IT IS the river that dominates the entire lowlands of the Western province and the lifeline of the giant Ok Tedi Mine.
Logging and fishing activities could also be found along its magnificent stretch. The locals referred to the river in their Awin dialect as "Wai Duo".
One of the biggest rivers in Papua New Guinea, Fly River boasts of a host of spectacular vistas along its banks - crocodiles sunbathing and white herons fishing daily for their meals, among many other visual delights. And it is home to the barramundi, Saratoga and black bass.
For years, Fly River served as a trading route between Port Moresby, Daru and Kiunga. Major shipping companies such as Laurabada Shipping, of Steamship, and the Western Tug & Barge, subsidiary of P and O shipping Ltd of Australia and small vessels owned by Progressive Ltd operated on this river ferrying commercial goods for business houses operating up in Kiunga and Tabubil towns.
Smaller vessels also transported agriculture produce like rubber cumplums from the villages scattered along the lower Fly and Middle Fly River to Daru and Kiunga.
Using dugout canoe or dinghy fitted with outboard motor of 15 to 40 horsepower, the local people plied this route daily to do business and other errands in Kiunga. Without this river system, everything would stand still for the people around this area.
Motorised dugout canoe is commonly used nowadays because it carries cargoes of more than 200 tonnes and about 30 to 50 passengers.
As a nature-trip organiser, I took a boat ride from Kiunga to Elavala River, once known as Palmer River before the locals started calling it "Wai Gaia", a name changed during the colonial administration in the early 70s.
I was asked to arrange a trip for two Scandinavian travel writers who wanted to visit the famous Ikame Wild Life Lodge, known as birdwatchers' haven.
It was a day with cloudless skies. Our boat operator was Mero Madi, a local guy up from the headwaters of Fly River. A boastful dinghy operator doubling as outboard motor mechanic, he was at the helm of the boat.
Our entourage included the two Swiss visitors, myself and two guides from the lodge. We planned to visit two villages along Elavala River while making a few stop overs here and there and to visit the birding lodge, too. The itineraries given to us included watching cultural performances and the knowing about the traditional Awin ways of making sago. All these were to take place within a span of six hours.
We boarded our 40-horse power dinghy fitted with seats for 10 passengers alongside life jackets, all courtesy of the Kiunga Nature Tours.
We left at 6am when it was quite dark as yet although the golden hue of the morning sun was becoming evident beyond a distant hill. Luckily, the Kiunga wharf lights brightened up the surroundings at the wharf for copper hauling ships and ferry boats as we sliced our way out through the thinning darkness.
Awakened by the dawning day, birds drew notice as they could already be seen on their perches with the surroundings getting light.
Our two friends unloaded their packs and started loading their cameras. Both had two portable Cannon. One of them told us that he had six rolls of 36 exposures that he was going to use for that day.
As the morning cleared up, it was all camera action time. They were amazed to see the whole new life in this virgin side of the world. My visitors began taking pictures of things that took their fancy.
They had a field day marvelling at the river scenery, and they knew they had lots of colourful stories to tell friends and families back home.
Forty-five minutes later, we arrived at the mouth of Elavala River, and then headed towards Ikame Birding Watching Lodge for another 60 minutes of fun with the locals.
We arrive at Gisiore village, a small hamlet dotted with some 200 people, and there, Max Ako, a village leader who had organised a culural performance for our two friends, met us. What a big surprise! We were treated by two village elders to the beats of the kundu drums as the village sing-sing dancers performed an Awin tribal dance.
With the two cameras clicking, the dancers led by Benjamin Wiknai went on for some 50 minutes.
With their tribal attire of cassowary woven headdress, the two men wore penis gourds to hide their private parts. A sturdy string held the men's penis gourds from drooping while they were jumping and skipping. Strapped around their waists was a small string bag with pieces of cassowary bones while their hands waved bows and arrows as they made some steps forward only to backstep once and moved forward again. The process was repeated until the beating music died down.
Seeing for the first time a village dance like that in flesh and blood, I myself was overwhelmed.
The village dance was similar to something that I had seen up the Star Mountain except that the men there did not wear penis gourd.
By the time the merry-making ended, it was lunchtime. We were offered with a freshly baked sago flour cooked on an earthen oven. Finally, we left for the Ikame bird watching lodge at about 11.30am, taking us only 30 minutes to reach the lodge. Quickly, we were served lunch of bread with egg, salad and salmon.
The lodge guide was kind enough to tell us about the bird-watcher's lodge project, the first of its kind in Western province.
It was started in 1997 by Samuel Kepuknai, a local from the hinterlands of Fly River, who used to work as sheet fabricator with airline operator Talair. Now, he has taken full time watching bird and operating the bird-watcher's lodge.
This lodging place in the heart of untouched nature has become popular among bird watching fanatics around the world that it provided some livelihood to the local people.
The lodge sits by the Elavala River, providing a pristine view of the surroundings right from where one sits in the veranda.
Here, the community started an orchid project, too, in which the locals raised some 20 species of rare orchids. The community has been included as one of the protected sites wherein the locals have been forbidden from hunting wild animals.
Finally, it was the time to return to Kiunga.
For the two visitors, PNG is uniquely beautiful and its untouched nature would continue to provide unequalled adventures to nature lovers like them.
Impressed with what they saw and experienced, the two Scandinavians promised to write about our country. But their brief cruise on the Fly River would be the centrepiece of a series of articles they intend to produce for the world to read and see in living colour pictures.
The trip up Fly River and Kiunga was arranged by the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority in partnership with Kiunga Nature Tours.
