Niugini Dirt Tours
Cost
AUD$3200 for 7 day tour (covers everything meals, accomodation, bikes etc). 10 % discount if paid within 30 days of booking. If 5 or more riders, organiser gets FREE Tour.
Visas
Australian / NZ Passport Holders are not required to obtain a travel visa prior to visiting PNG. Visa upon arrival for Tourists is ok (K100)
Visit www.immigration.gov.pg
Flights
The international gateway for PNG is Port Moresby, a 3.5hr flight from Brisbane or a 1.5hr flight from Cairns. Air Niugini or Qantas fly from both destinations, while Virgin and Airlines PNG run a code share service ex Bne. PNG Air and Air Niugini fly several times daily Pom to Lae (1030dept Bne / 12.30 or 6.30am ex CNS)
Air Niugini’s connecting flight departs Pom at 4pm for the 45 minute Journey to Lae. PNG Air flights to Lae leave slightly earlier. It’s a safe 200 metre journey from International to the Domestic terminal
Economy Price Bne to Lae return K2100 (.4 to the aussie dollar)
Economy Price Cns to Lae return K1800
Medical Insurance / Malaria
Please organise this. If asked you are going on a holiday where there is a possibility of riding non-competitive off road bikes (registered) under 200cc…apparently that’s the required answer. Doctors here are helpful, so even if you enter the emergency ward with riding boots and helmet its likely you just had a tramping accident. And they will happily say that on a document
Your doctor should advise you whether you need Malaria tablets or not. At the very least continually spray with aerogard etc as we ride in swamps / mosquito country often
Lae Airport Pickup
Depending on rider numbers you will be met by our Niugini Dirt vehicle or private security vehicle. Niugini Dirt staff will recognise you as dirt bike riders; the security company will recognise you as the guys with stunned looks on your face. It’s a 30 to 45 minute ride to Niugini Dirt headquarters, as road conditions can be pretty bad (Potholes / congestion)
Accommodation
We have room for 8 in two bedrooms (single beds), aircon and fans, and ensuite bathroom / Shower. The bedrooms are split by a large games room / lounge with pool table, Foxtel, bar and fully air-conditioned. Outside there is a pool / BBQ area with full cooking facilities (4 burner stove & bbq). This will be the scene of most of our breakfasts and dinners
Meals
As you drive into Lae we will drive you past the dozens of Takeaway joints / high end restaurants, steakhouses etc. When you wake up from your dream with your hand on it you will realise you are in Lae, Papua New Guinea – where we have four restaurants (2 in Hotels / 2 Chinese) and we will mostly avoid all.
Fortunately the local beef up here is great so most nights its BBQ and great salads etc at the Poolside.
Breakfasts will be whatever you want, bacon and eggs, Toast, fruits, cereals etc. Lunch we will pack most days or get met by our support vehicle.
All meal costs are met by Niugini Dirt, however there may be the odd night or two where we will have a meal at the Lae Yacht Club where a meal will cost you approx aud$25
Riding Gear
If you do forget the odd piece of riding gear there is enough gear here to get by. Laundry facilities are beside the bedrooms and we have a fulltime ‘haus meri’ to clean / look after your laundry. Aust Quarantine will want you to your ensure gear is cleaned, so our last day will only be a half day ride or fishing day, allowing all gear to be washed / dried. The Haus meri appreciates a K50 Tip when you leave as she will keep your gear clean daily
Bikes
The current Fleet is 6 x 2015 KTM 350F EXC / 3 x 2013 KTM 450F EXC and two 2015 KTM 300EXC. If you break it you pay for it. Wear and tear is of course accepted but remember it’s a long way from a bike shop here, so you would be quoted the replacement cost from a supplier in Brisbane. By the end of 2018 we will have replaced several of the 350 with 300EXC
Bike Servicing
We will have a guy available to do this at the completion of the days riding. Our backup vehicle has a full set of tools and spare wheels (front and rear), so most eventualities should be covered. Extra Heavy Duty Tubes are run in all bikes so flats are rare. Many hands make light work and we encourage you to assist with repair of your own bike
Fishing
We will do a half day fishing (yellowfin or Tuna) Food is supplied but you would provide own drinks. Snorkeling is available on the half day. Full fishing gear and experienced boat crew provided. Full days fishing available, this is additional K3000 (about 1200 aud$)
Special requests
If you have any of these please let us know beforehand.
Drinks / Bar / Spending Money
If you’re a spirit drinker grab some duty free. The Beer here (SP Lager) is damm nice and served cold after a ride is heaven. We will have a large stock of beer in the house, pay for what you use at the end of the trip. Other than drinks and a few snacks or some junk food you will not need much in the way of cash.
