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I've been making natural history films for over 60 years
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and, in the process, I've been to some very interesting places
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but, every now and again, I've been allowed to make a film
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about my other enthusiasms -
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about the history of exploration,
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about tribal objects or the life of a great scientist.
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You could call them my Passion Projects.
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In 1971, I joined an expedition into a patch of unknown territory
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in the heart of Papua New Guinea,
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and made a film about it, which we called Blank On The Map.
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Nobody, as far as I knew, had ever recorded on film the method
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whereby, for 500, 600 years, the rest of the world had been explored.
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For all that period of time, if you wanted to explore Africa,
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and you were a European, you got on a boat and got off.
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If you were lucky, there might be horses,
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but there were great parts of Africa where there weren't -
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and, if there were no horses,
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there was no internal combustion engine - you walked.
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There was no other way of doing it.
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I thought it was really very, very romantic
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and, if you were going into a country that you didn't know,
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you would have to take stores, often with a carrier line of 100 porters,
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and there was only one place in the world where you could still do that,
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and that was in New Guinea.
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And I'd told friends of mine in Australia,
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"If you discover that anybody's going to do another
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"one of these long trips, I would love to make a record of it."
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And, after a couple of years of administrating in the BBC,
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the message came from my pals,
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"We've got a trip going on. It may be the last ever."
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And so I said, "Right," and arranged to go.
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These arrows and this bow belong to a man
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who has never seen a European face.
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So does this house.
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I'm in the middle of Central New Guinea,
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and these wonderful mountains all around
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are one of the few places left on the surface of the earth
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that are truly unexplored.
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BIRDS SCREECH AND CHIRP
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Until only a few months ago,
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it was thought that this area of Central New Guinea
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was completely uninhabited,
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and then Laurie Bragg, the assistant district commissioner
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who's responsible for this part of the island,
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was looking at some aerial photographs
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that had been taken to try and map this area,
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to make sense out of this tangle of mountain ranges and rivers.
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And on the photographs, he saw one or two tiny little pinpoints,
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which indicated to him that there,
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there were gardens like this one, and houses and people -
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people who had not been contacted ever by the outside world.
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And so, it was decided to send an expedition to try and find them.
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AEROPLANE WHIRS
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Aeroplanes first arrived in this country way back in the '20s.
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The island of New Guinea is immense - 1,500 miles long,
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lying between Australia and the equator,
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and 50 years ago, its interior was virtually blank on the map.
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The aeroplane has, ever since, been a key tool in filling in that blank.
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Sometimes by dropping supplies to explorers
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who had marched for weeks on end.
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Sometimes by dumping men on a sandbank by an unknown river.
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Sometimes, as now, by giving a man like Laurie Bragg
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a view of what lies ahead of him before he sets off into new country,
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and the view could hardly be described as welcoming -
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an unbroken carpet of green corduroy,
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jungle as thick and as sticky as you can find anywhere.
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PLANE HUMS
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- Does the river look OK for the canoes?
- Oh, yes.
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There doesn't seem to be very many snags. It is...
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It's hard to tell the current from here, but it looks pretty good.
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How many times have you been up this river?
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- I haven't.
- Oh. Has anybody?
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They've been to this next group of people, but not beyond.
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There's a village.
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It's the last known one.
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You can start to see some snags in the river now.
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Getting a bit marginal for canoes now.
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There look as though there are some bad rapids there.
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Will we get as high as this?
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We won't get canoes anywhere near here.
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I'm just trying to pick out that garden area I saw a minute ago.
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There is a big garden complex
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underneath the top of this mountain over here.
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- Is that everything you want to see?
- Yeah, except for clouds.
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Back at his base at Ambunti on the Sepik River,
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Laurie Bragg developed his plans
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in the light of what he had seen
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for a major patrol into those unknown mountains
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to discover just what was there.
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We'll move from Ambunti here,
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downstream along the Sepik in two workboats,
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the Opal and the Sapphire,
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and come into the Karawari River here.
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Follow the Karawari upstream into the Korosameri.
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The work boats should get to about here somewhere.
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And then the river will be too shallow for the work boat,
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and the canoes will shuttle us
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and the rations and patrol gear up to approximately here,
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where I think we'll run out of sufficient depth of water
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to take canoes, and from there, we'll have to walk.
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- What's the walking going to be like?
- It's going to be very difficult.
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- Is it?
- Yes, if we have a look at the - aerial photographs of the area...
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- I don't want to shock you or anything.
- Ha-ha!
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- That's the Salamei river.
- Yeah.
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We won't get that far with the canoes.
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We'll have to walk from down below here somewhere.
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Be moving up along this to that junction there.
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- Yeah.
- Which I don't know what it's called.
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And then we'll get on to this ridge
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and follow that to the crest of the Salamei April Divide.
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- Now, you can see garden areas there.
- Yes.
- See them?
- Yeah.
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And establish ourselves on that ridge somewhere
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- where we find people.
- Mm.
- And let the people come to us.
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Patrols have been the means of administering this country
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ever since Europeans first settled here. Every few months,
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government officers like Laurie Bragg
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take a handful of armed native police,
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leave their stations, and travel for weeks,
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visiting the people in their territory.
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In the settled areas, they see that schools are started
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and roads built and that the people get some sort of medical help,
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even if it's pretty simple.
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In the wilder parts, the job's more dramatic.
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Tribal feuds must be stopped and elementary law established.
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This particular patrol would be different
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only because in addition to doing all that,
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it was going to walk slap across one of the last
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of those empty blank patches on the map
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to try and sort out its geography on the ground
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and, if possible, contact the inhabitants
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who so far have never seen Europeans.
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40 years ago, the Sepik River was notorious for its head-hunters.
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Indeed, it was news of a spectacular headhunting raid
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that made the government decide to establish the station at Ambunti,
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240 miles up the Sepik River, in what was then the Dark Interior.
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The men of one village had raided their neighbours,
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lopped off 28 heads, boiled them and scraped them,
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moulded them with clay,
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and then stuck them up for display in the cult house.
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Even today, it's not unusual to hear of a ritual murder or two
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in the remoter parts,
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away from the main river and the eye of the government.
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90 miles downstream from Ambunti, we left the Sepik
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and turned into a tributary that came in from the south.
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This river was shallower and hemmed in by rafts of floating reeds,
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so we had to leave the two big boats
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and carry on in three dugout canoes, fitted with outboard motors.
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On the Sepik, we had seen quite a lot of people
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travelling along the river in canoes.
