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 

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Watching Birds of Paradise

I, Wim Boyden (a tourist from Belgium) and Maker (a villager who guided us) left Senopi village at 12 p.m.. Our goal that day (16 August 2010) was to see birds of paradise. According to Maker's story, it would only take one hour of walking to a place on the other side of Kamundan river where male birds of paradise usually gather to perform their courtship dance for mating with their female birds in a tall tree.

We walked fast to reach that place before 3 p.m. because the birds would start dancing by that hour. What seemed to be a short walk in reality turned out to be a long walk. Generally it was hard for anybody who had not experienced trekking in the jungle of New Guinea. But for me and Wim, the journey was moderate. Besides small and big rivers, we had to overcome steep slopes, thorns from various wild vines hanging on trees and other green vegetation along our journey from the village to the hill where birds of paradise would be expected to come.

After stopping and drinking some water at a creek below the hill, we climbed slowly to a very steep slope near the place where the display tree of the birds of paradise stood. Maker arranged some palm leaves on branches and twigs of a small tree above our heads to cover us from being seen by the birds. The two-hour walk was exhausting.
Covered by insects
Our bodies were fully covered with sweat. It was "delicious nectar" for bees. In less than fifteen minutes all of our bodies had been covered by bees, ants, and mosquitoes. There were two different species of them. The smaller bees were black whereas the bigger ones were brown yellow. Flies, ants and various other species of insects came too. We were really annoyed by them but we could not wave our clothes to expel them. If we did that then the birds of paradise above us would fly away. I could only ask Maker to blow some smoke which he inhaled from his cigarette to these insects. They were really tough. They did not want to leave us at all. So, we had no choice but to receive them that afternoon as our friends while watching the birds of paradise dancing above our heads. The birds of paradise came several times and we could see them dancing. Unfortunately, we sat on a wrong place. We were too close to the tree.
Bring telephoto D-SLR camera to shoot birds
Actually, we needed to find a place where we could see them from a 45 degree viewing angle. Wim took out his long lens digital camera to shoot them. It was not easy at all because they were among the branches and twigs of the tree some thirty meters above us. I was happy because at least I could listen to their magnificent voices while they were calling one another.

We were waiting and watching the lesser birds of paradise for around two and a half hour before deciding to walk back to District Senopi where the guesthouse was. The journey back to the village was not tiring anymore when we had successfully watched and taken pictures of these wonderful creatures from avian kingdom.
Places in Manokwari to watch birds of paradise
There are other places in Manokwari which you could visit to watch birds of paradise.

• Susnguakti Forest - this is the closest place from Manokwari town. It takes around 1 hour by car to reach the entrance point of the forest, and another 1 hour walk into the jungle to reach the dancing ground of birds of paradise. There is a base camp in the jungle which tourists can stay for several days to explore the lower montane rainforest of Arfak mountains.
• Kwau village in Arfak mountains. This is a popular destination for visitors. It takes around 2 hours by car to reach the guest house. There are several species of birds of paradise that visitors can watch, i.e. the magnificent birds of paradise (Cicinnurus magnificus), Western Parotia (Parotia sefilata). Another interesting bird is the bowerbird (Amblyornis inornatus).
• Inggramui village - Tourists need to walk for 3 hours through the jungle to watch birds of paradise. There are also 2 basecamps in the jungle which visitors can stay in for exploring the tropical rainforest that is rich of biodiversity.

How to get to Manokwari?

Manokwari is the capital of West Papua province in the Republic of Indonesia. Tourists fly to Manokwari to watch birds of paradise. To get to this town, fly from your country to Jakarta (the capital of Indonesia). After that take a domestic flight that is served by Sriwijaya Air, or Express Air or Lion Air to Manokwari.

When you have arrived in Manokwari, don't forget to call me by phone 081332245180. I will be happy to arrange your trip to the mountains to watch the most beautiful birds in the world. by Charles Roring - contact email: peace4wp@gmail.com

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Frogs from Arfak Mountains

Frogs are amphibious animals. Amphibious means that the frogs can live on dry land and in the water. On the evening of 30 July 2010, I accompanied Rhett Butler, the founder of mongabay.com, to a small river near Syiobri village. During the days, local Papuan villagers wash their clothes and take a bath. Drinking water is also taken from this river. Syiobri is a small village located on a slope of Arfak Mountains. Our local field guide, Elyakim, showed us the foot path leading to the river where we would be photographing frogs and insects and any animals that we saw that night.

