The lowland forest of New Guinea is a very rich environment. It is the one that exists in northwest region of Manokwari. To explore the forest, the best way is by walking along the sides of a river that passes through the forest. Recently I guided 3 French visitors on a 3-day/ 2-night riverwalk and birdwatching tour to the lowland forest of Manokwari. The name of the forest was Mesirrokow. It was the natural habitat of a lot of species of birds including Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Eclectus Parrot, Palm Cockatoo, Blyth's Hornbill, Yellow-faced Myna, Little-ringed Plover, Dollarbird, Brahminy Kite, and etc.
Other animals such as wallaby, wild pigs, deer, cuscus possum, and soa-soa lizard, as well as beetles and butterflies also live in the forest. The variety of the vegetation is very high including iron wood tree, pandanus tree, creeping plants, shrubs and grass.
Camping and Riverwalk
We built tents on higher ground near the river and then did the riverwalk tour every mornings and afternoons-before sunset time. When the weather is good, we can walk along the banks of the river easily. One of the guests brought his Swarovski Spotting Scope and Leica binoculars. They greatly enhanced our birding experience. I personally carried my Visionking 10x42 mm binoculars. With these birding optics, we could watch Glossy-mantled Manucode (
Manucode ater), Lowland Peltop (
Peltops blainvillii), Pink-spotted Fruit Dove (
Ptilinopus perlatus), Little Egret (
Egretta garzetta), Variable Goshawk (
Accipiter hiogaster).
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| Our Camping Site in Lowland Forest of Manokwari |
We bring big size 8x6 meters waterproof plastic sheet as our roof tent, several dome tents, mattrasses, and pillows. We also bring cooking and eating utensils to serve our customers. Food such as noodles, canned fish, coffee, tea, and fruits are bought from the supermarket but we get most of our vegetables from the surrounding forest. Our guests said they really enjoyed the camping trip in open nature. In addition to camping, riverwalk and bird/ wildlife watching, they could enjoy swimming as much as they liked.
Preparations
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| Riverwalk Tour in Manokwari Lowland Forest |
Visitors need to bring a good pair of binoculars, a waterproof spotting scope is also needed. For riverwalk, please wear a good pair of watershoes, t-shirt and short pants. Some visitors apply sunblock lotion. I recommend anti-insect lotion.
How to get there?
- First, visitors need to fly from their country to Jakarta (the capital city of Indonesia)
- After that they could take a domestic flight to Manokwari city. Airlines such as Garuda, Sriwijaya, Batik and Lion/ Wings Air have got regular flights to Manokwari.
Booking
Please, contact me (Charles Roring) by e-mail to: peace4wp@gmail.com or whatsapp: +6281332245180.