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But here, there was no-one,
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just flocks of ducks and eagles and herons.
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After three days of travel,
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we came in to land at the last known village on this river, Inaru.
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This was the end of the easy bit. From now on, we shall be walking.
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Patrols only come up as far as Inaru about once a year,
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and none had ever been beyond it.
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For the villagers, therefore, our arrival was an important event,
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and since there were only about 50 of them,
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we represented a massive, almost overwhelming, invasion.
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The people of Inaru live very simply.
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They plant a few vegetables,
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but they rely heavily on the forest to supply them with fruit and meat.
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The river provides them with fish, mostly black bony catfish,
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and, once a year, it presents them with an enormous bonanza.
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Mayflies. For three days, millions of them hatch
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and rise to swirl in blizzards over the surface of the water.
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No-one knows what particular chemistry in the river
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or change in the climate causes all of them
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to emerge at the same time in this extraordinary fashion,
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but the Inaru people know well enough
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that this limitless gift of food will only be here for a day or so.
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The newly hatched insects are soft and juicy,
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and, eaten still wriggling, just like oysters.
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Our porters relished them, just as the villagers did.
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Life in the jungle may look as though it's blissful and untroubled,
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Adam and Eve in a primitive paradise,
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but, in fact, only too often, it's scourged by disease.
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The headman had a tropical ulcer on his foot the size of a golf ball.
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There were cases of yaws and malaria and skin fungus,
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all diseases easily treated by the medicines that we had with us -
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and the villagers knew that perfectly well,
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and were certainly delighted to see us.
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Communication, however, was not easy.
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Astonishingly, there are over 1,000 mutually incomprehensible
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languages in New Guinea.
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The Inaru language is only spoken by these people
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and two other villages - about 200 people in all.
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If we were to meet any new people on the journey ahead,
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interpreters would obviously be invaluable,
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but plans to get them had already run into snags.
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We're expecting to get a Bisorio bloke
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to interpret for us.
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We haven't got him yet.
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And Bisorio people live over in these hills over here
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and they're nomadic...
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and the local people here have agreed to go and look for them,
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but they're not sure they're going to find them.
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When did they last see them?
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They saw two blokes... two men from this group a month ago
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when they came in from the hills over there to trade for tobacco.
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So, the constable and two Inaru men set off in a canoe
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to try and find us an interpreter,
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a nomad, who might be anywhere
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in several hundred square miles of forest,
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and who might not be to keen on being discovered anyway.
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It seemed a fairly tough assignment.
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The next day, we ourselves would set off on foot,
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following the river into the mountains.
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Since from here on we should be in uncontrolled country,
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there was a chance we might have to defend ourselves,
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so Laurie issued bullets to the police and, at the same time,
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as the regulations insist, gave strict instructions in pidgin
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on when and how a man was permitted to fire them.
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And so the march began. There was no track,
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so two men at the head of the column had to cut a path through the bush
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wide enough for people burdened by heavy and bulky loads.
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Because we had no idea
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when or where we might find villages from whom we could get food
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and shelter, everything we needed had to be brought with us
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and carried on men's shoulders - tents, medicines, lamps,
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surveying equipment, radio gear, personal baggage,
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trade goods such as beads and salt and knives,
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photographic equipment, axes, buckets, and above all, food.
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Food for us, food for the carriers of equipment,
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and more food for those carrying food.
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We marched up the east bank of the river,
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but the main area of unknown country lay to the west,
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and so, eventually, we had to cross it.
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At this point, it was just possible for one man without a load
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to swim across, but to get the whole party over,
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we had to build a bridge.
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The New Guinea forests most generously provide you
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with everything you need
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for the construction of a first-rate suspension bridge -
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primarily Kanda, a kind of long, straggling cane
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that grows throughout the forest,
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draping itself over trees
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and along the ground like a carelessly laid cable.
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It grows, astonishingly, into lengths up to 500ft long
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and it's as strong as any rope.
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Three lengths bundled together will form the basic cable
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on which to put our feet.
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One on either side will serve as handrails,
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and the whole contraption will be tied together
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with string made from splitting kanda.
246
00:15:46,680 --> 00:15:50,200
106 carriers, quite apart from ourselves,
247
00:15:50,200 --> 00:15:52,600
have got across that bridge.
248
00:15:52,600 --> 00:15:57,520
106 sounds an absurd, almost ludicrously, large number,
249
00:15:57,520 --> 00:15:59,960
but the basic calculation is this -
250
00:15:59,960 --> 00:16:04,960
if one man carrying nothing or carrying just a tent or trade salts
251
00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:09,440
or a radio is going to survive in the field for a fortnight,
252
00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:12,600
he needs two other men, carrying nothing
253
00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:15,960
but food to provide him with food and them with food.
254
00:16:15,960 --> 00:16:19,120
If you want to stay longer than a fortnight in the field,
255
00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:23,400
and we do, you've either got to arrange for an air drop
256
00:16:23,400 --> 00:16:27,480
or you've got to live off the country.
257
00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:29,960
We can't live off the country
258
00:16:29,960 --> 00:16:31,960
because there are very few people here
259
00:16:31,960 --> 00:16:35,320
and, anyway, turning up for dinner with 106 porters
260
00:16:35,320 --> 00:16:37,600
is hardly a way to endear yourself.
261
00:16:37,600 --> 00:16:40,480
Or else, of course, we could starve.
262
00:16:40,480 --> 00:16:43,640
We're planning to get an air drop.
263
00:16:43,640 --> 00:16:47,080
But first, we've got to cross this river.
264
00:17:02,160 --> 00:17:04,440
MEN SHOUT
265
00:17:27,440 --> 00:17:29,760
The forest, as we had seen from the air,
266
00:17:29,760 --> 00:17:31,960
was as continuous as a carpet.
267
00:17:31,960 --> 00:17:35,800
There were no clearings, no patches of grassland, no meadows,
268
00:17:35,800 --> 00:17:39,200
and in order to get enough clear space in which to pitch tents,
269
00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:41,000
we had to cut down trees,
270
00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:43,480
and that takes time and energy.
271
00:17:43,480 --> 00:17:47,520
So every day we stopped at about four o'clock in the afternoon.
272
00:17:47,520 --> 00:17:51,640
That gave us time to make camp and get settled in before sundown.
273
00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:54,840
But since by then we had been marching for nine hours anyway,
274
00:17:54,840 --> 00:17:56,960
it was none too soon for most of us.
