TUESDAY MARCH 19 2013 WATAM VILLAGE and SEPIK RIVER, Papua New Guinea
We are so excited this morning as we arrive at the famous SEPIK River mouth - this is the largest river in PNG at 1126 km and is one of the world's greatest rivers from its' origin in the mountains out to the sea. This area is an immense grassland reserve and the people along the river depend heavily on the Sepik for transportation, water and food. Their links with the Sepik are symbolized in many of their ancient and spiritual rituals such as the painful manhood initiation which requires painful carving of flesh on the backs of the young men with razor blades in patterns are that of a crocodile lying on the banks of the Sepik.
This will be a major celebration this morning as we anchor off the shore and take the zodiacs into the beach at WATAM Village for a SINGSING (cultural celebration). It is important that all the zodiacs arrived together for the official welcome, and as we closed in to the shore the arrival boat came out to greet us! It was full of men and bare breasted women in their traditional costumes (mostly loin cloth and various leaves and shells) with bright yellow and pink feather headdress waving huge palm fronds to and fro and beating their kudo ? drums! There was even a small naked little boy being held on the back of the boat by Dad just in awe of what was happening. Many faces were painted various designs with the white coral lime. There were huge numbers of villagers waiting on the shores for us as we pulled in and jumped into the water (quite shallow here) - where we were welcomed and then all walked into the very pretty village which was long with homes on either side and a large grassy area through the centre. Our first stop was at the school (which was the closest building to the shore) where all the children were in straight lines facing us - their teacher had them all space themselves apart by touching each other's shoulders, and then stand to attention - just as if they were in the army! They sang to us to welcome us and then their national PNG anthem - it was lovely.
Afterwards, with the children and villagers all around us we walked up the trail and stopped outside the men's hut - this is where the men all gather and women are not allowed to enter. It is here that they keep their spiritual & ceremonial items which are brought out only for special events - when they are getting ready for this they stand large palm fronds in front of the building to hide the interior which is on stilts and has open sides. Today it was covered in palm fronds - so we had to wait and our entrance into the village has to be behind these men. The palm fronds parted and the men walk out but we don't see the men - what we see is a huge dragon head mask and its' body behind covered in long straw with drummers walking along with them. The drums start beating and we walk into the main village behind the dragon being welcomed - it was very special and absolutely required following their correct procedure for being invited into, and being welcomed, into WATAM Village.
The procession probably took 30 minutes - about halfway into the village we were invited to sit on benches behind palm fronds in the shade to wait while the dragon procession completed its' journey to the end of the village and then returned towards us.
At no time are we allowed to walk in front of the Dragon mask - but when it turns around and walks back to us there was lots of opportunity to take photos of the mask and procession.
On both sides of the central grassy area there were villagers, many sitting under sun umbrellas to protect themselves from the heat. In front of them they had their wares for sale: amazing carvings, bowls, masks, shell necklaces, bags, you name it and it was there. It was amazing to look at and ask the villagers how much the items were. As Justin has told us several times the prices bear no relation to what the goods are worth - sometimes very high and sometimes not. It is all about how much they need at the moment - if they need 600 KINA for school fees they might ask 600, the man next to him might ask 200 but should you come back the next week the price could be higher or lower, all depending on what that person needs at that point in time. There were many kinds of masks, but one that I thought really striking had black hair (or hat) decorated with tiny shells, back eye sockets, nose and beard (or mouth and chin) and natural coloured forehead and cheeks - so striking. We fell in love with an amazing carving that we would have loved to bring home, and give the carver what he was asking for it but it was at least 4 feet high and 18 inches across - no way that would fit in our carryon luggage! This market was put on especially for ORION and the carvers come from all over - some of them are from way up the river - in fact the carver of the piece that we so admired (Connie May) had travelled a day and a half to be at the village for our arrival.
