At Papua Adventures we have built our reputation of excellence by guiding
world class eco-friendly and culturally sensitive expeditions into the
most
remote areas of Papua, leading and assisting journalists and photographers
in
the production of television entertainment, news media and magazine
publications such as the BBC,
Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Discovery Channel, The
New
Yorker and DestinAsia among others.
With the success of finding new tribes
by opening up new areas in Papua,
our "Exploratory Expedition Summary” expedition has piqued interest around the world and led up
to the preparation
for one of the most daring and most difficult
expeditions
to date: the Trans-Papua Expedition.
Borneo has been traversed numerous times. And a group crossed Papua from
Asmat
to Jayapura back in 1959, but since the first explorers set foot in this
land,
no one yet has taken on an expedition from end to end, the full length of
Papua.
Papua is sometimes referred to as the Cenderawasih Bird of Paradise
because of its great beauty and because the geographic shape of the island
is
somewhat similar to that of a bird of paradise. The Northwest part by
Sorong
resembles
the bird’s head and the Southeastern corner of Merauke, the
tail.
And that is what the Trans-Papua Expedition intends to cover.
We will begin our voyage at Merauke the bird’s tail, and use 3 modes of
transportation
to cross the island. Boats and 4 wheel drive vehicles will
break up the trip into manageable intervals but sizable portions of the
journey will be covered on foot.
As the Cenderawasih bird flies, the
distance
from Merauke to Sorong
is around 1500km.
As our route is not in a straight
line we will snake our way
across the island
and travel over 2000km along
the
way.
This will be a first! And as the first to ever attempt this adventure we
can
expect to receive media coverage and there will be those who will want to
document the event through the participation of journalists from various
media.
We will pass through a total of 37 different tribal groups with unique
languages.
Starting in Merauke we will travel north into the territories
of
the Kombai and Korowai tribes, who still practice ritual cannibalism.
We
will
travel by motorized canoes through the Central Asmat people. Once the most
feared headhunters in Papua and are now appreciated as some of the best
woodcarvers in Papua. Trekking up through the Yali tribal region we will
see
some of the most unique koteka (penis gourds) worn by any of the tribes in
Papua.
We will also go through the famous Baliem Valley which was first
discovered
in 1938, pass through the Dani and into the Western Lani tribe,
who
make up
the largest tribe
in Papua. We will use motorized canoes to travel
along
the mysterious
Mamberamo River, which still attracts the best
crocodile
hunters
in Papua. And along the way pass through 11 more different tribes.
We
will finish our trek in one of the last spots where tribes without contact
with the outside world still exist, the Waropen district. Then finally by
boat
we'll travel around the Cenderawasih Bay, passing Manokwari and end our
trip
in Sorong.
This is not an easy expedition. The logistics are great, but we’ve been
preparing
for this trip for 2 years now and have made the connections and
worked out
the details so that an expedition of this magnitude is possible.
Our long time friendly relations with the police, governmental
authorities,
villagers and tribal chiefs is essential and we enjoy their full support.
Because of the huge distances covered it is not possible to say exactly
how
many days will be required to complete the crossing. But our estimates put
it
at around 70 days.
The expedition will begin in July 2011.
It’s an incredibly exciting adventure to look forward to, we’ve done our
homework and we’re anxious to hit the trail… So get ready, get excited and
come join us to be part of this historical event and have the trip of a
lifetime!
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