275
00:17:58,400 --> 00:18:00,800
The first job on making camp in the evening
276
00:18:00,800 --> 00:18:03,560
was to put up the aerial for the portable radio,
277
00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:06,880
so that Laurie Bragg could report back to his base at Ambunti
278
00:18:06,880 --> 00:18:09,960
and they would know just where we were if anything were to go wrong.
279
00:18:14,560 --> 00:18:18,520
Ambunti, Ambunti portable. Ambunti, Ambunti portable. Do you read?
280
00:18:21,120 --> 00:18:24,520
Roger. Now, on the aerial photograph,
281
00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:26,800
we're on the Salamei river
282
00:18:26,800 --> 00:18:30,960
immediately north of the nick in the top frame.
283
00:18:31,960 --> 00:18:36,520
Our intention now is to remain at this campsite
284
00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:39,000
for one or two days,
285
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:43,400
to allow the constable and the Bisorio interpreters
286
00:18:43,400 --> 00:18:46,320
he's gone to look for to catch us up.
287
00:18:46,320 --> 00:18:48,160
Have you got that, over?
288
00:18:50,800 --> 00:18:53,360
Yeah, roger, roger. That's all. Roger.
289
00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:00,360
After three days of hard walking, a rest day is a blessing
290
00:19:00,360 --> 00:19:02,360
that everybody's grateful for.
291
00:19:02,360 --> 00:19:05,920
Their bruises and cuts and strains
292
00:19:05,920 --> 00:19:07,560
get a chance to heal,
293
00:19:07,560 --> 00:19:11,200
there's one man who's got a dose of malaria...
294
00:19:11,200 --> 00:19:14,640
and it also gives a chance to see something of the wildlife
295
00:19:14,640 --> 00:19:16,640
in the forests around here.
296
00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:18,560
When you're tramping through it -
297
00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:21,680
110 men, lugging patrol boxes about -
298
00:19:21,680 --> 00:19:23,320
you make a certain amount of noise
299
00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:27,960
so you don't expect to see much wildlife in the bush.
300
00:19:27,960 --> 00:19:31,720
But moving alone and by yourself, well, you've got a chance.
301
00:19:31,720 --> 00:19:35,960
But this bush around here in New Guinea
302
00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:38,640
is a very strange sort of bush.
303
00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:41,440
There aren't any big mammals - there are no monkeys,
304
00:19:41,440 --> 00:19:45,280
there aren't elephants or tigers or lions.
305
00:19:45,280 --> 00:19:49,400
In fact there are no big mammals at all in New Guinea.
306
00:19:49,400 --> 00:19:51,760
But what this forest DOES have,
307
00:19:51,760 --> 00:19:56,200
and which gives it a unique excitement and splendour,
308
00:19:56,200 --> 00:19:58,000
are birds of paradise.
309
00:19:58,000 --> 00:20:00,760
We've already heard them calling around the camp,
310
00:20:00,760 --> 00:20:03,160
and with any luck we might see some of them.
311
00:20:10,680 --> 00:20:12,560
And there IS one -
312
00:20:12,560 --> 00:20:14,200
lurking low down in a tree,
313
00:20:14,200 --> 00:20:17,360
swinging his train of yellow plumes.
314
00:20:17,360 --> 00:20:20,640
These marvellous birds assemble in the tops of trees
315
00:20:20,640 --> 00:20:22,720
and display to one another every morning
316
00:20:22,720 --> 00:20:24,760
in the half-light of early dawn.
317
00:20:24,760 --> 00:20:28,640
That is a wonderful enough sight, which few people have seen.
318
00:20:28,640 --> 00:20:30,760
Now, however, it was afternoon,
319
00:20:30,760 --> 00:20:33,360
and it looked as though we might be even more lucky,
320
00:20:33,360 --> 00:20:36,320
and see a rare performance of the display dance
321
00:20:36,320 --> 00:20:38,360
in the full blaze of sunshine.
322
00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:40,440
Undoubtedly, these plumed males
323
00:20:40,440 --> 00:20:42,440
assembling in their display
324
00:20:42,440 --> 00:20:45,040
were getting more and more excited.
325
00:20:47,480 --> 00:20:50,600
Slowly, they hopped onto higher and higher branches,
326
00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:52,960
until they reached the very summit of the tree,
327
00:20:52,960 --> 00:20:55,520
where they had stripped the leaves from one branch
328
00:20:55,520 --> 00:20:57,840
so that on this, their display ground,
329
00:20:57,840 --> 00:20:59,680
they could dance unimpeded.
330
00:21:02,760 --> 00:21:05,320
Now there were eight of these splendid creatures
331
00:21:05,320 --> 00:21:06,880
in a frenzy of excitement,
332
00:21:06,880 --> 00:21:10,880
displaying to one another as their performance mounted to its climax.
333
00:21:10,880 --> 00:21:13,920
This is a males' dance only - a competition
334
00:21:13,920 --> 00:21:15,960
not so much to impress the female,
335
00:21:15,960 --> 00:21:18,480
but to gain dominance over rival males.
336
00:21:18,480 --> 00:21:20,720
It's always performed in the same tree,
337
00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:22,240
and that is often their downfall -
338
00:21:22,240 --> 00:21:24,960
for some tribes hunt them for their plumes,
339
00:21:24,960 --> 00:21:27,800
which are used as money with which to buy pigs and wives.
340
00:21:27,800 --> 00:21:31,280
Here, however, in this uninhabited wilderness,
341
00:21:31,280 --> 00:21:33,080
they can dance unmolested.
342
00:21:46,560 --> 00:21:50,840
And this, apart from the pig, is the biggest mammal in the island.
343
00:21:50,840 --> 00:21:54,400
An absurd and endearing creature, the tree kangaroo.
344
00:22:00,520 --> 00:22:03,240
Above it was another - a baby.
345
00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:10,960
It seems quite ridiculous that an animal shaped like a kangaroo
346
00:22:10,960 --> 00:22:14,200
should have decided to try and climb into a tree.
347
00:22:14,200 --> 00:22:16,440
Its legs, which are splendid for hopping,
348
00:22:16,440 --> 00:22:20,240
seem to be a positive liability up in the branches, and indeed,
349
00:22:20,240 --> 00:22:23,440
to be truthful, tree kangaroos are pretty clumsy creatures
350
00:22:23,440 --> 00:22:27,240
and always in imminent danger of falling out of their trees.