The time just flew by - we talked to so many people about where they came from and the stories behind the carvings that they were selling, it was quite fascinating. They all talk to you easily but most quite quietly and even shy. There was also some traditional dancing in the centre of the village by the men and ladies, and we saw demonstrations of sago being made. Sago is a main staple in their diet and is essentially a carbohydrate which is made by pounding out the centre of the Sago palm tree trunk so that the wood is shredded. Then this shredded wood is put into a bowl with a sieve in the bottom - water is poured over the wood and a lady (or man) stand and keep squeezing and wringing the wood until the starch comes out into the water and drips through into a bowl below. Then you can actually scoop the sago out from the bowl and semi dry it and cook into pancake like items mixed with coconut. Justin assures us that it has little appeal but is a major part of the PNG diet especially because so many areas have access to very little protein.
By now we realised that there are only about 8 of us left in the village - everyone else has already headed back to the Orion for lunch! So we start to walk back to the shore and Connie May comes up and offers us a lower price for his large carving which we simply have to decline - this is too big to take home. Getting on the zodiac at the shore he was standing just a short way away from us hoping we would change our minds - but we simply couldn't. There was nothing aggressive or even assertive about Connie, or any other villager at any market in PNG, but we would have so loved for his sake even more than ours to have bought this carving from him. Although now as I look at the photos I regret not buying the carving and the two wonderful masks! As the zodiac left the beach, the small kids, mostly naked, were all swimming and jumping in the water - what a wonderful place they live in with nature's own playground for them to enjoy.
After a quick lunch on the ship, while Captain Vincent Taillard moved the ship along the shore closer to the SEPIK river mouth, we boarded the zodiacs and headed over to the river mouth to enjoy a cruise along the lower reaches of the SEPIK River. (There were 2 departures for the Sepik river cruise 1pm and 3pm since this puts only 8 passengers on each zodiac - more comfortable for looking around at the sights). Anchored in the mouth of the river was a huge logging ship from China - they are logging way up the river and bringing the trees down the river to load on to the ship then taking them back to China.
While the ORION had been anchored during the morning during our WATAM Village tour and when we left it after lunch, there were really large swells on the ocean - gentle and smooth, but it sure made the ORION roll from side to side. Our zodiac driver Mark assured us that at times when they have visited the rolling can be significantly bigger! Since this is such a huge fresh water river, the outflow is massive and strong - apparently the fresh water goes out as far as 20 miles and to the island on the horizon where the villagers can still get fresh water on their beach from the SEPIK river water still sitting on top of the salt water (salt water and fresh water take awhile to mix). As we crossed into the river from the ocean we went through lots of waves as the outflow of the SEPIK hit the waves coming in from the ocean - lots of fun - and be sure to have your camera in its' ziplock bag!
It was sunny and hot as we sat on the zodiac pontoons while Mark identified many palms for us along the banks - we saw an egret and heron but other than blackbirds not much else. Mick Fogg on another zodiac ( a bird lover) had his huge telephoto camera with him and showed us amazing photos of what he had seen during the same 1 1/2 hours that we were on the Sepik! The best part of the SEPIK river cruise for us was when we cruised past the village located on the opposite shore to the Sepik to WATAM village where we had spent the morning - all the villagers were doing their own thing. The ladies were making sago, the men cutting wood and fishing in outrigger canoes, but the children, all naked, were having an amazing time splashing, screaming and playing on the shore of the river. They yelled and waved at us so happy and loving every moment of their lives. Given that there are 2 types of crocodiles in the SEPIK it wasn't worrying them one bit!
Back on board it was time to shower and be clean once again after a fabulous day at WATAM Village and on the SEPIK river. We even enjoyed a glass of champagne as we downloaded and watched our photos of the day!
On the horizon from Sepik river mouth and WATAM village are 3 volcanoes - MADEM, Blup Blup and Bam. Apparently over the last couple of weeks MADEM had been very active and we were all hoping that we would see red lava flows as we cruised by that evening and red spirals shooting out of the top but during the day we didn't see any action, just a white cloud over the top. As we ate dinner that night, just as the main course was to be served, David Silverberg comes over the loudspeaker in the Constellation dining room and says "if you haven't seen Madem tonight you need to come out on deck right now and see all the brilliant glowing red action from lava flow and out of the top of the volcano" so we all shot up and headed outside and up on to the deck - as Chef Lothar came out from the kitchen in disgust and watched us leave!! It was wonderful to see but certainly we were far enough away that the photos didn't do any justice to what was happening with MADEM!
Cheers ..... Jan Umbach
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