17 Oct 2016

Exploring the Sepik River

The second day of our Melanesia Discoverer expedition and the first day of zodiac landings began as the Spirit of Enderby arrived at the mouth of the Sepik River just as the first light of dawn was lighting the sky. After an early breakfast we were all in the zodiacs by 0630 ready to take advantage of the relative coolness of the early morning for our explorations along the mighty Sepik River. Navigating the river by zodiac the first thing to strike you is the power of the water headed downstream and almost immediately afterwards the amount of vegetation being carried along by the current. The zodiacs were forced to weave between submerged logs and "islands" of water hyacinth in the main channel but we then found a beautiful secondary channel that took us through the Sago forest.

Inside this sago forest the palm fronds arched over the water and in places the zodiacs only just squeezed through between palm trees while following the channel. The birdlife was active with parrots and pigeons regularly moving through the canopy above.  After a couple of hours on the river we returned to the Spirit of Enderby for a break and a chance to refresh before reboarding the zodiacs and heading to Kopar Village where we were enthusiastically welcomed by the local community with dances including the renowned dragon dance to entertain us.

Afterwards there was a chance to explore the village and numerous market stands featuring some of the internationally acclaimed art from the Sepik River. After what felt like a full day's of activities in just the morning we returned to the Spirit of Enderby and this afternoon have been sailing across a calm ocean northwards to Manus Island.