Rainforest Tour in Manokwari Lowland

Rainforest Birding Tour

Mesirrokow forest - Manokwari Lowland Area

We are now entering dry season in Manokwari. It is a good time for visitors who are interested in taking rainforest tour in lowland area. There is a good forest in lowland area of Manokwari. Its name is Mesirrokow. A lot of species of birds, butterflies, marsupials and mammals live in this forest. Birds such as Blyth's Hornbill, Sulphur Crested Cockatoo, Pinon Imperial Pigeon, Yellow-faced Myna, Eclectus Parrot, and Little Egret can be seen when we walk along the banks of a river that flows through Mesirrokow forest.

Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita)

At night we could explore the tall grass that grow along the riverside to find Papuan Frogmouth, Large-tailed Nightjar. If breadfruit trees have got a lot of fruits, we could find cuscus possum and fruit bats. Mesirrokow forest is a nice place for nature lovers who want to enjoy the beauty of tropical rainforest. They can enjoy swimming, hiking, camping, birding and wildlife watching for a few days there.
I have organized numerous rainforest hiking and camping tours for tourists who want to spend several days of their vacation period in the jungle of Manokwari to watch Brahminy Kite, Willie Wagtail, Little-ringed Plover, Yellow-capped Pygmy Parrot, Variable Goshawk, Magnificent Riflebird, Western-crowned Pigeon.
Bringing a good pair of binoculars and spotting scope is important for watching birds and wild animals that sit on the branches of distant trees on both sides of the river. This is an easy birding trip and rainforest tour which is suitable for everybody who does not want to go trekking up very steep slopes of mountains in Manokwari.
Wild Flowers

Monochoria vaginalis flower

There are a lot of flowers that I see in the lowland forest of Manokwari from Glory Vine (Faradaya splendida) that grows near the river to Terrestrial Orchids (Spathoglottis plicata) and New Guinea Tulip (Spathodea campanulata). My favorite flower is the Blue-Purple Pondweed (Monochoria vaginalis). It looks beautiful but it is considered as invasive noxious weed in certain countries. In Mesirrokow forest, this aquatic flower plant is not a threat to the surrounding environment. Its population is very small. Compared to Common Water Hycinth (Eichhornia crascippes), the flower of Monochoria vaginalis is smaller.
From my personal observations, the Glory Vine flower emits very fragrant scent. It is very potential to be cultivated for essential oil production.
Camping

Camping in Lowland Forest of Manokwari

As a tour guide, we have prepared some places as campsites. As a tourist guide, I provide camping tents, cooking and eating utensils for visitors who want to stay in the forest for 3 to 5 days. So, visitors do not need to bring those heavy things in their luggage when flying to Manokwari.

Things to bring
A good pair of binoculars, camera and spotting scope
Flashlight/ torch
Insect repellent/ sunblock lotion
Ziploc bags for cell phone, and passports and other electronic goods

Cost of the tour: This depends on the number of participants and how long they want to stay in the rainforest.

How to get there: 

• Fly from your country to Denpasar Bali or Jakarta city of Indonesia
• Fly from Denpasar city or Jakarta city to Manokwari
• I will meet you at the airport and organize your tour to lowland forest of Manokwari

Booking:
Please, contact me (Charles Roring) by email to: peace4wp@gmail.com or whatsapp: +6281332245180

Flowers and Butterflies in the Rainforest of Klasow Valley

The Great Eggfly butterfly (Hypolimnas bolina)

Butterfly Watching in the Flower Garden
I often organize tours for tourists who want to go hiking in the rainforest of Klasow valley - Sorong regency. Visitors who go there can see colorful flowers that grow in the clearing area of the jungle village and inside the forest. They attract various species of butterflies that come to collect their nectar.

Meadow Argus butterfly (Junonia villida)

It is not difficult to watch these butterflies. Tourists only need to walk around the garden and spot the butterflies that hop from one flower to another. The small one that I could identify is Junonia villida. There are also big butterflies such as Ornitopthera priamus and Papilio ulysses.

