Lined with enchanting stilt houses and traversed by slender dugout canoes, the Sepik River slides swiftly past traditional villages, where tribal life still revolves around the Haus Tambaran or 'Spirit House'. Leaving behind it some staggering collections of religious carvings, misty lakes, raucous birdlife, and lush, colour-splashed scenery, its waters finally torrent into the sea through a mile-long mouth, almost 1200km from its origins high in the mountains of the Central Region.
PNG (as those in the know call it) is not a likely destination for your average happy-go-lucky holidaymaker. Comprising a group of islands between the Coral Sea and the South Pacific Ocean - including the eastern side of the island of New Guinea - it's only 160km north of Australia, but often millennia away. This is a country whose forbidding interior concealed hundreds of thousands of people - oblivious to the outside world and the end of the Stone Age, until European gold explorers chanced upon them in the 1930s.
In a similar vein, it's only been a matter of decades since its south coast dwellers lost their notoriety for headhunting and cannibalism. However, what travellers to PNG get in exchange for their boldness is the chance to experience some of the wildest territory and most fascinating cultures in the world.
The capital city is Port Moresby, renowned for its gorgeous natural harbour (but also, unfortunately, for its crime rate). When you've taken in its sights, you have the choice of beautiful beaches and coastal villages, exotic markets, spectacular diving amongst wreck-filled waters, and hiking among jungles, national parks and extinct volcanoes.
With motor vehicles no match for the country's geography, you'll find the best way to get around is by air, boat, with the aid of a guide and/or porter perhaps or on foot.
Print >