Birding around German Camp in West Papua, Indonesia
A Steep Climb but Worth It
September 2017
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It's a steep hike up to the German Camp from Syoubri Village, but for Ram, Medh, Zeth and I it was a little easier. We only needed to carry our gear for the day — camera, water, binoculars, snacks, raingear, etc.. In addition, we weren't just hiking up; we were looking for birds on the way, so that gave us extra rest. It's still a steep trail, but it's a lot more enjoyable if you have something interesting to focus on along the way.
Zeth on the Trail
Mehd on the Trail
Xxx on the Trail
Ram on the Trail
Some of the fun things we saw along the way:
Orchid Xxx Pink Red
Bird Xxx
We found a number of bird nests on the way up; Metd told us which kind of bird each was, but I didn't keep track... I think one was the Vogelkop Bowerbird, but I'm not sure.
Bird Xxx Nest
Bird Xxx Nest
Bird Xxx Nest
Fungi
Xxx Fruit
Once you top out and the trail levels off it's a short ways to the camp. It was much like the camp we had lower down, with a stick-walled structure for the guides and crew, a tarp-covered structure with raised platforms for clients, and tarp-covered cook area and mess tent.
German Camp
Cook Tent and Guide Hut
Guest Quarters
Mess Tent
Cook Tent
View from German Camp
The forest up here looked almost enchanted, with heavy moss on all the trees. I half expected an elf to pop up at any moment. Many of the trees had very long aerial root systems, not really buttresses.
Forest
Tree Roots
We stowed our stuff and ate lunch, then wandered around a bit. Later in the afternoon we headed to the hide for the Vogelkop Bowerbird. This is one amazing bird. He builds a large tent out of sticks, clears out the immediate area, and then collects huge numbers of colored objects to impress the ladies. This guy had a huge pile of red blossoms, a pile or orange blossoms, a pile of black beetle carapaces, another big pile of black seeds of some kind, and various other smaller piles of leaves, seeds or fruits. It seemed like his greatest treasures were inside, where he had a small collection of a real rarity — small blue berries.
The bowerbird is extremely particular about what his bower looks like. If all is in order, he's happy to be up in a tree singing to attract a female. But if anything is out of order, he flies down and puts things right. He also is on the lookout for any particularly enticing new items he can add to his arrangement. Blue is apparently a color which is highly desired and in short supply; we could entice him down by putting out a blue bottle cap, or moving a few of his red blossoms over to the pile of black seeds.
In addition to his "good" piles of uniform stuff, when he had things that didn't belong he tended to haul them all over to the same spot and deposit them in some kind of dump, or maybe it was the equivalent of his storehouse, where he could keep things until he could figure out how to use them.
Vogelkop Bowerbird Bower
Zeth for scale
Inside Bower
Beetle Cases
Vogelkop Bowerbird Blind
Blue items were particularly valuable...
Here he is getting rid of things that don't belong. There were two sticks propped against his bower which he clearly didn't like, but they were awkward for him to deal with and he couldn't, or didn't, successfully remove or significantly reposition them. He moved them around a bit, but couldn't quite get them piled up on the bower itself.
Here he is checking out his trash pile.
While we were in the blind waiting for the bowerbird occasionally another bird would fly down or walk up on the trail. On our way back Zeth located a black sicklebill high up in the trees. Back in camp there were a number of birds foraging in the area where the mountain dropped off steeply, but it was near dusk and foggy and difficult to take pictures.
Mushrooms
Mushrooms
We got up early to try and see the Black Sicklebill at his lek. It was pretty dark when he first arrived (06:15); there was hardly any sound, just a low "foof" of a little air on feathers and then this huge black thing materialized on the tree snag in front of us.
Zeth Morning Coffee
Every time I think of this bird I think of him as the "Darth Vader Bird". He looks evil, and his display even seems somewhat evil, like he is invoking some kind of evil spirits. Black as black can be, with an irridescent blue on his back and down his incredibly long tailfeathers. Despite the long tailfeathers, he seems to fly well.
After lunch we headed back down the mountain, looking for birds along the way. We descended by a different trail from the one we came up on, which was nice.
Fruit
Berries
Flower Xxx Red
Flower Xxx White
Bird Xxx Vogelkop Scrubwren
Part way down the mountain we came upon some Passion Fruit trees. It has a really cool flower, which Dona got a picture of somewhere. But on this tree all we had was ripe fruit. Zeth went over and grabbed a bunch. Yuum!
