West Papua I – Into the Jungle

The first in a series of posts on West Papua in which we hope to show why Papua should be top of the list for hard adventure and wilderness tourism. We’ll comment on a few of the more responsible Papuan based tourism agents in a later post.

West Papua (formerly Irian Jaya) is one of the least disturbed, least explored regions on the planet and also one of the most varied. From the world’s richest coral reefs, through rainforests, swamps the size of Belgium and some of the most dangerous rivers in the world to mist-clad highlands and barren rocky mountains and even glaciers on Carstensz Pyramid (one of the ‘seven summits’). Spread across this diverse range of environments is a vast array of different tribes, cultures and language groups some of whom still exist without direct contact from the outside world.

To travel this wilderness without a trustworthy and knowledgeable guide would be highly dangerous so for the first leg of the three leg exploration in Papua I met up with the German adventurer Dr. Werner Weiglein for a trip into the malaria and crocodile infested swamp forests of the Inner Asmat region.

Our rendezvous was in the highland town of Wamena in the Baliem Valley – the largest valley in Papua with a climate that came as a wonderful cool relief to the incessant heat and sweat of the lowlands. This valley is the home of the Dani and Lani tribes and to a lesser extent some of the Yali tribe. The Dani are a farming and agriculture focussed people who live with their livestock in small homesteads scattered throughout the valley and have extensive ‘gardens’ and cultivation plots through the region.

From the town of Wamena we flew over the dramatic, rugged mountains that form the ‘backbone’ of Papua. Dodging between clouds in a Cessna Caravan and unable to see the relief below in an area where the maps are known to be inaccurate was no joke, but did reveal glimpses of isolated villages and homesteads, huge waterfalls and gorges.

Proceeding to the river from the airstrip we met our boatman and the wooden longboat that would be our river transport for the next eleven days as we covered hundreds of miles along the Brazza, Siret and Kolff rivers to visit the Brazza, Korowai and Kolff tribes.

The Korowai are a nomadic forest people who live in tree houses and cannot usually be reached along the river, so we travelled for two days by river to reach the nearest river village. Getting this far can be an achievement in itself. If the river is low rocks and sandbars block all but the smallest canoes and with rivers too high the submerged dead trees and driftwood can entangle boats which then capsize in the fierce current and standing waves of the river. From the river village we employed local guides to show us the trails through miles of muddy, river filled jungle to the Korowai.

Walking into a clearing larger than a football field with large, neatly constructed houses close to 100 feet up in the canopy after hours of sweaty, dirty walking and balancing on tree trunks across rivers is a startling experience, as is observing the way of life of these people.

The staple of most Korowai is sago, supplemented by insects such as sago grubs, cooking bananas and whatever meat, fish and fruit they can forage from the forest. They seem to be able to float effortlessly and fearlessly into the highest trees and have extremely acute senses in identifying threats such as deadly snakes hidden in the foliage.

Walking anywhere outside the jungle garden of the Korowai you disappear into a patchwork of swamp forest knee deep in water and mud and rivers with water so dark they seemed bottomless. The bizarre insects and butterflies are plentiful and seem to lurk behind every leaf, and stories of hairy spiders with bodies larger than chicken eggs keep the senses focussed. During our short stay we saw the rivers rise and fall nearly a meter in a day as the rainfall in the mountains to the north passed through the jungles to the coast. Just because you were able to cross a river in the morning doesn’t mean it will still be passable in the evening!

As well as time with the Korowai we enjoyed river life (including crocodile hunting with spears) with the Brazza and Kolff peoples and were fortunate to be able to bring back some valuable artefacts including a large war mask from the Brazza people (now on its way to a German museum) and items of ‘bride money’ from the Korowai people.

After an extraordinary journey through the jungle it was a revelation to get back to air conditioning and rediscovering food beyond instant noodles, rice and sago grubs! Next stop the Raja Ampat archipelago for a dose of underwater Papua.

The Baliem Valley, always hazy from the smoke from village fires.

Dani women prepare banana trunk for eating at a mountain salt spring.

The scenery of the Baliem Valley sometimes has an uncanny resemblance to some parts of Africa.

Dani homesteads consist of four or five huts in a fenced enclosure.

In the past, Dani would mummify their ancestors and keep them inside the houses. Times change and the Dani are modernising quickly, today there are only three mummies left in the Baliem Valley.

Flying through the mountains from Wamena one can see many isolated villages.

Passing from the mountains into the lowlands the rivers get much wider and laden with silt.

In the lowland jungles some of the insects are extraordinary, like this squat hairy green and white spider.

Distances between river villages can be very large, and without petrol it can be many days travel.

Travelling deeper into the jungle along the rivers and jungle tracks is often where the first encounter with the Korowai takes place.

The Korowai are a very traditional people.

With the exception of a few metal axes the Korowai make few concessions to modernity, and still retain their traditional decorations such as nostril piercing.

They seem able to climb even the weakest looking trees effortlessly (look at the top of the image).

The Korowai build their houses in the forest canopy with a sequence of ladders leading up to them.

A Korowai treehouse, note the woman at the base of the ladder for an idea of scale.

The bones from previous meals seem to be kept above the fire for some time..

Foraging in the jungle for juicy tree grubs.

Cooking is a simple affair, and with food so tasty, why disguise the flavour?

Buah Merah ('Red Fruit' - a Pandanus fruit) is a favoured fruit everywhere in Indonesia.

The insides of the fruit are scraped out, here with a cassowary bone knife.

The hollowed out fruit is then stuffed with hot stones to cook it, and the thick juice then squeezed out of the cooked fruit. It is eaten with palm heart, sago grubs or other delicacies.

Sago is a staple of the Korowai, as with almost all peoples of lowland Papua. The palms are chopped down, the bark taken off and then the sago is removed from the fleshy inside of the trunk by passing water through it. Here the Korowai are pulverising the inside of the trunk into sago fibres like a pile of straw before straining out the sago. Note even the babies contribute to the labour here!

Processing an entire tree in one day with only the most basic tools is a huge amount of labour, especially in the jungle heat.

Jungle innocence.

The men work to cut down the tree and rip the bark off, the women then process the sago. This is lighter work but takes a lot longer for all the sago to settle out of the water so they return late in the day.

On calm evenings on the many rivers of this area the sky is reflected as if in a mirror.

After sunset different kind of foraging takes place as men depart from river villages to go crocodile hunting. The Kolff river is locally famous for its large crocodile and other wildlife populations.

Catching wild crocodiles with wooden handled spears is a risky business, but the prize is a lot of meat (as well as teeth and skin!).

In the late evening, especially with visitors around, the village collects in a large communal house to talk and make merry.

... and finally enjoy a bit of local tobacco to round off the evening!