Medium intensity Papua New Guinea bird tour (1 Viewer)

[TeamLeip]

Greetings, My wife and I have been full time travelers for almost 2 years now. I have just started birding and I try to see as many local birds as I can in each area that we travel to. We will be in Cairns Australia and I have always wanted to go to PNG. Are there any tours that you know of that are not on the super advanced, extreme side of the spectrum?

 

[Jim M.]

Rockjumper has a PNG "highlights" tour, which is shorter (11 days) and less demanding than their regular 18 day tour. But no availability until 2025. I think some local Aussie companies (Sicklebill?) offer even shorter tours.

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

What do you mean by “extreme”? PNG is logistically challenging; it would be more than foolish to try to bird some areas without backup. However, I believe a couple of days near Port Moresby visiting Pacific Adventist University and Varirata could be done with a local guide; this would get Raggiana BoP, Papuan Frogmouth, and various other species. However, to see a range of BoP species you would have to visit other sites where the logistics get trickier; all land is owned and the local ways of dealing with trespass can be frightening!

 

[Andy Adcock]

What do you mean by “extreme”? PNG is logistically challenging; it would be more than foolish to try to bird some areas without backup. However, I believe a couple of days near Port Moresby visiting Pacific Adventist University and Varirata could be done with a local guide; this would get Raggiana BoP, Papuan Frogmouth, and various other species. However, to see a range of BoP species you would have to visit other sites where the logistics get trickier; all land is owned and the local ways of dealing with trespass can be frightening!

Whilst you can have 'extreme' logistics, I think the term is obviously applied to the physical aspects of a trip.

 

[TeamLeip]

What do you mean by “extreme”? PNG is logistically challenging; it would be more than foolish to try to bird some areas without backup. However, I believe a couple of days near Port Moresby visiting Pacific Adventist University and Varirata could be done with a local guide; this would get Raggiana BoP, Papuan Frogmouth, and various other species. However, to see a range of BoP species you would have to visit other sites where the logistics get trickier; all land is owned and the local ways of dealing with trespass can be frightening!

By extreme I mean 18 day duration. A shorter trip, a few days in Port Moresby as you suggested and then a trip to Mt Hagen for a week...

 

[TeamLeip]

Rockjumper has a PNG "highlights" tour, which is shorter (11 days) and less demanding than their regular 18 day tour. But no availability until 2025. I think some local Aussie companies (Sicklebill?) offer even shorter tours.

Thanks I will get right on it. The 2025 time frame works for us

 

[TeamLeip]

Whilst you can have 'extreme' logistics, I think the term is obviously applied to the physical aspects of a trip.

I feel that I can tough out a week of jungle trekking but an 18 day tour is extreme in my book

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

The 18 day tours are not solid “jungle trekking”. The one I did with Rockjumper really only had one physically strenuous day, climbing (on a good path) for a couple of hours to see Black Sicklebill and King of Saxony BoP, as well as Wattled Ploughbill.

 

[Jim M.]

The 18 day tours are not solid “jungle trekking”. The one I did with Rockjumper really only had one physically strenuous day, climbing (on a good path) for a couple of hours to see Black Sicklebill and King of Saxony BoP, as well as Wattled Ploughbill.

True, and the trail to the Black Sicklebill site has been improved as of last year, but still requires climbing 1000 feet or more of elevation at the crack of dawn. The 18 day tour also requires staying overnight in a very primitive jungle lodge by a river with no running water, abundant leeches, dodgy pit toilets, and multiple entries/exits onto slippery shores. (I slipped once and broke my camera.) Not something I'd recommend for someone who doesn't want something "extreme."

 

[TeamLeip]

True, and the trail to the Black Sicklebill site has been improved as of last year, but still requires climbing 1000 feet or more of elevation at the crack of dawn. The 18 day tour also requires staying overnight in a very primitive jungle lodge by a river with no running water, abundant leeches, dodgy pit toilets, and multiple entries/exits onto slippery shores. (I slipped once and broke my camera.) Not something I'd recommend for someone who doesn't want something "extreme."

Yikes! Leeches and pit toilets...no thanks!

 

[Welsh Peregrine]

Then make sure you avoid Tabubil

 

[Steve Babbs]

If you're not keen on leeches you need to avoid most of Asia/PNG.

 

[Jim M.]

If you're not keen on leeches you need to avoid most of Asia/PNG.

I was on the full 18 day tour to PNG in June 2023. Only place I got a leeches on me was at the Elevala River lodge mentioned in my previous post.

 

[dandsblair]

We had something arranged by Sicklebill which wasn't too strenuous or rough.
We flew from Cairns into Port Moresby - local guide for a few days in each place, then to Mount Hagen, we stayed and birded from Kumul Lodge, then fly to Tabubil (either just stay there and then Kiunga) or risk going up river to Kwatu where it is a bit more basic or was when we went a few years ago.

I attach and old report which might help with planning

 

[jurek]

I would second that Papua New Guinea is not exactly high intensity.

True, it is one of least developed countries, transport constantly breaks down and some hotels are basic, but on organized tours other hotels are comfortable, and there is no exceptionally physically demanding activity. Walking is moderate to short and hardly an stenuous hiking. I would say that a weekend hiking in the mountains in Switzerland can be more intensive.