351
00:22:32,880 --> 00:22:37,560
Another of New Guinea's splendid and extraordinary decorated birds -
352
00:22:37,560 --> 00:22:39,240
the Goura pigeon.
353
00:22:39,240 --> 00:22:41,040
The largest of all the pigeons,
354
00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:43,440
with a marvellous silver-spotted tiara,
355
00:22:43,440 --> 00:22:47,040
which it uses just like the birds of paradise in display dances.
356
00:22:47,040 --> 00:22:49,880
It spends most of its time on the ground,
357
00:22:49,880 --> 00:22:53,600
and, unhappily for its own wellbeing, makes pretty good eating.
358
00:22:58,240 --> 00:23:02,400
The next day, seven days after leaving Inaru, the constable,
359
00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:05,360
who had gone to look for the interpreter, caught up with us.
360
00:23:05,360 --> 00:23:07,960
He gave his report to Laurie in pidgin,
361
00:23:07,960 --> 00:23:12,200
and though I couldn't understand all he said, it looked like bad news.
362
00:23:12,200 --> 00:23:15,000
HE SPEAKS IN PIDGIN
363
00:23:19,720 --> 00:23:23,280
THEY SPEAK IN PIDGIN
364
00:23:33,680 --> 00:23:36,960
He had found no-one. It was a real blow.
365
00:23:36,960 --> 00:23:40,000
But there was nothing we could do now except go on.
366
00:23:44,520 --> 00:23:46,840
You have to watch where you put your hands.
367
00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:48,560
If you grab a branch for support,
368
00:23:48,560 --> 00:23:51,440
in order to steady yourself, without looking at it closely,
369
00:23:51,440 --> 00:23:53,840
as like as not you will stab your palm
370
00:23:53,840 --> 00:23:56,240
full of long, barbed thorns.
371
00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:58,400
It's extraordinary in the circumstances
372
00:23:58,400 --> 00:24:01,520
how quickly you become quite a good practical botanist,
373
00:24:01,520 --> 00:24:04,200
able to recognise some sorts of tree in a flash.
374
00:24:08,960 --> 00:24:10,880
Now that we had left the rivers,
375
00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:14,960
we were navigating for much of the time on simple compass bearings.
376
00:24:17,640 --> 00:24:20,680
HE SPEAKS IN PIDGIN
377
00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:36,000
And then, suddenly, two weeks after setting out,
378
00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:38,360
as we cut our way up a ridge,
379
00:24:38,360 --> 00:24:42,160
the sharp eye of our trackers noticed an old break in a sapling.
380
00:24:43,200 --> 00:24:47,240
Someone else, a few months ago, had passed this way.
381
00:24:47,240 --> 00:24:49,360
That morning, we saw several more.
382
00:24:49,360 --> 00:24:52,640
The rigs we were following must be a route used by those people
383
00:24:52,640 --> 00:24:56,520
whose houses we had seen from the air. They couldn't be far away.
384
00:24:56,520 --> 00:24:58,720
Indeed, they might well be watching us
385
00:24:58,720 --> 00:25:02,440
as we crashed so clumsily and noisily through the forest.
386
00:25:09,200 --> 00:25:12,320
And then, unexpectedly, we marched into a clearing,
387
00:25:12,320 --> 00:25:15,080
and there ahead of us was a house.
388
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:19,320
It was big enough to hold an entire family group of 20 or so people.
389
00:25:19,320 --> 00:25:21,840
It was also clearly a fortress,
390
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:23,600
built on stilts for protection,
391
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:25,440
with loopholes through the sides
392
00:25:25,440 --> 00:25:27,720
from which defenders could fire arrows.
393
00:25:27,720 --> 00:25:30,400
The question was whether the fortress was manned,
394
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:34,120
and whether we, without interpreters to explain our intentions,
395
00:25:34,120 --> 00:25:36,680
would be taken as friends or enemies.
396
00:25:36,680 --> 00:25:37,960
Oi!
397
00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:46,400
Oi!
398
00:25:48,920 --> 00:25:51,520
There was no reaction. Nothing moved.
399
00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:02,400
The entrance was barricaded with a huge, heavy plank.
400
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:05,680
It looked as though the house was deserted, but we couldn't be sure.
401
00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,400
It could be that the people were simply not at home,
402
00:26:08,400 --> 00:26:10,920
but out hunting somewhere in the forest.
403
00:26:10,920 --> 00:26:13,440
Or that they had taken fright at our approach
404
00:26:13,440 --> 00:26:16,960
and were somewhere nearby, watching what we would do.
405
00:26:16,960 --> 00:26:18,960
Or it could even be an ambush.
406
00:26:50,560 --> 00:26:54,200
This narrow corridor is a very effective fortification.
407
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:58,320
Nobody could get into this house armed only with spears
408
00:26:58,320 --> 00:27:00,040
and bows and arrows...
409
00:27:00,040 --> 00:27:01,960
if the owners didn't want them to.
410
00:27:03,120 --> 00:27:05,080
And this is the only room.
411
00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:12,560
These...
412
00:27:12,560 --> 00:27:14,120
I don't know what's in here.
413
00:27:14,120 --> 00:27:16,200
From the weight of it, it's quite light,
414
00:27:16,200 --> 00:27:17,840
perhaps it's a dancing skirt.
415
00:27:19,840 --> 00:27:23,160
And here, carefully strung on vines...
416
00:27:24,960 --> 00:27:30,320
..these, I think, are the eggs of the bush turkey, the megapode.
417
00:27:37,720 --> 00:27:39,280
The back here...
418
00:27:44,040 --> 00:27:45,360
RATTLING
419
00:27:46,520 --> 00:27:49,960
These dancing beads, dancing rattles.
420
00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:54,680
And here at the back...
421
00:27:56,600 --> 00:28:00,240
..jawbones of pigs, carefully strung up and preserved.
422
00:28:00,240 --> 00:28:02,040
The pig, all over New Guinea,
423
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:05,480
is an animal of great ceremonial importance.
424
00:28:05,480 --> 00:28:08,960
And this is unusual. At least, I've not seen it before.
425
00:28:08,960 --> 00:28:11,040
The jawbones of piglets, too.
426
00:28:13,720 --> 00:28:19,480
And this savage and effective-looking dagger...
427
00:28:19,480 --> 00:28:20,960
carefully incised on the tip.
428
00:28:23,320 --> 00:28:28,440
This is made from the leg bone of the cassowary,
429
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:30,720
the New Guinea ostrich.
430
00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:36,480
And here, a formidable armoury of arrows.
