"Karawari, in the Lower Sepik ..." a Timbunke Travel Page by jadedmuse

The Sepik River is to Papua New Guinea what the Nile is to North Africa, or the Amazon to South America - its many tributaries (like the Karawari River here) are home to villages throughout the delta.

There's little to no infrastructure in these areas, and the main form of transportation is by boat between the tribal villages.

Despite the tropical heat, we often wore long sleeve shirts (and always long pants with closed toe shoes) to ward off the mosquitoes.

Since malaria is endemic (and the strain is so strong) in this lower area of PNG, we had to take two different malaria pills before, during and after the trip. By the time I returned, I'd been taking malaria pills for almost 5 weeks, and I was really sick of them. I stopped taking them about 2 weeks after I returned, and caught hell from my doctor when I told him about it later!

The villages are strictly subsistance here....they seem so lovely as I viewed them from the river - but once we disembarked and climbed ashore to get a closer look, it became apparent that there is little to no economy, no infrastructure, and not a lot of nutritional variety to speak of. So many of the children had distended bellies, although they didn't appear to be starving or even in poor health; this is a result of eating mostly starchy food substances (sago palm, primarily), punctuated by the occasional river fish. It was a far cry from the pigs and wild boar meat that the Highlanders seem to eat in abundance.

The experience was a real eye-opener - and in some ways, a real heartbreaker.....

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For more info/photos on Timbunke (Karawari), please see this section's Travel Tips

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And if you haven't seen it yet, please visit my intro page under Papua New Guinea

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