For more information, write to the author: Western Tourism Homebase, P.O. Box 301 Kiunga, WP. Phone number 5481014 or Fax number 5481149. He could also be reached at cjamie2005@yahoo.com.au
Logging and fishing activities could also be found along its magnificent stretch. The locals referred to the river in their Awin dialect as "Wai Duo".
One of the biggest rivers in Papua New Guinea, Fly River boasts of a host of spectacular vistas along its banks - crocodiles sunbathing and white herons fishing daily for their meals, among many other visual delights. And it is home to the barramundi, Saratoga and black bass.
For years, Fly River served as a trading route between Port Moresby, Daru and Kiunga. Major shipping companies such as Laurabada Shipping, of Steamship, and the Western Tug & Barge, subsidiary of P and O shipping Ltd of Australia and small vessels owned by Progressive Ltd operated on this river ferrying commercial goods for business houses operating up in Kiunga and Tabubil towns.
Smaller vessels also transported agriculture produce like rubber cumplums from the villages scattered along the lower Fly and Middle Fly River to Daru and Kiunga.
Using dugout canoe or dinghy fitted with outboard motor of 15 to 40 horsepower, the local people plied this route daily to do business and other errands in Kiunga. Without this river system, everything would stand still for the people around this area.
Motorised dugout canoe is commonly used nowadays because it carries cargoes of more than 200 tonnes and about 30 to 50 passengers.
As a nature-trip organiser, I took a boat ride from Kiunga to Elavala River, once known as Palmer River before the locals started calling it "Wai Gaia", a name changed during the colonial administration in the early 70s.
I was asked to arrange a trip for two Scandinavian travel writers who wanted to visit the famous Ikame Wild Life Lodge, known as birdwatchers' haven.
It was a day with cloudless skies. Our boat operator was Mero Madi, a local guy up from the headwaters of Fly River. A boastful dinghy operator doubling as outboard motor mechanic, he was at the helm of the boat.
Our entourage included the two Swiss visitors, myself and two guides from the lodge. We planned to visit two villages along Elavala River while making a few stop overs here and there and to visit the birding lodge, too. The itineraries given to us included watching cultural performances and the knowing about the traditional Awin ways of making sago. All these were to take place within a span of six hours.
We boarded our 40-horse power dinghy fitted with seats for 10 passengers alongside life jackets, all courtesy of the Kiunga Nature Tours.
We left at 6am when it was quite dark as yet although the golden hue of the morning sun was becoming evident beyond a distant hill. Luckily, the Kiunga wharf lights brightened up the surroundings at the wharf for copper hauling ships and ferry boats as we sliced our way out through the thinning darkness.
Awakened by the dawning day, birds drew notice as they could already be seen on their perches with the surroundings getting light.
Our two friends unloaded their packs and started loading their cameras. Both had two portable Cannon. One of them told us that he had six rolls of 36 exposures that he was going to use for that day.
As the morning cleared up, it was all camera action time. They were amazed to see the whole new life in this virgin side of the world. My visitors began taking pictures of things that took their fancy.
They had a field day marvelling at the river scenery, and they knew they had lots of colourful stories to tell friends and families back home.
Forty-five minutes later, we arrived at the mouth of Elavala River, and then headed towards Ikame Birding Watching Lodge for another 60 minutes of fun with the locals.
We arrive at Gisiore village, a small hamlet dotted with some 200 people, and there, Max Ako, a village leader who had organised a culural performance for our two friends, met us. What a big surprise! We were treated by two village elders to the beats of the kundu drums as the village sing-sing dancers performed an Awin tribal dance.
With the two cameras clicking, the dancers led by Benjamin Wiknai went on for some 50 minutes.
With their tribal attire of cassowary woven headdress, the two men wore penis gourds to hide their private parts. A sturdy string held the men's penis gourds from drooping while they were jumping and skipping. Strapped around their waists was a small string bag with pieces of cassowary bones while their hands waved bows and arrows as they made some steps forward only to backstep once and moved forward again. The process was repeated until the beating music died down.
Seeing for the first time a village dance like that in flesh and blood, I myself was overwhelmed.
The village dance was similar to something that I had seen up the Star Mountain except that the men there did not wear penis gourd.
By the time the merry-making ended, it was lunchtime. We were offered with a freshly baked sago flour cooked on an earthen oven. Finally, we left for the Ikame bird watching lodge at about 11.30am, taking us only 30 minutes to reach the lodge. Quickly, we were served lunch of bread with egg, salad and salmon.
The lodge guide was kind enough to tell us about the bird-watcher's lodge project, the first of its kind in Western province.
It was started in 1997 by Samuel Kepuknai, a local from the hinterlands of Fly River, who used to work as sheet fabricator with airline operator Talair. Now, he has taken full time watching bird and operating the bird-watcher's lodge.
This lodging place in the heart of untouched nature has become popular among bird watching fanatics around the world that it provided some livelihood to the local people.
The lodge sits by the Elavala River, providing a pristine view of the surroundings right from where one sits in the veranda.
Here, the community started an orchid project, too, in which the locals raised some 20 species of rare orchids. The community has been included as one of the protected sites wherein the locals have been forbidden from hunting wild animals.
Finally, it was the time to return to Kiunga.
For the two visitors, PNG is uniquely beautiful and its untouched nature would continue to provide unequalled adventures to nature lovers like them.
Impressed with what they saw and experienced, the two Scandinavians promised to write about our country. But their brief cruise on the Fly River would be the centrepiece of a series of articles they intend to produce for the world to read and see in living colour pictures.
The trip up Fly River and Kiunga was arranged by the PNG Tourism Promotion Authority in partnership with Kiunga Nature Tours.
For more information, write to the author: Western Tourism Homebase, P.O. Box 301 Kiunga, WP. Phone number 5481014 or Fax number 5481149. He could also be reached at cjamie2005@yahoo.com.au