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When I wasn’t battling the nighttime plague of palm-sized crickets assaulting my stilted hut or sitting shoulders deep in a black canoe gliding through the muddy swells of the Sepik, I was enthralled by a symphony of performers in full tribal regalia, performing a Sing Sing. Cassowary feathers adorning their clay-painted heads, palm fronds swaying from their hips. The Sepik River is a 1,100-kilometer riverine region containing some of the most remote, lawless, and untouched land in Papua New Guinea.
The communities that line the disintegrating edges of the Sepik River are every bit as theatrical and steeped in ancient tradition as the famous highland tribes. In fact, I found their traditions to be MORE alive and regularly practiced (not just performed for tourists) here than in the Highlands. But the Sepik River region and the tribes here are far less visited than the Highland communities. Most likely because they are much more challenging to visit. The most famous tribe is the crocodile men of the Chambri Lakes.
This guide will help you plan your visit to the Sepik River based on my 12-day stay. While I can offer insights and recommendations for all ways to visit Sepik, I traveled with David from Tribes of Papua New Guinea. So it was semi-independent, semi-helped along by someone who had been there before. This is how all travel to PNG’s tribal regions goes, as there’s no way to visit without the help of a local guide.
Why Visit the Sepik River?
Sepik is a remote region, home to tribal communities living along the river that cuts across Northern Papua New Guinea. This means lots of canoes, zero cars. There are few roads here on which to use them.
So why would you opt to visit this corner of the already remote country of Papua New Guinea? Simple. The crocodile men. Also, if I’m being honest, the sheer joy of being in a place that’s about as off-grid as you can get in today’s world.
But certainly, the crocodile men are a huge part of the allure.
After visiting numerous regions in Papua New Guinea, I can also wholeheartedly say that this region of the country was my favorite.
When To Go and What to Expect
You’ll want to visit East Sepik in the dry season from May to September. During the wet season, most villages flood with a meter or so of river water. This is why all the homes are stilted. During these flood months, residents step out of their door into their canoes. While this would obviously be interesting to see, it doesn’t make for the nicest visiting conditions.
Be sure to allot at least 5 days for your stay. I recommend 7+ to get the full experience.
As for what to expect, Sepik is humid and hot, like living in a thick soupy atmosphere. Malaria is extraordinarily common, healthcare is non-existent, and you’ll likely be staying in a thatched hut (many of which have bedbugs) beneath a mosquito net with a bucket shower for bathroom facilities. This is not a place for people with delicate sensibilities. This is rugged travel. I made a packing list that can help you come prepared.
Who Are the Crocodile Men of the Sepik River?
For the 9+ villages of the Chambri tribe, crocodiles are the origin of man. In fact, the tribe claims to be the direct ancestors of these original crocodile men. Today, they hunt the crocodile in the dead of night by torchlight, eat the crocodile, boil the eggs, turn the skin into black-market goods, bejewel the skulls with intricate seashell designs, and, most incredibly of all, they scar their skin to imitate the animal’s scaled pattern. It’s their most sacred spiritual symbol.
It’s a coming-of-age for young men in the Sepik Region. The initiation of young men in this way is voluntary, yet most endure it.
The scars trace swirling jagged lines across their chests, along their biceps and over their shoulder, criss-crossing violent designs across their backs and onto thier buttocks. Scars deep enough to last a lifetime.
Initiation ceremonies are rare. I was fortunate enough to witness one while we were here. Before that, it hadn’t occurred in this particular village since 2012. Generously, 50 foreigners have ever attended the mass cutting ceremony in the practice’s history. Benedict Allen is the most badass, in my opinion, since he actually partook in the ceremony with them in the 80s and bears the physical and emotional scars of the event.
Only two of the nine villages are currently equipped with the proper spirit house (Haus Tambaran) and, more importantly, the accumulated ancestral knowledge to continue the practice. In one go, they will initiate 10-50 men, usually between the ages of 18 and 30.
Visiting both the practicing villages, seeing thier large spirit houses, and listening to the stories from the scarred initiates is an absolute must though.
Why do they do this? In their lore, it allows them to release their mother’s blood (accumulated from being in the womb) in the same way a woman’s period does. It’s a rite of passage for men. A coming of age. A feat of strength and unity with their brothers. But it’s also just an untraceably old tradition.
If you’re interested in the scarification process, I shared a photo essay of the ceremony here. But please be warned, there are uncensored bloody photos of the cutting process.
How Do You Reach the Sepik River?
To reach the Sepik River, you’ll need to take a domestic flight from Port Moresby to Wewak. There are daily flights by Air Niugini and PNG Air. This usually costs about $250-$300 round-trip.
Before you book any flights in Papua New Guinea, be sure to read my guide on domestic flights.