Zeth with Passion Fruit
By the time we got down it was time to go. We packed up our stuff and all piled into the truck. This truck, another Toyota Hilux, was driven by a driver Mehd used regularly. He lived quite a ways away from Manokwari, but spent time there because there was more work. He had his truck parked at the end of the road... as far as the ruts went. I was really impressed by these trucks. They were the only truck anyone had, and they were well suited to the jobs they were asked to do.
Arfak Accommodations
Mehd and Dona at the Truck
On the way out we got a good look at the signs we didn't stop to see on our way in. Zeth painted the sign for his village.
Zeth's Village (Syoubri)
We got a good look at the road on the way out. It wasn't quite as bad as it seemed on the way in in the dark and rain, but it was still pretty bad...
Road to/from Syoubri Village
Not much Shoulder Here...
Looking Down...
This place was scary at night;
there was barely enough room
for the truck to be on the road.
There was frequently a large deep
rut down the middle.
Steep down to the bridge across the river;
ruts full of water on the sides on the way up;
an eroded gully just before the bridge.
The river cleared up by the time we came down.
We got to Manokwari and checked into our hotel, where I tried out a Dragon fruit drink. I'd never heard of dragon fruit before, but it is native to the Americas, not Indonesia. However, it is now grown worldwide in the tropics and is one of Vietnam's top exports. In any case, it was good! Then we checked out the market.
After we got back we had dinner at the hotel, where Dona observed "They're all so young! It's like this whole operation is in the hands of a high school class." Unfortunately, sometimes it felt like that also.
Women In Truck Bed
Native People Statue
Mosque
Bird-of-Paradise on Wall
Manokwari Market
Boy, is that colorful, good-looking produce!
Mehd was great at striking up a conversation with the vendors, and they all wanted their pictures taken.
Fish Market
Mehd and a
Fisherman
Fish Market
Mehd with Girl
Manokwari Dock
Manokwari Harbor
Boy with Father
Our plane to Jakarta was supposed to leave at 06:55 the next morning, but it was delayed quite a while. Ram and Mehd were on the same plane. Dona and I didn't worry about it too much, as we had a long layover in Jakarta. Ram had plenty of time as well but not as much as we did; Mehd was playing it by ear. Somewhere along the way we learned that Gunung Agung (Mt. Agung) in Bali was erupting. That might mean Mehd couldn't even go home. He did some checking and the planes were still flying, so we parted there. At the Jakarta airport you can't go into the terminal without a boarding pass, and you can't check in to get a boarding pass until three hours before flight.
At the Sydney airport, I went to change $100 U.S. into Australian dollars so we could buy some food. The man at the change boot offered me $82 AU — I exclaimed loudly and informed him the Australian dollar is worth less than the US dollar. That's the "service fee" he said. Talk about a ripoff! For $50 he would only give me $32 AU! Airport money changers are ripoffs everywhere, primarily because they are run by banks. Out on the street you get a decent rate almost anywhere. The free market works, with small vendors; it doesn't work with large multi-national operations.
So we found an ATM and Dona used her "no fee" for foreign withdrawls card, where she got $119.60 AU for a $3 AU ATM fee; that was a lot better than the money-changer.
When Zeth had picked the passion fruits I had stuffed a few in the outside water-bottle pouches on my day pack and forgotten about them. I was afraid the Australians wouldn't let them in to the country so I busted the last one open in the immigration line and snarfed it down. A last taste of Indonesia.
From Sydney we flew to San Francisco, and from there to Denver. The flight to Denver was on United. The first plane was scratched for mechanical reasons. So was the second. By the time they found a third plane it was too late for our connection to Missoula. United gave us vouchers for a night at a Marriott Hotel. They also gave us a cheap Chinese water bottle filled with toiletrees, plus two $10 food vouchers each. The food vouchers weren't close to enough for a meal at their own chosen hotel. We combined two vouchers, added $14, and got one meal we could split. It had taken us 48 hours to get to Denver.
We finally made it to Missoula the next day, picked up Max, and headed home. A great trip, but the travel to and from was exhausting.
- Gary's home page
- Years of stuff Index
- Summer 2017 index
- Southwest Australia and West Papua, Indonesia
- West Papua, Indonesia (Main Page)
- Waigeo
- Lowland Arfak Mountains
- Around Syoubri Village in Arfak Mountains
- German Camp in Arfak Mountains
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