Large Fig Parrot (Psittaculirostris desmarestii)

Jungle Walk and Birdwatching 

Since its introduction as rainforest tour destination in 2014, I have written a lot of articles about Klasow valley as birdwatching destination. There are a lot of birds that live in the valley such as Sulphur Crested Cockatoo (Cacatua galerita), Moustached Tree-Swift, Papuan Hornbill (Rhyticeros plicatus), Pinon Imperial Pigeon and Pink Spotted Fruit-Dove. From my previous tours, visitors like to do jungle walk during the day to find birds especially the Lesser Birds of Paradise (Paradisaea minor), Yellow-billed Kingfisher and Dollarbird, Northern Cassowary, Helmetted Friarbird, Orange-bellied Fruit Dove, Rufous-bellied Kookaburra and a lot more.

Wild Flower in the Jungle of Klasow Valley

How to get there?

• Want to visit this forest and see its flowers, butterflies and birds? Here is the flight paths for you:
• Fly from your country to Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia)
• Take a domestic airline such as Garuda, Sriwijaya or Express Air to fly to Sorong city. 
• I can meet you at the airport, arrange your accommodation in the city and organize your tour to Klasow valley.

Cost: On the average, the cost of traveling in Klasow valley is 10 million rupiahs (approximately 697 Euros) for 2 people on the duration of 4 days/3 nights in the valley. I can prepare a customized itinerary with cost calculation if you need one.

Where to stay?
If you want to visit the jungle village of Klasow valley, you can stay at our hut that has been prepared by villagers for guests. It is not a luxurious accommodation like what you see in big hotels in Sorong city but it can be a basic accommodation for anyone who wants to see and experience this full service rainforest  tour.

Contact:
This is my cell phone: +6281332245180 and my email: peace4wp@gmail.com

Rainforest Flower Centrosema

This rainforest flower is called Centrosema molle. It is also called white blue vine. I saw it when hiking along the edge of the rainforest of Manokwari lowland. This vine flower plant needs sunlight to grow. It cannot grow under the canopy of dense tropical trees. This scrambling plant climbs trees and shrubs to reach branches and twigs that receive enough sunlight. Its trifoliate leaves are good for meat production. Under proper grazing management, the weights of meat cows, goats and sheep will increase if they eat centrosema. This plant is usually used as coper plant in plantation areas.

The tropical rainforest in Arfak mountains and the North Coast of Manokwari is rich of flower plants including orchids, rhododendron, nepenthes and thunbergia.
Hiking and Camping in Manokwari jungle
The best way to explore the rainforest of New Guinea is by hiking and camping. My favorite camping spot is the rainforest of Inggramui. There is a camp near Dopi river that was built for visitors. Hikers do not need to bring their own camp if they go hiking around Dopi river. Cooking and eating utensils are also available.
Customized Hiking Tour
I provide customized hiking and rainforest tours to anybody who is interested in appreciating the beauty of the rainforest. Visitors will not only see flowers in the jungle but also reptiles, insects (beetles and butterflies) as well as various species of birds including the birds of paradise. Here is my contact e-mail: peace4wp@gmail.com if you want more information about the tour.

Hiking along the tropical rainforest of Dopi river

Dopi is the tributary of Pami - a river in the north coast of Manokwari. It is a nice destination for nature lovers who want to go hiking in the tropical rainforest of West Papua. Last week, I guided a British biologist, Georgie, on a 3-day hiking tour in the jungle of Dopi river. This British biologist was interested in tropical flowers such as rhododendron, dendrobium and terrestrial orchids. Some flower trees such as the African tulip (spathodea campanulata) grew at the bank of the river. They can easily be recognized by their cup shaped flowers whose petal colors are orange and yellow. The following is the photograph of a terrestrial orchid that we saw in the jungle. I guess it is from Genus Spathoglottis. It looks very similar to spathoglottis plicata but honestly I dare not identify its species name.