431
00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:45,440
These, with the bamboo blades, are normally used for killing pigs.
432
00:28:45,440 --> 00:28:50,680
And these, with the hardwood points, sometimes the bone points,
433
00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:53,960
I asked one of the local people once what they were used for,
434
00:28:53,960 --> 00:28:58,720
he said, "Oh, they killing man." These are war arrows.
435
00:29:02,560 --> 00:29:04,360
A rack of firewood.
436
00:29:06,360 --> 00:29:09,240
And above me, the rafters of the roof
437
00:29:09,240 --> 00:29:15,080
are most carefully and meticulously lashed with a decorative pattern.
438
00:29:20,560 --> 00:29:21,600
The fireplace.
439
00:29:24,320 --> 00:29:28,200
The stones are still warm. They were here just recently.
440
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:36,320
Here is the fire stick that they use for making fire.
441
00:29:36,320 --> 00:29:38,080
It's got those notches.
442
00:29:38,080 --> 00:29:40,680
You put it beneath your foot and...
443
00:29:41,920 --> 00:29:43,800
..pull it with a rattan cane.
444
00:29:45,680 --> 00:29:49,240
So they were here quite recently. But now...
445
00:29:50,680 --> 00:29:52,480
..the place is totally deserted.
446
00:29:56,640 --> 00:29:59,280
We couldn't have stayed by that house any longer,
447
00:29:59,280 --> 00:30:01,760
for we were running short of food.
448
00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:04,560
But although we hadn't actually seen the people themselves,
449
00:30:04,560 --> 00:30:07,440
we had learned quite a lot about them from the house itself
450
00:30:07,440 --> 00:30:09,360
and the objects inside it.
451
00:30:19,600 --> 00:30:22,440
The following day, we were due to get an airdrop of supplies.
452
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:24,000
Before we had set out,
453
00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:26,920
Laurie had agreed with the pilot on a date for the drop,
454
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,000
and together, they had picked a place which -
455
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:31,880
judging from the air photographs - seemed suitable,
456
00:30:31,880 --> 00:30:33,640
where the ground was relatively flat
457
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:37,320
and the plane could get a decent approach run through the mountains.
458
00:30:37,320 --> 00:30:40,560
Our problem now was to get there on time and, preferably,
459
00:30:40,560 --> 00:30:42,280
with all our gear dry.
460
00:30:44,240 --> 00:30:45,840
MEN SHOUT
461
00:30:51,320 --> 00:30:54,440
When we got to the drop site, we felled trees to make
462
00:30:54,440 --> 00:30:57,320
an open space and spread out tarpaulins
463
00:30:57,320 --> 00:30:59,840
as markers for the pilot to aim at.
464
00:30:59,840 --> 00:31:02,760
And just so that several tons of stores weren't dropped
465
00:31:02,760 --> 00:31:07,440
on the tarpaulins we used as tents, we concealed those with branches.
466
00:31:12,800 --> 00:31:15,920
The pilot would need all the help he could get to find us,
467
00:31:15,920 --> 00:31:17,560
so we lit a fire as well.
468
00:31:20,880 --> 00:31:23,720
PLANE ENGINE ROARS
469
00:31:30,440 --> 00:31:32,760
THEY SHOUT
470
00:31:35,360 --> 00:31:37,440
Hopeless, miles off target!
471
00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:39,120
The porters were furious.
472
00:31:39,120 --> 00:31:41,440
It would be a lot of work climbing around in the bush
473
00:31:41,440 --> 00:31:43,680
trying to find those bags.
474
00:31:43,680 --> 00:31:46,840
PORTERS SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
475
00:31:46,840 --> 00:31:49,800
For the second pass, he came in much lower.
476
00:31:58,280 --> 00:31:59,760
Bang in the centre.
477
00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:19,960
One, two, three, four, five.
478
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:26,480
Three passes, six bags on each drop,
479
00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:28,960
18 bags of rice, tinned meat,
480
00:32:28,960 --> 00:32:32,560
sugar and salt that somehow had got to be found.
481
00:32:34,880 --> 00:32:36,880
That day, our spirits were high.
482
00:32:36,880 --> 00:32:39,680
We had been on short rations for some time past,
483
00:32:39,680 --> 00:32:43,880
and everyone was looking forward to an enormous meal that evening.
484
00:32:43,880 --> 00:32:47,080
The next morning, things didn't look quite so good.
485
00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:49,120
The loads, which over the past few days
486
00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:52,680
had been getting lighter and lighter as we ate our way through them,
487
00:32:52,680 --> 00:32:55,600
had suddenly become crushingly heavy again
488
00:32:55,600 --> 00:32:58,080
with all the stores from the airdrop.
489
00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:01,480
Always, as we marched, Laurie took bearings on mountains
490
00:33:01,480 --> 00:33:05,280
and river bends to check where we were on the air photographs
491
00:33:05,280 --> 00:33:07,760
and build up a detailed map of our progress.
492
00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:16,960
One of the least attractive experiences of walking
493
00:33:16,960 --> 00:33:19,080
through forest like this are these creatures.
494
00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:22,360
Eugh.
495
00:33:22,360 --> 00:33:24,080
A leech.
496
00:33:24,080 --> 00:33:26,240
Fortunately, I managed to get it this time,
497
00:33:26,240 --> 00:33:29,480
before it started sucking my blood.
498
00:33:29,480 --> 00:33:32,680
But there are plenty more of its brothers around here
499
00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:34,680
just waiting for me to pass their way.
500
00:33:34,680 --> 00:33:36,880
I can see them even here, on the leaves.
501
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:43,240
The existence of the leeches in this forest is, to me, really, a puzzle,
502
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:47,920
because they are creatures which are very specially modified
503
00:33:47,920 --> 00:33:50,200
to live only on blood -
504
00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:53,240
say a human being's blood or pig's blood -
505
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:56,800
but there are very, very few pigs in these forests
506
00:33:56,800 --> 00:33:59,400
and even fewer human beings.
507
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:02,320
And yet, wherever we walk, every day,
508
00:34:02,320 --> 00:34:05,240
we see dozens and dozens and dozens of leeches.
509
00:34:05,240 --> 00:34:07,280
How they survive, I don't know.
510
00:34:07,280 --> 00:34:10,160
Where they get their food from, I have no idea.
511
00:34:10,160 --> 00:34:12,760
I just wish that they themselves realised
512
00:34:12,760 --> 00:34:16,120
that their existence and survival is an impossibility.
