10 Oct 2014

Sepik River Day

The Spirit of Enderby spent the day moored at the mouth of the Sepik River. The keen birders headed away from the ship at dawn to Zodiac cruise the channels and waterways. They were followed shortly afterwards by the rest of the group. A great morning was had exploring the Sago Palm forests, watching a beautiful rainbow over the mouth of the river as a morning shower passed along the coast and watching for the local birdlife including Imperial Pigeons, Parrots and Sea Eagles. To be able to explore the area by water is to see the Sepik as the locals do. Our Zodiacs were able to navigate through the narrow channels in the forest that the locals use as highways to move between villages.

We all returned to the ship for lunch and to refresh before venturing ashore at Kopar village in the afternoon. Here we were met on arrival by a rapturous crowd of locals and treated to an example of their dragon dancing as well as a very humorous pantomime. Afterwards there was the opportunity to explore the village and peruse the market where there was a great diversity of local Sepik carvings for sale. Many in our group also took the opportunity to sit in the shade of a tree and talk to the locals about life on the river. All were back aboard for the evening recap and a scrumptious dinner before an early night as we sailed north towards Manus Island.