We went out at around 8 a.m. after taking our dinner. I brought two LED lamps with me to lit the foot path. According to Zeth Wonggor, the owner of the tourist basecamp, frogs usually come out at eight. Because the river was not far from the base camp, we could easily reach it within only ten minutes walking.  Frogs were already singing krog..., krog..., krog... when we stepped on the stones of the river bank. With the LED lamps, we could easily spot frogs that were sitting on leaves and twigs and on the slippery granite stones of the river.  Those frogs were waiting for their prey which were insects.

The frogs that were on the plants had yellow green and brown colors whereas those that were living along the wet gravels and stones of the river had dark brown to black colors. It was very easy to take photographs of leaf frogs but it was difficult to take pictures of the ground or water frogs. They were not tolerant enough to lamps and our careful efforts to approach them with our camera. Hearing our approaching steps, the water frogs hurriedly jumped into the water thinking that we were lethal or hungry predators. Actually we only wanted to take some pictures of them from closer look and from various different angles of camera shootings.
It was my first night staying in the Arfak Mountains just a stone throw away from the tropical rainforest. I had to admit that I was not used to its cold temperature. We were continuously moving up the stream to find more frogs, I didn't feel cold at all but later when we had returned to our tourist basecamp and slept for a few hours, I felt that it's very cold there especially after 3 a.m.
I was satisfied with the night walk because I could shoot some nice pictures of these wonderful amphibious creatures of the Arfak Mountains.

Birding Site in Aiwatar Hill of Senopi village

Bird lovers might not know the existence of a place called Aiwatar. It is located some 4 hours walk from Senopi village in the Tambrauw Mountains of Manokwari regency. Manokwari is also the name of a city which is the capital of West Papua province. I, Wim and Vicky Boyden went to Aiwatar on 18 August 2010. We began walking in the morning at around 7 and arrived there at around 11.30 a.m. Wim and Vicky Boyden brought their EOS long lens Canon digital camera to shoot the birds that were singing in the branches of the trees along our walk to the Aiwatar - the Bird Center.

For bird watching, birders have abundant birds to shoot with their long lens camera while hiking around the tropical rainforest of Senopi village. But it is nothing compared to a place called Aiwatar. So, although we had been very tired, we were very determined to reach the area. We were informed by the villagers that there are a lot of birds with a large variety of colors and species. Walking in the tropical rainforest of District Senopi was a hard work but was also a fascinating experience.
The sounds of ornate lorikeet, cockatoo and hornbill and various other birds fill the atmosphere of that clear morning sky combined with the sound of the flow of water from the tributaries of Kamundan river. The feather of lorries that we saw in the trees near the Senopi village looked like rainbow. I liked hearing the music of the nature during that morning walk.

We had to cross the Kamundan river to reach the Aiwatar. When we were about to enter the river, from a distance around three hundred meters from us, we saw a dog barking on big deer that was trying to cross the river. According to our local Papuan field guide, the dog belonged to a hunter but he was not sure whether the hunter was with the dog or not. Wim took his long lens camera trying to take the picture of the barking dog and the nervous deer which were too far from us. The result was a blurry picture.
We still had some two hours walking before we arrived in Aiwatar - the place which the villagers  in the District of Senopi call "Pusat Burung" or the bird center. According to Maker - our local birdman, very few tourists have visited Aiwatar. Even though I was very tired at the time, when I saw birds flying around the trees, I suddenly felt relieved. Arriving at the foot of Aiwatar hill located on the other bank of Kamundan river, I soaked my whole body in the flowing water. It was very refreshing. Our lunch of that day was cassava which was cooked inside bamboos. Our drink was unboiled, but clear and fresh water taken from the river. I don't know the names of the birds that were shot by Wim Boyden through his long lens camera but there are various other birds which we did not shoot. I also brought a Sony Super SteadyShot DSC-W80 digital camera but it was not equipped with long lens. Below is a photograph of Aiwatar which I took while standing in the middle of the Kamundan river (one of the largest rivers in the Bird's head or Vogelkop region of West Papua). 

Well, what is bird center? It is a place in the remote mountainous region of Tambraw mountains inside the territory of District Senopi. Here, salty warm water comes out of the ground in several places around a hill called Aiwatar. Another amazing thing is that although Aiwatar is located very very far from the beach, most of the plants that grow in the area are the same as the plants that usually grow along the coastal region. The ground surface is covered with sharp corals that is normally seen in the coastal area. Every morning thousands of birds come to this place to drink the water until they get drunk.

I am not a birder but when I was in Aiwatar I became a bird lover. I hope that one day I could buy a long lens camera to shoot a lot of beautiful photographs of birds that live in the tropical rainforest of West Papua, both along the coastal and mountainous regions. by Charles Roring - If after reading this post and you are interested in visiting West Papua province of Indonesia and want me as your guide, please contact me via this email: peace4wp@gmail.com or by whatsapp to: +6281332245180.