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Poronai river travel

This splendid outdoor break takes us on a boat travel along the Poronai River, flowing into Papua’s fabled Geelvink or Cenderawasih Bay nearly 75 km northeast of the region’s gateway town Nabire. Also known as the Warenai, the stream meanders slowly — ‘Poronai’ actually means little more than ‘brown soup’ — through untouched mangroves, lowland swamp and dryland rainforests, out of the foothills of the rarely visited Weyland Mountains, the westernmost outlier of New Guinea’s central cordillera. Local Taru, Kehu and Ause tribal groups all call the Poronai home, and ultimately are the guardians of the future of the area’s diverse and still untouched forest habitats.

Day-by-day itinerary

Day 1 Early morning’s arrival at Kota Biak’s Frans Kaisepo Airport on domestic flight from the Indonesian gateway city of your choice, and transfer by small aircraft to Nabire. Here we shall set out immediately on the 75 km boat ride, closely following the coast until the mouth of the Poronai River. As always, we’ll have plenty of snacks aboard, and we’ll stop en route for lunch on a secluded beach. Late afternoon should still allow us to absorb the distinctive Nipa-Pandanus vegetation around the mouth of the Poronai River. Dinner and overnight in open pole huts here.

Extensive expanses of Sago swamp forest along the lower stretches of the Poronai harbor many water birds, and are the realm of a habitual Sago-dweller: the strange Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise. Starch extracted from the stem of the Sago palm also constitutes the staple food for indigenous peoples living inside the basin. Copyright © Johan Van Roy.

Day 2 After only a few kilometers of boat travel, the Nipa vegetation is being replaced by impenetrable Sago swamp forest, through which the Poronai meanders twisting via a northerly river arm until the settlement of Totoberi. This village sits slightly elevated on an alluvial hammock amidst the Sago swamps that provide its staple food, and is in fact the only one in the entire area to regularly uphold contact with the Papuans of the coastal Tarrungare tribe. Here and there the crowns of giant strangler figs tower above the canopy and we will certainly go and marvel at one up close. Moreover, it should not take long before we spot the amazing Twelve-wired Bird of Paradise, a typical sago-dweller. Further upstream from Totoberi stretches out an open swamp plain, dominated by Lake Yaruwi, wherein the Poronai dissolves through hundreds of channels, creeks, smaller lakes and ponds. Our experienced driver pilots the boat through a network of channels and creeks until the Poronai assumes steady form again, now more than 50 km upstream from the coast in an area locally known as Kerikil. Dinner and overnight in open pole huts along the river here.

A visit to the swamps of Lake Yaruwi with its numerous water birds and colonies of flying foxes is bound to yield interesting observations in this little-explored region of New Guinea. Copyright © Johan Van Roy

Day 3 The Kerikil region beyond Lake Yaruwi is a large expanse of lowland swamp forest extending northeast to the Wapoga river basin. Further upstream along the Poronai the vegetation gradually changes in alluvial dryland rainforest. About 85 km from the river’s mouth lies a tiny semi-permanent settlement of the Kehu, a small group of nomadic hunter-gatherers who’s life is changing rapidly. The forests here are relatively accessible on foot and a foray into the interior toward a small lake situated six kilometers away could well produce sightings of the flightless Northern Cassowary, the delightful Victoria Crowned-Pigeon, as well as the Lesser and King Bird of Paradise. Dinner and overnight in open pole huts along the Poronai.

Dryland rainforest upstream from the Kerikil area harbors Northern Cassowary, Victoria Crowned-Pigeon, as well as Lesser and King Bird of Paradise among a diverse and colorful lowland forest avifauna. Copyright © Johan Van Roy

Lowland rainforest upstream from the Kerikil region harbors the flightless Northern Cassowary, the delightful Victoria Crowned-Pigeon, as well as the Lesser and King Bird of Paradise among a well-diversified and colorful lowland forest avifauna. Copyright © Johan Van Roy.

Day 4 Further upstream from the Kehu settlement a number of small tributaries flow into the Poronai, one of which, located 12 km away, amazingly discharges crystal clear water from the surrounding foothills into the brown soup. This is an excellent place to set up camp from where to explore the surrounding heavily forested foothill country. Dinner and overnight in tented camp along this tributary.

Day 5 From the tributary we can still travel further along the Poronai for another 20 km or so, until rapids form too great a risk for a safe passage. The surrounding landscape is now truly hilly and the forests exhale a totally different, rather umbrageous, atmosphere than the steaming lowland swamps. At the farthest point of our course we again come across human habitation. Contrary to the Kehu, however, the clan members of the Ause uphold a flourishing traditional way of life. Dinner and overnight in riverside open pole huts here.

Natural wonders of the Poronai River, clockwise from left: a giant strangler fig and our indigenous guide at its feet, a Victoria Crowned-Pigeon snared by locals just prior to its release back into the wild, an indigenous Kehu hunter bringing back home wild boar for dinner, and the spectacular seed of a Sonneratia forest tree. Copyright © Johan Van Roy.

Day 6 Taken in tow by the Ause across their ancestral lands, we reserve an entire day to explore the surrounding hill forests. Dinner and overnight in riverside open pole huts.

Day 7 Today we will slowly travel downstream to the Poronai’s mouth, following the river’s more direct southern arm which houses numerous colonies of flying foxes, and evidently paying appropriate attention to the riverside fauna and flora more in general. Dinner and overnight in open pole huts at the mouth of the Poronai.

Day 8 On our final morning, we will visit the old mangrove complexes along the rivers Little Wai Saru and Big Wai Saru, just a few kilometers south of the mouth of the Poronai. After lunch on a secluded beach we will head back to Nabire. Dinner and overnight in Nabire hotel.

Day 9 Early morning’s transfer to Kota Biak and connecting flight to the Indonesian gateway city of your choice.

Poronai river travel

Day-by-day itinerary

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