PAPUA NEW GUINEA
EXPEDITION
AN UNMOTORISED CROSSING
24th May 2014
Week 11: The Fly River,
Obo to Sturt Island
We arrived at Sturt Island yesterday evening amid savage waves. Here at Sturt, nobody travels downriver by paddle. It is just too dangerous, the waves too unpredictable. The Fly (or Coral Sea as it is now classified) is 3km wide, which will balloon to 80km at the mouth of the river, 100miles away. The river is now truly akin to a Sea, with tides, winds and waves. Our success has always been reliant on learning local tactics to overcome problems, and this is no different. As we don’t happen to have access to a hardy fibreglass rowboat, adapted for the Ocean, we are opting for an outrigger to carry us to Daru. The outrigger is a giant dugout canoe, sporting a hefty balsa log tethered parallel approximately 5m from its body, and a large plastic tarp fashioned in the shape of sail. Our vessel is by no means slick but it will, we hope, get the job done.
We are so close now, and hopeful that we may be achieving PNG's first continuous, non-motorised, un-portered crossing at the widest point. Two years of planning can not unearth all of the adventures which PNG has supported, but we are yet to come across one which matched our aim.
Thankyou for helping to support and motivate us on the exped so far, and helping support our secondary aim of raising awareness and donations for Childfund.
Patrick Hutton
[blog called in via AST Satellite Comms
The last week has consisted of a relentless plod from Obo to Sturt Island on the Fly River. Saturated river beds and cantankerous skies have been the constants as we rowed down river.
Our main issue of stage 3 thus far has been recruitment. Whilst we have relied on local Papuans to translate and pass on invaluable information about rest points, no one on the Fly has had the faintest inclination to join us. We have spent numerous hours explaining that we do not want to use a motor, and yes, it would be a more logical way to travel, but would defeat our objective of crossing the island using human power. The differing attitude has made us reflect upon how privileged we are- only when provided with the luxury of travelling for a ‘non-essential’ purpose, can one choose to do so in the hardest possible manner.
Aside from a couple of nights under the bush, we have spent most of our evenings in our hammocks, strung between the legs of local houses. Villagers have welcomed us in, and even given us health tips- a dripping on to my forehead was revealed to be urine, as a young child relieved herself in the floorboards above. The house owner later speculated that it would be perhaps better if I switched hammock location, to avoid the latrine.
Two days out of Obo, we decided to ‘upgrade’ our beloved Tut-Tut. This decision was partly due to the ever amplifying waves, and mainly due to the rapidly multiplying crocodiles. Tut-Tut, whilst fashioned from two canoes, sat extremely low in the water. Bathing in her stomach, we would paddle at a similar height to the river's face. The silence of the river would be occasionally interrupted by a sudden, severe, thrashing sound. Often we would be too slow to view the source of the noise, often only meters away from us, but on occasion the perpetrator would be visible, usually a prehistoric looking croc, longer, larger, and several times faster than our much-loved boat. Tuk Tuk was replaced by a larger canoe.