The scenery on our tours is like nowhere else in Papua New Guinea, as you move through the densely forested lowlands, a bend in the river will transform the landscape, as swiftly as an image on a screen, into a vista of rolling parkland, empty, green and infinite.

There are literally thousands of head of rusa deer grazing the plains, descendants of small herds introduced more than fifty years ago by the Dutch in Irian Jaya. Wild pigs, wallabies and packs of wild dogs all roam at will on the plains, not at all timid and very easy to spot, as well as goannas, turtles, and a dazzling variety of birds.

You can see pelicans and parrots, motionless herons standing sentinel in the reeds, magpie geese and scrub turkey. Jabiru storks floating overhead on the unseen thermals, dancing brolgas and delicate ibis, cormorants diving for fish, bush fowls, cassowaries, eagles - and many, many more.

The Bensbach Wilderness Lodge, owned and operated by Trans Niugini Tours, is perfectly-located just under than 100km inland from the river mouth. Its deceptively simple design, harmonising perfectly with its surroundings, offers a well-equipped comfortable base from which visitors travel by boats at a relaxed and easy pace, to explore the surrounding wilderness.