During our hiking tour, we were able to see various species of birds including the lesser birds of paradise (paradisaea minor), blyth's hornbill (rhyticeros plicatus) and pygmy parrots. I also took some pictures of pinon imperial pigeon that was perching on the branch of a tree around 20 meters above my head. The bird has got delicate gray feather. With my Nikon Coolpix P500, I shot the birds several times. I had to use 2 second self timer feature of the camera to create sharper photograph. In my first trip to this forest last year with Herman van der Hart and Elizabeth Pot, I was lucky because I saw a Western Crown Pigeon.

While walking through the Dopi river, I caught a green frog and handed it over to Georgie. She gently held this amphibian animal but later it jumped out of her hands and into the water again. I hardly ever saw a frog swimming in the river. Perhaps, it jumped into the river trying to escape from its predator (a snake). The coral rocks that we saw at the bottom of the river indicated that the land had been elevated from the sea perhaps since several centuries ago. Alfred Russel Wallace in his book The Malay Archipelago also explained about the elevated reefs not only in New Guinea but also in other islands such as Moluccas, Java and Timor.

We stayed in a camp that had been built for tourists.  At night we ate stir fried vegetables and sweet potatoes. When we were busy preparing our dinner, Georgie took the opportunity by learning how to make sambal (chilli sauce).

This rainforest tour is offered to anybody who wants to explore the tropical rainforest of West Papua in affordable price. Besides hiking, birdwatching and camping, tourists will be able to appreciate the high biodiversity of the rainforest and support its preservation. The rainforest tour itself will provide employment opportunities to local people who are the main stakeholder of this precious environment. If you are interested in taking a rainforest tour in Manokwari, please, contact me via e-mail: peace4wp@gmail.com. by Charles Roring
Also read: Hiking tour in Inggramui forest

Rainforest Flower near Dopi river

While hiking with Georgie - a British biologist through a tropical rainforest near Dopi river, I saw various species of flowers that I could not identify. One of them is shown on the following photograph. This flower plant was located in a tall tree. I think it was an epiphyte. I forgot to ask her to write its name on my book so that I could mention it on this post. So, if you know its English or Latin name, please, inform me.

This flower plant was around 25 meters above hour head. I used my telephoto lens bridge camera Nikon Coolpix P500 to shoot it. The next morning, guided by Elia Kambu, I and Georgie walked up some slopes to a place where we could see some terrestrial orchids that grow along an old logging road of the rainforest of Inggramui village. If you are interested in hiking in the tropical rainforest of Manokwari, you need to bring sleeping bags, mosquito net, GPS device, compass, and the most important thing is a bottle of insect repellent lotion. by Charles Roring

Rainforest flower that looks like passion fruit flower in lowland of Manokwari

I saw a flower in an open area near the lowland rainforest of Manokwari that looks like passion fruit flower this morning. I was guiding 4 polish tourists who wanted to spend three days camping in the middle of the lowland rainforest of Arfak mountains. This beautiful flower was blooming out of its vine that grows on the green grass. I still do not know the species name of this flower but I strongly believe that it is still related to passion fruit. Both of them are vines. Even though they - perhaps - from the same family, this rainforest flower is five times smaller than the passion fruit flower.

Little Passion Flower

I turned on my bridge camera - Nikon Coolpix P500 to shoot the flower. To create crisp details of its leaves, and petals, I pressed its macro button to activate it. From very close distance, I shot the flower. I was glad to see that this super zoom camera could also be used for macro photography. Tropical flowers and insects such as butterflies are inseparable components of rainforest ecosystem. They depend on each other. Insects need flowers for their nectar whereas flowers need insects for pollination. Upon closer inspection on this flower, I found out that it was not a butterfly that did the pollination but ants. The fruit from this vine is small. When it is ripe, its taste is a combination of sweet and sour. In Manokwari, we call it "buah putri" or "fruit of princess." Children like to eat the buah putri because of the taste. The vine of this plant is a common vegetation in areas whose trees have just been cut. by Charles Roring
Also read: Rainforest Flower from Passion Fruit

Beach Hibiscus from Mansinam island

I like flower. Every time I walk around alone, with friends or with tourists, I will stop for a while when I see flowers. I also did the same when traveling to Mansinam island that is located at the Dorey bay of Manokwari regency. Several months ago, I went there with an English tourist, David Scott. We did some snorkeling there and I was happy to find a beautiful beach flower whose petals were yellow with maroon at the base.