From Wewak, you’ll follow a spine of tarmac up and down the jungle until it quite literally drops into the river at Pagwi. Assuming you are reading this guide, trying to forgo a tour, you’ll navigate this one of two ways…
- You’ll hop onto a local bus or PMV from the Wewak bus station bound for Pagwi. This is not nearly as simple as it sounds. It’s best to go very early, as the ride is 4+ hours, and there may be only one or two vehicles going that way in a day. They will go whenever they’re full, and you’ll want to approach this with patience.
- You’ll arrange a private vehicle with your chosen guide. The best-case scenario is that it costs you somewhere in the $200 range. Worst case $400.
Is It Possible to Travel to the Sepik River Independently?
In the true, independent backpacker way…no. This is because where the road ends and the river begins, you’ll run into some issues hitching a ride. Unless you want to carve your own canoe, that is.
But you *could* take the bus from Wewak to Pagwi and have a local guide with a boat pre-arranged to meet you there. This is what I described above. From here, though, you’ll require a guide. The guide provides you access to the different tribal communities, sorts out your accommodation in local huts, and helps you get around the river. I wrote a general guide to costs in PNG that you should browse, but here are a few costs pertaining to the guide and village visits.
- $125 per day to hire a canoe, driver, and guide.
- 300-500 kina per village sing-sing.
- 20 kina per person for entrance to the spirit house
You’ll also need to take into account petrol (not included in canoe price above), food (you can bring yourself), and accommodation in village huts.
My Sepik River budget travel recommendation: Get yourself by PMV to Pagwi. Have your pre-arranged guide meet you here with a canoe. You should arrange with your guide ahead of time to “pay your own way as you go” for everything on top of the $125 guide/canoe fee. This way, you can manage your own budget and decide how many tribal performances you want, etc.
Where to Stay in Wewak
I’m not going to pretend to be a Wewak expert. We didn’t stay long in the city. We stayed at the Village Inn. The rooms were mehhh, the wifi didn’t work, but the meals were huge and affordable with nice views. They also gave us a ride to the beach for 50 kina. Although you could walk. It cost $110 for a double room.
In the future, I would probably book the Tang Mow hotel on booking.com or Agoda for the same price with better reviews.
Hiring Your Sepik River Guide
Hiring a guide is the single most important thing you can do for any trip in PNG. Read why you shouldn’t just hire any ol’ guide here. Here are the three best options and their WhatsApp contacts.
- Mike: +675 7269 5503
- Ronnie Bowie via Elijah Bowie: +675 73463253
- Cyrill: +675 711100 89
Mike was my guide. He’s kind, fair, and well-connected. He lives in Sapaunat (my favorite village) and has access to my favorite huts to stay in. In my opinion, he’s the best guy for the job.
Ronnie is an excellent, knowledgeable guide who is kinda famous in Sepik. He’s the art collector you’ll read about a little later and runs the only lodging in the town of Kaminimbit, and he’s been written about in a few books while running a solid tourism business. He’s still an independent guide, so he’s not crazy expensive or anything, but it will be more expensive (probably) than the other two options. He is the most gregarious and knowledgeable, though.
Cyrill, I personally cannot vouch for. I was given his number by a fellow traveler who used his services and had good things to say. He quoted me a 7-day trip for 7,000 kina for two people. This is by far the most affordable of the options I was given, but the trip itself was quite limited. If you’re looking for just a taste of Sepik, this is a good route to go.
The Best Villages to Visit on the Sepik River
You have three main choices when it comes to villages to sleep in on the Sepik River. The rest are places you may or may not want to visit. Most “visits” come in the form of sing-sings and tribal performances that you pay for. If you’re on a group tour or an all-inclusive package you’ve arranged with a private guide, then you’ll probably be visiting all of these villages and sings-sings.
- Sapanaut. This is my favorite village to stay in, and where I spent most of the trip. The huts are very rustic, but the village is quiet, not densely populated, and you’ll get a lot of peace and quiet.
- Kandinge. This village is huge. And has about a million people. If you stay here, you’ll still have very basic facilities, but you’ll never get peace.
- Kaminimbit. I enjoyed a night or two here. You can choose between local huts and some more “modern” rooms, but facilities will be basic as well. Essentially, expect basic facilities no matter where you go in Sepik.
I visited one village with the option to stay overnight, which I really recommend you NOT stay at. That was Aibom. The village is known for its pottery, and while, seemingly, it looks like all the rest, there were a ton of very drunk people there while we visited. It seemed like this was the norm. This drinking led some of the men to follow me around and make comments that made it clear that if I were a solo female traveler, I would not feel safe being here. Obviously, if you want to visit with your guide, go ahead; you can also get cacao here, just don’t stay overnight.
