navigate up the river.

Background:

This river is geologically a relatively new geographical feature, perhaps about 6000 years old. After the end of the last ice age, the sea levels had more or less stablized, and the river was created in its present course. Sediment washed down from the mountains created floodplains. These extended further, reaching their current position of some 100 kilometres from the base of the mountains about 1000 years ago. The river is some 1,100 kilometres long. Its catchment and tributaries cover 80,000 square kilometres. The river only drops about 50 metres in its last 1000 kilometres. Like many other large rivers through coastal plains, there are many wide swaying bends, and cut-off bends result in oxbow lakes every season. The dry season is between May and September, and the wet season between October and April. The brown freshwater flow can be seen many kilometres off the coast out to sea. The river may rise 7 metres in height, which make predictable agriculture very difficult, with crops getting washed away. So the local people rely on a plant that can handle floodplain life; the Sago Palm. However, as a food source, this is one of the poorest in the world.

Nature experience and Wildlife viewing:

In some ways, this is probably one of the easier birding spots in the region, with the more open areas allowing views, even when on a large ship and moving along the river. With Coral Princes Cruises, we have managed to now conduct a bird-spotting cruise for a couple of hours after dawn. This ends up being one of the highlights of the trip.

Birds we have seen on the cruises include: Wandering Whistling Duck, Pied Cormorant, Great Egret, Pied Heron, Brahminy Kite, White-belied Sea Eagle, Whistling Kite, Pinon Imperial pigeon, Eclectus Parrots, Red-cheeked parrot, White Cockatoo, Blyths Hornbill, Rufous Kookaburra, Common Kingfisher, Lowland Peltops and others I can't think of right now.

However, much of the wildlife such as birds, and especially mammals, will again be spotted as captive specimens in villages. In such situations, I have seen freshwater turtles, crocodile, cassowary, crowned pigeons, imperial pigeons, eclectus parrots, white cockatoo, peltops, and spotted cuscus.

At sunset flying fox stream out of the wetlands and fly overhead. We have had flying fox and blossum bats land on deck. And at night,a good range of insects, including massive Lyssa Moths (pictured), are attarcted to the lights and white decks.