Lake Kutubu

Kutubu lies at around eight hundred metres in the Southern Highlands, the second largest lake in Papua New Guinea, some nineteen kilometres long and held in a forested basin, and it is a Ramsar wetland with an unusual endemic fauna: the great majority of its fish species occur nowhere else, the result of long isolation, along with endemic snails and other invertebrates. Villages of the Foi people sit on the shore in longhouses, moving on the water by canoe, and community guesthouses receive the few visitors who reach it. The forest around holds birds-of-paradise. Oil and gas development in the wider region has changed access and economies considerably.

The landscape

• The lake - the long water body in its forested basin.
• Endemic fish - the species found only in this lake.
• Foi villages - the longhouse settlements on the shore.
• Canoe travel - the way people move on the water.

When to go

May to October in the drier season, when roads and flights are most reliable; the highlands are wet year round. Village guesthouses need arranging in advance through local contacts.

Good to know

Access is genuinely difficult, by rough road or small aircraft, and both are unreliable. Accommodation is village guesthouses with no facilities. Arrangements must be made in advance with local contacts. Rain is likely most days.

Nearby

Mendi lies north; Mount Bosavi is south.

Key facts