Bensbach Wildlife Preserve

To be honest, I had no idea where Bensbach was located until not long before our plane took off. It turns out that Bensbach is in the south-east part of Papua New Guinea, not far from the coast and border with Irian Jaya. The Bensbach river runs through floodplains right by a comfortable little fishing lodge, where we stayed for a few days. It was dry season during our visit, so the water level was very low. During the wet season, the entire area literally fills with water; while we were there, the only sign of such drastic water-level changes were mossy clumps hanging from the branches of trees.

Bensbach is home to a great number of wild birds, rusa deer (introduced), lizards, fish life, and wallabies. In the past, Bensbach was well-known for its incredible barramundi fishing. White egrets were around just about every bend in the river, and we saw sea eagles, herons, darters, goanas, deer, wallabies, turtles, crocodiles (sort of), and more. Son and I were particularly fascinated by the green ants, and we observed and fascilitated a number of "assisted predations" involving everything from mosquitos to large grasshoppers.

We visited a couple of local villages as well. In the past, locals didn't even have any stone tools, so they used selective burning to make dugout canoes and kundu drums (!). This area of PNG was also well-known for its tradition of headhunting, but that sort of thing doesn't happen anymore unless you venture far inland into Irian Jaya.

Things seem to be moving backwards for parts of PNG. Since the country became independent from the Australians, its general infrastructure development has nearly stopped, except in the case of mining operations, of course. For example, the local telephone tower has been nonfunctional for a year and a half. The government has been either unable or unwilling to maintain things like communications infrastructure for remote areas.

Bensbach's proximity to Indonesia is evident in its local life. Whereas Karawari and the Sepik region are very effectively isolated from the outside world, Bensbach has easy access to Indonesia goods (bicycles, diesel, clothing, etc.). Bensbach is also home to impressive village gardens where yam and sweet potato are grown. The older generation has a tremendous amount of knowledge about farming and its superstitious guildlines.