513
00:34:18,040 --> 00:34:21,280
And this, on the other hand, is one of the most engaging,
514
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:25,320
indeed slightly lunatic inhabitants of the forest - the echidna.
515
00:34:25,320 --> 00:34:26,880
An amiable, myopic creature
516
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:30,080
which has the same nonsensical group of characteristics
517
00:34:30,080 --> 00:34:31,800
as the duck-billed platypus.
518
00:34:31,800 --> 00:34:35,560
It's got warm blood, feeds its young on milk and lays eggs.
519
00:34:39,000 --> 00:34:41,240
There are poisonous snakes in New Guinea,
520
00:34:41,240 --> 00:34:43,920
and undoubtedly, they exist in some numbers.
521
00:34:43,920 --> 00:34:46,680
But they are very hard to find, and usually,
522
00:34:46,680 --> 00:34:49,520
they slither away before you have a decent chance to look at them.
523
00:34:49,520 --> 00:34:53,480
This one is quite harmless. A beautiful emerald green tree python.
524
00:35:03,640 --> 00:35:07,520
And then, once more, we came across signs of human beings.
525
00:35:07,520 --> 00:35:09,440
This is a pig trap.
526
00:35:09,440 --> 00:35:11,440
The pig would come down this corridor
527
00:35:11,440 --> 00:35:15,000
and trigger off a log hanging above it with a spear in it.
528
00:35:15,000 --> 00:35:17,160
The trap was old and long since sprung,
529
00:35:17,160 --> 00:35:20,800
but at least it was a sign that the forest was inhabited.
530
00:35:32,480 --> 00:35:35,040
Day after day, we trudged on.
531
00:35:35,040 --> 00:35:37,800
We made careful notes of all the rivers that we crossed -
532
00:35:37,800 --> 00:35:40,520
which way they flowed and how far apart they were -
533
00:35:40,520 --> 00:35:43,800
of the different kinds of rocks we saw on the river beds
534
00:35:43,800 --> 00:35:46,120
and the kinds of trees in the forests.
535
00:35:46,120 --> 00:35:49,160
We took altitude readings and natural history notes,
536
00:35:49,160 --> 00:35:52,040
and compass bearings of prominent peaks and rivers.
537
00:35:52,040 --> 00:35:54,960
Certainly, we left behind us a trail through the bush
538
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:56,600
that would make it much easier
539
00:35:56,600 --> 00:35:59,160
for anyone who ever had to come this way again.
540
00:36:01,040 --> 00:36:04,640
As we made camp on the 25th night of the patrol,
541
00:36:04,640 --> 00:36:08,520
it was no good denying that we were feeling pretty depressed.
542
00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:11,200
We had all hoped to get some glimpse of the shy people
543
00:36:11,200 --> 00:36:12,960
who we knew lived here.
544
00:36:12,960 --> 00:36:16,680
But we were now within three days of coming out on the other side of
545
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,120
the blank on the map into known country,
546
00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,040
and we haven't seen anything of them.
547
00:36:22,040 --> 00:36:25,760
PORTERS SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
548
00:36:26,880 --> 00:36:29,720
Laurie reckons that we must be in the territory of a tribe
549
00:36:29,720 --> 00:36:31,840
known to their neighbours as the Biami.
550
00:36:32,840 --> 00:36:36,200
Their name was the only word of their language that we knew.
551
00:36:36,200 --> 00:36:39,520
So that evening we sent out a porter
552
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:41,440
to call that name over and over again.
553
00:36:41,440 --> 00:36:43,000
Biami!
554
00:36:44,120 --> 00:36:45,520
Biami!
555
00:36:48,200 --> 00:36:50,120
Biami!
556
00:36:52,960 --> 00:36:54,400
Biami!
557
00:36:56,720 --> 00:36:58,280
Biami!
558
00:36:58,280 --> 00:37:00,120
It was very cold that night.
559
00:37:00,120 --> 00:37:03,760
Next morning, it was drizzling, and no-one was anxious to move -
560
00:37:03,760 --> 00:37:07,920
until suddenly, a porter called out "Biami", and there they were.
561
00:37:14,760 --> 00:37:16,480
Biami, huh?
562
00:37:16,480 --> 00:37:18,200
- Biami.
- Biami.
563
00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:24,080
Biami. Biami.
564
00:37:25,760 --> 00:37:28,040
THEY SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
565
00:37:28,040 --> 00:37:33,480
Bia-ma, Bia-ma, Bia-ma, Bia-ma...
566
00:37:35,880 --> 00:37:38,360
Bia-ma, Bia-ma.
567
00:37:48,080 --> 00:37:52,160
- Siti.
- Siti.
- LAURIE:
- Sitifa?
568
00:37:52,160 --> 00:37:54,320
Sitifa is the name of a river.
569
00:37:56,560 --> 00:38:00,200
THEY CONTINUE IN OWN LANGUAGE
570
00:38:17,200 --> 00:38:19,720
'We tried to ask them, by gestures,
571
00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:23,360
'to bring in their women and children and to bring us food.
572
00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:26,840
'It was not that we really needed their taro or bananas,
573
00:38:26,840 --> 00:38:29,680
'but trade is a proper and decent relationship
574
00:38:29,680 --> 00:38:32,160
'with dignity and respect on both sides.
575
00:38:32,160 --> 00:38:35,480
'We didn't want our meeting to become a question of the rich
576
00:38:35,480 --> 00:38:38,040
'handing out gifts to the poor.
577
00:38:38,040 --> 00:38:40,800
'Perhaps, too, they might persuade their neighbours,
578
00:38:40,800 --> 00:38:44,360
'who had run away from us, the Bukaru, to come in as well.
579
00:38:44,360 --> 00:38:47,800
'But with no common words between us except for proper names,
580
00:38:47,800 --> 00:38:50,000
'the message wasn't easy to get across.'
581
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:52,720
TRIBESMEN SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
582
00:38:57,640 --> 00:38:59,720
Bukaru, Bukaru...
583
00:39:53,280 --> 00:39:56,000
'One of the most popular gifts in the remoter parts
584
00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:57,560
'of New Guinea is newspaper.
585
00:39:57,560 --> 00:40:00,560
'It is used for smoking the raw, powerful tobacco
586
00:40:00,560 --> 00:40:02,320
'that every village grows.
587
00:40:02,320 --> 00:40:06,320
'Some people will carry a load for a day for a couple of sheets or so.
