Kosarek
Kosarek is the last main village in West Papua‘s Yalimo before the beginning of Mek country. Trekking here from Angguruk takes you through the Central Highlands’ most traditional area, as well as some of its most spectacular scenery and therefore exhausting trekking terrain. Struggling up and down the near-vertical, jungle-covered mountain slopes, it is easy to see how the area remained completely isolated from the outside world until the 1960s.
Waterfall near Kosarek, Yalimo
A young, healthy West Papuan who knows the way well and walks very fast for 16 hours a day without resting can make it from Wamena in the Baliem Valley to Kiroma, over Gunung Elit and down to Angguruk in the Yalimo in two days. If he was extremely fit even by West Papuan standards he could then carry on the next day via Helariki, Mimbaham and Telampela, starting before dawn in Angguruk and arriving in Kosarek at night.
Reaching Kosarek from Wamena in three days is, however, probably an unrealistic expectation for even very fit Westerners. Even taking no rest days, you are unlikely to be able to do it in under five days even if you are in very good shape. With a couple of rest days and a more relaxed trekking pace allowing time to take in the scenery and get to know the people, ten days is more reasonable or even 2 weeks if you are in not such good shape.
Kosarek has a small grass air strip irregularly serviced by missionary flights from Wamena in the Baliem Valley, creating the possibility of trekking one way from Wamena and flying the other. See the main Baliem Valley page for details on this.
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