Tropical Flower Beach Hibiscus

At that time, I did not know the English and Latin names of this flower. It is not the same as other ordinary flower plants whose height were between one and two meters. This flower was blooming from a tree.
To write this blog post, I did some research on the internet. From the website of Jamescook University Australia, I got the information that the latin name of the flower was Hibiscus Tiliaceus. It likes to grown along the coastal area where the temperature is warm. Another information that I got from Wikipedia is that this flower plant can reach a height up to 10 meters. It is interesting to know that its leafy shoots and flowers are edible besides its bark can be used to make rope for sealing the but joints of wooden boat. These coastal flower trees provide good shades during the sunny days for tourists who want to take a rest at the white sandy beach after swimming and snorkeling for a few hours among the coral reef of the Mansinam island.
Beside the beach hibiscus, there are various other flowers in Mansinam island some of them are orchid, flower tree - barringtonia asiatica and bougainvillea spp and many more.

 If you are now thinking of having a vacation in a tropical island, why don't you put Mansinam island into your consideration? by Charles Roring contact info: peace4wp@gmail.com or send whatsapp text message to my cell phone: +6281332245180

Barringtonia Asiatica beautiful but poisonous flower

One day, I walked with  a German tourist Katja Zimmerman along the South Eastern beach of Mansinam island. Katja lives in Paris the capital of France.This was her first visit to West Papua.  Under a tree, Katja stopped for a while. She picked up a beautiful flower from the ground. Its filaments were white and purple supported by white petals. She asked me what the name of the flower was but I could not answer her question. She took a seed of the plant and put it inside her bag saying that she would give it to her friend in Europe. She wanted her to plant the seed of this beautiful flower plant.

When she had returned to Paris. She sent me an email again still asking the name of the flower. I asked the local people about it. Some said that it was the flower of "Ketapang Pantai." My friend told me that the seed of the flower or fruit is poisonous. Fishermen like to use it to poison fish. So that they can catch them easily. 

The fruit of this plant looks like coconut but their physical appearances are different. It took around one month for me to find the answer of her question. After hours of searching and surfing on the internet, I finally found an article about the flower from wikipedia. Its name was Barringtonia Asiatica. In the article, it is said that the flower is poisonous too. Oh my God! I hope that she didn't eat the seed and she is still alive now.

Well, when the next time you are at the beach and see this flower, make sure that you don't try to eat its seed although it looks similar to coconut. by Charles Roring 

Please, support this blog by buying products that have got drawings or illustrations of flowers, butterflies, birds through my Nature Art Online Shop.

Related articles:

• Birdwatching in Sonder of Minahasa Highland of Indonesia
• Birding in Sonder of Minahasa
• Birding in the Paddy Fields of Subdistrict Sonder
• Birdwatching in the Farmland of Sonder Town
• Walking Tour, Birdwatching and Butterflywatching in District Sonder of Minahasa Highland
• Birds in North Sulawesi
• Birdwatching Tour in the Farmland and Forest of Minahasa Highland
• Manado City Tour: Birdwatching and Sightseeing
• Birding in North Sulawesi
• Birdwatching in Sulawesi
• Birdwatching in Minahasa Highland
• Collared Kingfisher
• Birding in Minahasa of North Sulawesi
• Birding in Higher Elevation Forest of Minahasa
• https://wildlifeminahasa.blogspot.com