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.