588
00:40:06,320 --> 00:40:09,480
'But these people normally use dried leaves as cigarette wrapping,
589
00:40:09,480 --> 00:40:12,280
'and had no idea what to do with the paper.
590
00:40:12,280 --> 00:40:15,920
'They took it rather as though it was some sort of useless memento.
591
00:40:20,680 --> 00:40:24,360
'This plainly was not a success, so Laurie tried salt instead.
592
00:40:27,840 --> 00:40:31,880
'This was much better received, and what with that, and cigarettes
593
00:40:31,880 --> 00:40:36,280
'made for them from newspaper by the police, all looked well.'
594
00:40:37,520 --> 00:40:39,440
- Bikaru...
- Bikaru.
595
00:40:42,640 --> 00:40:46,080
- Lalu.
- Lalu, Lalu... - Bukaru.
- Bukaru.
596
00:40:48,520 --> 00:40:49,920
Bukaru.
597
00:40:59,880 --> 00:41:03,160
PORTER ATTEMPTS TO TRANSLATE
598
00:41:07,680 --> 00:41:10,800
'After about an hour, when they started to leave,
599
00:41:10,800 --> 00:41:14,720
'they seemed to be as delighted with the meeting as we were ourselves.
600
00:41:35,320 --> 00:41:37,520
'That night, we reported back to base
601
00:41:37,520 --> 00:41:39,000
'in a much happier frame of mind.
602
00:41:39,000 --> 00:41:41,920
'Except for the fact that the radio was giving serious trouble.'
603
00:41:41,920 --> 00:41:43,200
FEEDBACK
604
00:41:43,200 --> 00:41:45,160
I'll go ahead, I think that's through to base.
605
00:41:45,160 --> 00:41:49,840
Our position is I1, the bottom of I1.
606
00:41:49,840 --> 00:41:52,480
If you've got that, give us a long roger, would you?
607
00:41:52,480 --> 00:41:54,920
- MUFFLED REPLY:
- Roger, roger...
608
00:41:57,200 --> 00:41:59,680
Strength at half, strength at half,
609
00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:01,920
we've got a broken wire in the set, over.
610
00:42:05,240 --> 00:42:07,720
MUFFLED REPLY
611
00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:13,680
I think you said you had nothing for us, I didn't hear properly.
612
00:42:13,680 --> 00:42:17,280
If you're writing in to the DC, you could let him know
613
00:42:17,280 --> 00:42:21,240
that we have found our first group of people,
614
00:42:21,240 --> 00:42:23,960
first group of people, we will stay here tomorrow
615
00:42:23,960 --> 00:42:25,960
and maybe some of them will come in.
616
00:42:28,440 --> 00:42:30,040
But would they?
617
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:32,960
Would they be sufficiently convinced of our goodwill
618
00:42:32,960 --> 00:42:34,120
to risk another visit?
619
00:42:34,120 --> 00:42:36,960
Certainly, they had seemed happy enough when they were with us,
620
00:42:36,960 --> 00:42:39,160
but no-one was taking any bets.
621
00:42:46,760 --> 00:42:49,280
But the next morning, there they were again.
622
00:42:49,280 --> 00:42:52,160
And what is more, they were carrying loads of food.
623
00:43:06,440 --> 00:43:09,280
TRIBESMEN SPEAK OWN LANGUAGE
624
00:43:18,680 --> 00:43:20,200
'There wasn't much of it.
625
00:43:20,200 --> 00:43:22,280
'Certainly not enough to make much difference
626
00:43:22,280 --> 00:43:23,960
'to the rations of 100 men.
627
00:43:23,960 --> 00:43:26,080
'But it was a proper basis for trade.
628
00:43:36,040 --> 00:43:38,600
'Now they seemed sufficiently confident for me
629
00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:40,560
'to look at their personal ornaments,
630
00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:44,440
'and perhaps in the process discover a few Biami words.
631
00:43:44,440 --> 00:43:48,080
'In his ear, he had what I recognised as a cassowary quill
632
00:43:48,080 --> 00:43:49,200
'bent into a ring.
633
00:43:50,680 --> 00:43:53,480
'Every one of them had two ritual punctures in his nose,
634
00:43:53,480 --> 00:43:56,520
'and he had pegs in them. What were they?
635
00:44:05,040 --> 00:44:08,280
'It turned out they were just little wooden pegs.
636
00:44:19,320 --> 00:44:22,760
'There was a bone through his ear as well, but from what?'
637
00:44:22,760 --> 00:44:24,760
- Kokomo, kokomo.
- Kokomo.
638
00:44:26,200 --> 00:44:27,600
- Kokomo?
- Mm.
639
00:44:27,600 --> 00:44:28,880
DAVID SQUAWKS
640
00:44:28,880 --> 00:44:30,960
'Hornbill.
641
00:44:36,800 --> 00:44:39,960
'This was the claw of a tree kangaroo.'
642
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:41,360
Salam?
643
00:44:43,080 --> 00:44:44,960
Uh?
644
00:44:44,960 --> 00:44:48,200
'So the Biami word for tree kangaroo is "salam".
645
00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:50,520
'And now, trading began.
646
00:45:16,200 --> 00:45:19,160
'This time, one of the police offered glass beads.
647
00:45:19,160 --> 00:45:21,400
'Again, highly valued by other tribes.
648
00:45:42,000 --> 00:45:46,360
'But again, though they accepted them, they didn't seem overjoyed.
649
00:46:01,080 --> 00:46:03,480
'So we went back to salt.
650
00:46:33,560 --> 00:46:36,280
HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE
651
00:46:40,160 --> 00:46:43,400
'Laurie now tried to put local names
652
00:46:43,400 --> 00:46:45,600
'to some of the rivers on his sketch map.'
653
00:47:09,080 --> 00:47:11,840
I suppose it's Setifa.
654
00:47:14,080 --> 00:47:16,600
'But then the Biami decided that we wanted to count
655
00:47:16,600 --> 00:47:18,520
'how many rivers there were.
656
00:47:18,520 --> 00:47:22,680
'The gestures used in counting vary considerably from tribe to tribe.
657
00:47:22,680 --> 00:47:24,240
'If we could discover their method,
658
00:47:24,240 --> 00:47:26,920
'we might learn something of their tribal connections,
659
00:47:26,920 --> 00:47:30,560
'so Laurie listed the names of rivers he had already discovered.'
660
00:47:31,760 --> 00:47:34,880
- Hiyami.
- Hiyami.
- 'Six.'
661
00:47:35,960 --> 00:47:38,320
- Lalu.
