Evidently, there were two paths we could have taken. But Jim relayed to us news of some problems in the village of Yongite, saying that things were tense there, and we needed to avoid that area. Apparently, that was the "easy" trail, so we had little choice but to take the "more difficult" trail.
The hiking started out well enough, hiking on what Jean said was actually the old Sepik Highway. Ha! I suppose you could see how it might have been a single land side road, at some point in the distant past, but a Highway? It was reasonably level, rocks and stones had been laid down on it. Which actually made the walking much harder, trying to balance one's feet on the stones. But I suppose this was for drainage, and since the area is awash with rain much of the year, it must be a neccessity. Miles of the Sepik Highway, which abruptly ended, and then we were on The Trail From Hell. Designed by an absolute sadist, 20 yards up slippery, narrow, steep clay steps (practically straight up), then 20 yards down the same sort of nasty footing. Repeat. Repeat again. We must have done this 50 times, I don't know. At one point (ok, maybe more than one point), I asked Jean weakly, "will we have to do this much more?" She smiled kindly. "Yes, I'm afraid so." When we weren't going up and down these slippery shark's teeth hills, we were crossing creeks and streams. I cannot remember how many streams we crossed either. I had two able-bodied local men helping me, John and Jacob. Thank God for them! They held me steady on the slipperiest bits, and kept me going. I hold them dear in my heart! At one point, after a stream crossing, Jean mentioned to me that one of the tribes living nearby had discovered a vast quantity of gold in their stream. Evidently, two wily (and audacious) Australians got wind of the gold bonanza there, which up til then had been known only to the villagers there. Jean related that one could go into the stream with a snorkel and swim mask on, and just grab onto large nuggets in the stream. Anyway, these two shady Aussie men were all over that, and the cannily set up a small scale mining operation in the village, I believe with some sort of modest sluicer. After they had consolidated their gold sluicing efforts, they packed up their loot, and told the villagers they needed to take it to a bank and get payment for it, after which they would definitely return and give the villagers 1/2 of the proceeds. The two men high-tailed it back to Australia, and have never been heard from again.
 |
| We arrive at Miwettem, and the villagers greet us with a huge banner made of bamboo and greenery, and a sing-sing. Man on far right is Jacob, who helped me up the mountain. Rachel is second from right with flower necklace from villagers, Jean in pink shirt and flower necklace on left. |
But back to the killer trail. At the end of it, I was covered in mud and rain and sweat. Plus I slipped and fell at one of the many creek crossings, and got soaking wet, even water in my waterproof boots. Jean lead Rachel and me up there, and we we arrived up at the village, the villagers told us that aside from Jean, Rachel and I were only the 2nd and 3rd white women ever to climb that trail! Jeez, no wonder we thought it was hard! My back was kind of shot after that, and I was a bit worried about it. Grateful though, that somebody lent me their 4-inch foam pad, so that I didn't have to just set the sleeping bag on the hard surface of the hut we slept in. Also grateful that the local schoolteacher, who had a slightly nicer house than the others in the village, lent us his hut for the night. We set up mosquito nets above the beds, and surprisingly, slept very comfortably and well. Nothing like utter and complete exhaustion to help one sleep.
The villagers in that village (Miwettem) feted us with a brilliant arrival "sing-sing" (song and dance show), and told us that we were the first tourists ever to visit their village! They all dressed up in their best garb (made of leaves from the forest, bark, moss, "paint" made of mud and clay, bird of paradise feathers, shells and other natural objects and danced barefoot for us in the 2-in deep mud. They threw flower stamens at us in joy, made us beautiful flower necklaces (sort of like Hawaiian leis) and fed us wonderful local food. Four guys with guitars and a ukelele (there is absolutely NO place within a 10-day walk to buy a musical instrument or strings, we're talking waaaaaaaaay off the beaten path) came out and sang in English a delightful tune: "Welcome, American Tourists!" which Rachel got a video of:
Part 1 of the "Welcome American Tourists!" video.
Here is Part 2 of "Welcome American Tourists!"
Here are some of the lyrics they are singing:
"...villages
Torricelli Range.
Miwettem village
Lumi, Sundaun Province
Welcome, welcome,
American Tourists
We welcome you
Telikan?
Welcome, welcome
Welcome, welcome,
American Tourists
We welcome you
Telikan?
Welcome to some of our villages
Torricelli Range,
Miwettem Village..."
Jean, Rachel and I ate our respective dinners quietly and happily in the teacher's house, about 8 wooden steps up off the ground, and high on stilts. Jean was not happy the food arrived on the cooler side (I think she was worried we wouldn't like it) but we were starving and delighted to have anything at all. The dinner, mixed greens, sago pancakes, sago "breast implants" (which we were shown back in the Karawari, but hadn't yet tasted) and a wonderful and delicious sago mash-up (sago bits, sliced green onions, spices and a few other things) was consumed with absolute relish. There was a bit of hot water provided for us (from the wonderful water tanks that Jim and Jean helped the village to install), and Rachel graciously gave me a packet of her Emergen-C, which I made into sort of a hot, flavored, vitamin-C tea, which I happily downed with sheer delight. Quite honestly, there is nothing like being filthy, hungry and exhausted to make one appreciate the little things in life. We ate on the floor of our makeshift bedroom, having changed out of our sopping wet, mud-caked hiking clothes and boots into mercifully dry clothing for sleeping in. We talked, and giggled and generally enjoyed the heck out of our tri-pla meri (3 women together) adventure. Jean disclosed that Jim had privately remarked to her that he had never seen two girls (me and Rachel) giggle so much. He thought we were like giddy schoolgirls. Of course, that sent Rachel and me into gales of laughter yet again.
 |
| These are the sago gelatinous mounds (what Jim calls "breast implants") that we were served in the village. The are about as tasty as they look. Maybe less. But we ate them anyway. |
 |
| Delicious fried plantains (left) and mixed local cooked greens (right) in the village. We were happy to eat these! |
No comments:
Post a Comment