If you want to bring only AUD$ we can exchange it for Kina and will buy back later what you don’t spend.
Credit cards are accepted in the bars or restaurants here and of course there are Atm’s.
Nightlife
Zero – very easy question to answer
Deposit
75 % 3 months from booking / remainder 2 months prior to start of tour – OR AS AGREED (see above 10 % discount). If trip cancelled less than 30 days prior 75% refund – or if rebooked aud$100 fee
International Licence
Not needed, we pull wheelies past the cop cars (seriously)
Best time of the year to ride
All year round is good – May / June / July / August is our Wet Season, and makes it difficult to access many areas. The rest of the year is great.
Pack something extra in your bag?
Don’t be surprised if I ask you to bring up a couple of tyre tubes or some tools or air filters. There are NIL bikes shops in this country and it’s difficult to source parts without it costing a fortune via airfreight. So whenever anyone enters the country we local riders use it as an excuse and you become our mule. Don’t be worried, we are not running a busted ass hire company – we are isolated is all.
Safety / Security
If you solely read the ABC or news headlines you’d never set foot in the country – yet we ride every weekend of the year and never have any issues. Once out in the countryside the locals love the bikes and provided we are careful with dust / noise and not splashing water on people everything will be fine. If you can pull wheelies that’s a bonus as every person you pass will ask you to ‘upim’
Safety seems to be a common theme though and rightly so – we believe there is no risk, but we always are watchful and take precautions. I’d suggest everyone look at the hundreds of photos in our Gallery and read the stories in Ride Reports.
Why is it expensive to ride in PNG?
The cost of living in PNG is surprisingly very high compared to other destinations and the terrain / nature of the riding takes a great toll on our bikes. Plus it needs to be remembered you are riding KTM race ready bikes, not a Suzuki DRZ.
What to bring
As noted above riders area has a fully functional laundry (including a dryer) so clothes / gear can be washed daily if required. We will eat at the Lae Yacht Club on occasion so closed shoes are required for this (boat shoes / running shoes etc are fine), plus you will need a collared shirt at a couple of locations too. I will supply you a Niugini Dirt Collared shirt, but the shoes are essential.
If taking the tour to the smoked bodies you will be hiking up the slipperiest steepest hill you have seen and will not do it in riding boots. If we do that tour our support vehicle takes the gear to the nearby lodge. Insect repellent’s / sunscreen / sunglasses are essentials etc
Communications
Our accommodation has good phone coverage and Wi-Fi. Roaming is very expensive in PNG so you can either have phones on roaming or buy a PNG Sim Card for Aud$10. We generally have good phone signals in the middle of nowhere when we ride, very handy for contacting the chopper for a ride out!
GPS
We use Viewranger GPS via Samsung Mobile. Track Files are in same .gpx format as the IPhone Motion X GPS tracker. We are painstakingly and slowly entering all our routes onto GPS — however there is rarely a choice of different directions (turnoffs) so not so much of an issue, but handy all the same.
Sadly Google Earth thinks that a satellite fly by every ten years is fine, as a result we have very poor Google Earth coverage
Start / Stop Times
We don’t rush off at the crack of dawn every day. Each group will have different requirements and depending on the rides planned for the day we may not depart until 9 -10am some days. Finish time will be dictated by where we are, how knackered everyone is or the weather conditions (in addition some river crossings require low tide; sometimes we need to avoid church services etc).
Tours
There are NO set Tours. Everything is designed around what you as the client want to do. 7 Days is the best time – not too short, not too long – just right
As a guide we suggest 4 full days riding, two half days riding and a rest day. Fishing, would be done after one of the morning rides
If interested in the Smoked Bodies (unbelievable) or the B17 Bomber (again unbelievable) then this Tour takes 2-3 days to cover these areas, and the riding days in these areas are long and fairly hard on the body (jarring gravel roads) but with amazing scenery & the bodies alone will freak you out.
If more interested in straight hard core Enduro riding (single trail, gut wrenching bush trails), then we base ourselves in Lae and do daily rides with possibly one night away. These are generally a morning and afternoon ride with lunch beside a river somewhere.
Every tour has a day riding at the stunning Lake Wanum which you can see on our website.
Photos
Every photo on our website has been taken by me, so when we ride I will be taking high quality photos of the riders on regular occasions. If using Go Pro I suggest someone bring an external drive to allow copying of all the riders’ files. We have a drone and where possible will get some coverage of your group. Malcolm our lead rider is a media whizz and produced our great videos ‘fmx png’ and ‘freeride niugini’, and will put together a DVD of your ride
Peter Boyd
Niugini Dirt Tours
www.niuginidirt.com niuginidirt@gmail.com