The Best Sing Sings to Experience
Speaking of tribal visits, if you do want to narrow down your Sepik River focus to just a few sing-sings, which ones are the most impressive?
- Kanganamun. The cassowary dance. Also, an excellent, affordable place to buy real masks.
- Kandinge. Hugely populated, absolute chaos in the best way. Visiting a sing-sing here is a must-do.
- Yenjinmangua. In terms of liveliness and variety of costumes, this village was great. They were also super kind and let us hang out and chat with them for ages. It’s a very populated village too, so lots of people.
- Wombun. Super kind village with a stunning sing-sing performance.
- Parambei. I found this one interesting because it had some really nice “ghost” costumes and a pretty spirit house. It’s also a short walk back from the river, which was a change of pace.
Visiting the Famous Crocodile Men
When it comes to visiting the famous crocodile men…the good news is they exist everywhere. In all of the villages. It isn’t really something you need to go out of your way to do. If you visit Sepik, you’ll be staying with, eating with, and spending time around many of the crocodile men and young initiates. You’ll be able to ask them loads of questions and learn a lot about the culture.
Which Villages Still Have the Scarification Ceremony?
As I mentioned, there are two villages that are still performing the scarification ceremonies with relative frequency. That is Nyarangei and Kandinge. Perhaps one day, more villages will once again start doing the ritual, but for now, these are the only two chiefs to do it.
Is it Possible to Witness a Scarification Ceremony?
To be fully candid about how we got to witness the scarification experience, we were traveling as a group of four (my husband and I) and two photographers. One of the photographers paid to renovate the spirit house of the tribe, and this was arranged months in advance. The total sum was around 5,000 kina or just upwards of $1,000.
Now, it’s possible in future ceremonies that they will allow foreigners to watch without the steep fee. But it’s more likely they will continue to charge a high price and only to those who plan their trip during the window in which they plan to initiate. Obviously, this is a huge ordeal and not put on for tourists’ benefit.
If it’s something you absolutely want to do, then you should contact a guide FAR in advance and make the proper arrangements. Another thing to note is that the way things are done in Papua New Guinea can be challenging for foreigners. The chief changed his mind on numerous occasions while we were there, and despite having paid nearly $750 up front, it almost all fell through. Eventually, he just settled on taking more money, and all went fine. But just know there are never any promises in Papua New Guinea.
Tours Are The Easiest Option For Visiting This Region
I think at this point it’s more than obvious that if you are searching for ease, a group tour is the best way to travel to the East Sepik River region. Not only do you get to share the cost of petrol, sing-sings, and canoe hire, but you don’t have to do any of the orchestrating yourself.
I wrote a full blog post outlining all my favorite group tours to Papua New Guinea. One of them is the Sepik.
Other Things You Can Do in the Sepik River Valley
I’ll be honest, if remote landscapes, river cruising, and tribal encounters don’t interest you, you might not find there to be all that much to do in Sepik. There is little wildlife from decades of tribes’ subsistence living. Trekking is not particularly an option. There are no organized cities or attractions. It’s just the river and the communities themselves. Here are some things you can do while you’re in Sepik.
- Go crocodile-hunting after dark by torchlight.
- Scenic river cruises.
- Visit various villages for sing-sings, performances, and photos.
- Head up to Kaminimbit to see the “art house” and buy some incredibly crafted masks for a reasonable price. The owner is a local man who travels far and wide to get the best pieces from various artisans.
- Visit Pagwi pier for the Friday market and see how goods are bartered, bought, and sold on the river.
- Spend slow days wandering the villages you stay in, meeting the community and hanging out with the kids.
That being said, in Wewak, you can hit the coastline and enjoy a beach day at the city beach (it’s actually quite nice), or add a few days to check out Muschu Island or Kairiru Island offshore and the WW2 sites scattered about if you’re a history buff.
How Much Does A Sepik River Trip Cost?
If we’re talking about a guided group tour, you can expect a 7-10-day trip to fall in the $ 4,000-per-person range. If you’re organizing the trip yourself as a backpacker…you *might* be able to get by on $200 per day for two people if you limit the number of tribal communities you visit and mix in a lot of village downtime.
The Sepik River region is the most expensive area in Papua New Guinea because of the amount of petrol you’ll burn through when navigating the river.
My Final Thoughts on Visiting the Sepik River Responsibly
Now that you know how to travel to the Sepik River, with or without a tour, it’s important to consider your impact before you go. Be sure to visit with an open mind, as you’ll likely encounter many things that are very different from home. You should bring thoughtful donations, but also consider your general impact as a tourist. You are going to be one of the first tourists (or few) that these communities interact with. Don’t take photos without permission, haggle (but not too aggressively), be kind, don’t leave trash, and always take extra care when you’re photographing or interacting with kids.
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