PAPUA NEW GUINEA
EXPEDITION
AN UNMOTORISED CROSSING
25th April 2014
Week 7: Telefomin to Tabubil
After Lucas' admission, we proceeded with a watchful eye on our position. Soon we were in an area which locals call “no man’s land”, a 100km square plateau over 2000 metres high. This vast level is such swampy jungle that neither the people of Telefomin, Tabubil or Tifalmin claim it. Every second step saw us sink to our upper thighs in gloopy mud, making the process of walking with a 30kg bergan a wee bit vexing. Geologists gleefully examine this karst topography, as its sharp limestone is a honeycomb of underground rivers and sinkholes. Not far to our East sits one of the world’s longest caves, Mamo Kananda, which stretches for at least 54.8km. The astounding geology is one of the reasons that this area is currently on UNESCO’s tentative list for recognition.
It was painfully slow process. With little choice but to march on, burning double the calories that walking would normally require, we contemplated whether swimming through the treacle would be more effective than wading. It seemed never ending. The only moments of elation and distraction came with a spike in adrenalin as a panicked snake crossed our path three feet away, or the eerie sound of a bird of paradise echoed through the bush. We slept, ate, walked and lived in a swamp for 3 nights, caked in mud.
Having dragged ourselves up to this plateau, we were bound at some point to go down. Our decent of choice was two sheer cliffs, ominously known as 'The Landslide' by locals, or 'The Hindenburg Wall' by our map.....pity a German accent can't be written into text. The two, tremendous limestone scarps could only be descended by clutching onto a rope as our clumpy boots searched frantically for a wet slimy foothold. Luckily the all important ropes were in fact vines from the jungle... It was admittedly a scary sequence of events, I am happy to announce that not a single broken arm, leg, neck or back has occurred, much I am sure to the relief of our insurer Ingle International.
To make the bush tracks slightly more confusing, communication between us and the Papuan villagers is truely perplexing. One of the expeditions aims is to make boundaries in languages and clans slightly clearer, and in a country of over 800 languages, that is quite a task, even in this small slice of the nation we are going through. In this 6 day, 40km leg the local language has changed 3 times. This makes gleaning information on what to expect for the bush track tough. Our last night of the Telefomin to Tabubil leg was spent in the bush, for an unexpected and morale sapping fifth night, forcing us to eat into our emergency rations after a distance had been miscalculated.
Our arrival in Tabubil was joyous- our friends at Brunel had done a brilliant job at spreading word, and we were quickly spotted by a security truck who waved hello and pointed us in the direction of a welcomed meal at the local hospital. The staff at Tabubil hospital welcomed us with disbelief and have displayed the fantastically hospitable Papuan spirit which we have been lucky enough to receive on this trip. They are providing logistical support as we arrange for collections of our deposited baggage weight and allow the skin on our feet to regrow.
We will rest in Tabubil until Wednesday 1st May, at which point we will continue to Kiunga. A couple of km north of our current location, the OK Tedi mine recorded a record annual rainfall of 11m in 1998, making it one of the wettest places on earth. With this in mind, we will dry out our kit before setting back on the road.
Thanks for the moral support for us and Childfund.
Patrick Hutton
[blog called in via AST Satellite Comms]
References and further reading:
M.James / Speleogenesis and Evolution of Karst Aquifers, 2006
Without beating around the bush, the townsfolk of our previous rest place, Telefomin, were impressed when two white men rocked up having walked from Vanimo.
We were briefly talk of the town as they chattered furiously about how strong we must be to have made it as far as we had. "Nobody has ever walked from Vanimo, it is far, too far, very rugged" they said as they all agreed to our supposed overwhelming walking prowess. How wrong they were.
A couple of days downstream, the two of us were, as always, wheezing like asthmatic anemic sloths as we scaled a mountain strewn with a dense tropical rainforest, requiring a strange combination of upper and lower body strength, as well as a cool head for heights. It took us six hours to climb a vertical kilometer, using slippery roots and oiled rocks as hand and footholds. After ascending to our new highest point of the expedition, 2650 metres, Lucas, our ‘navigator’ from Telefomin, peered down as we scanned our East View Geospatial topographical map and uttered "I am very glad you have this… I don't know the way… I always guess".
As outrageous as the comment was, Richard and I could only cough a nervous laugh at the situation. Unfortunately Lucas was not joking, he really did not know the way and it dawned on us like the crush of a dropped anvil that his instinctive navigational abilities, like ours, were on par with that of a rusty horse shoe. There’s a very good reason that Homo Sapiens do not migrate. Lucas’ sole responsibility on the Telefomin to Tabubil leg was to avoid streams and tell us how far the destination of the day was. The answer to those questions were always "I don't know" and "3 hours away" regardless of the proximity. The districts of Telefomin and Northern Fly are unbelievably remote- with around 2.3 people per square km (to put this in perspective, our home city of London has a population density of over 5,000 people per square Km). So with this in mind, we had little choice but to go forth with Lucas.