- Lalu.
662
00:47:40,880 --> 00:47:42,400
'Eight.'
663
00:47:47,520 --> 00:47:49,840
- Harifa.
- Harifa.
664
00:47:49,840 --> 00:47:50,880
'Nine.'
665
00:48:05,000 --> 00:48:06,400
Samo.
666
00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:10,240
Sao. Sao, Sao!
667
00:48:10,240 --> 00:48:12,520
Sao, Sao, Sao...
668
00:48:14,480 --> 00:48:15,600
'11.'
669
00:48:25,080 --> 00:48:30,120
The cost of bringing about this meeting has been quite considerable.
670
00:48:30,120 --> 00:48:33,240
Over 100 men have marched for other four weeks.
671
00:48:33,240 --> 00:48:35,400
There have been at least three cases of pneumonia
672
00:48:35,400 --> 00:48:40,000
and a great number of bruises and abrasions and cuts.
673
00:48:40,000 --> 00:48:43,280
Not to mention an airdrop. Is it worth it?
674
00:48:44,680 --> 00:48:48,160
Well, nobody knows what are in these valleys.
675
00:48:48,160 --> 00:48:50,560
It may be that there is gold here.
676
00:48:50,560 --> 00:48:53,240
It may be, like a valley less than 100 miles away,
677
00:48:53,240 --> 00:48:54,920
it is rich with copper.
678
00:48:54,920 --> 00:49:00,520
If it is, and if the West, European man, moves in here
679
00:49:00,520 --> 00:49:04,640
with all his technology, the fate of these people
680
00:49:04,640 --> 00:49:07,600
is likely to be a very unhappy one.
681
00:49:08,600 --> 00:49:11,480
All we know in the past of people like this
682
00:49:11,480 --> 00:49:14,720
who have come face-to-face with Western technology
683
00:49:14,720 --> 00:49:18,360
leads us to suppose that it is very difficult for them
684
00:49:18,360 --> 00:49:20,000
to survive that clash.
685
00:49:21,520 --> 00:49:26,320
And so, the only chance of bringing these people to terms
686
00:49:26,320 --> 00:49:31,200
with the world outside is a gradual process over years,
687
00:49:31,200 --> 00:49:32,720
over tens of years,
688
00:49:32,720 --> 00:49:34,960
in which, gradually, they get to know
689
00:49:34,960 --> 00:49:37,080
what happens in the outside world.
690
00:49:37,080 --> 00:49:40,440
Gradually, they get to believe that people like ourselves
691
00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:43,000
are their friends and not their enemies.
692
00:49:43,000 --> 00:49:46,240
Gradually, they have enough confidence in us to allow us
693
00:49:46,240 --> 00:49:49,560
to give them medical help and educational help.
694
00:49:50,560 --> 00:49:52,920
It would have been easy, I daresay,
695
00:49:52,920 --> 00:49:55,160
for us to have tried to dazzle them now
696
00:49:55,160 --> 00:49:58,240
with some of our technological conjuring tricks,
697
00:49:58,240 --> 00:50:01,040
to have played back their recorded voice
698
00:50:01,040 --> 00:50:05,160
or to have taken their picture on an instant camera.
699
00:50:05,160 --> 00:50:10,760
But when you are faced with encounters like this,
700
00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:14,360
such tricks seem tawdry and trivial.
701
00:50:15,680 --> 00:50:20,320
It's not that we can do those tricks,
702
00:50:20,320 --> 00:50:23,880
that they have got cassowary quills through their nostrils,
703
00:50:23,880 --> 00:50:27,640
or that we happen to live on bits of cow's meat wrapped up
704
00:50:27,640 --> 00:50:30,480
in a cunning way in bits of metal.
705
00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:33,520
It is not the differences between us that are important,
706
00:50:33,520 --> 00:50:35,600
it is the similarities.
707
00:50:35,600 --> 00:50:38,760
It is the fact that when one of us laughs,
708
00:50:38,760 --> 00:50:40,520
the other knows what he's feeling.
709
00:50:40,520 --> 00:50:43,040
That is when one of us hit his stomach and scowls,
710
00:50:43,040 --> 00:50:46,280
the other knows that he's hungry.
711
00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:49,840
These are the things that are the bond between us,
712
00:50:49,840 --> 00:50:53,160
and these are the things that we want to emphasise.
713
00:50:53,160 --> 00:50:57,880
I cannot suppose that they will give as their full confidence.
714
00:50:57,880 --> 00:51:02,400
The next step we are going to try is to ask them to take us
715
00:51:02,400 --> 00:51:07,240
down to their house. Whether they will or not, I don't know.
716
00:51:07,240 --> 00:51:09,120
That at least is the next step.
717
00:51:17,840 --> 00:51:20,680
'They led off and we followed.
718
00:51:20,680 --> 00:51:23,280
'Though whether they had really understood what we wanted,
719
00:51:23,280 --> 00:51:25,320
'we couldn't tell.
720
00:51:25,320 --> 00:51:27,960
'But suddenly, our relationship seemed to have
721
00:51:27,960 --> 00:51:30,400
'become a little uneasy, a little strained.
722
00:51:30,400 --> 00:51:33,240
'Perhaps we were pushing things a little too much.'
723
00:51:50,280 --> 00:51:52,840
Oi! Biami-o!
724
00:51:54,280 --> 00:51:57,360
'They had gone. They had simply vanished into thin air.'
725
00:52:00,440 --> 00:52:03,400
- Biami!
- Biami-o!
726
00:52:03,400 --> 00:52:05,880
'There was nothing to do but go on.
727
00:52:05,880 --> 00:52:08,480
'100 yards beyond, we found a house.'
728
00:52:17,440 --> 00:52:19,120
Biami-o!
729
00:52:48,680 --> 00:52:52,360
Two days later, we were in known country again.
730
00:52:52,360 --> 00:52:56,040
In a year's time, perhaps another patrol would come through again,
731
00:52:56,040 --> 00:52:59,600
following in our steps and camping in our campsites.
732
00:52:59,600 --> 00:53:01,120
Maybe by then the Biami,
733
00:53:01,120 --> 00:53:04,320
remembering that we had not forced ourselves on them,
734
00:53:04,320 --> 00:53:06,960
would give in return more of their confidence,
735
00:53:06,960 --> 00:53:08,840
and perhaps their world and ours
736
00:53:08,840 --> 00:53:11,160
might get a little closer to one another.
737
00:53:12,440 --> 00:53:15,640
And meanwhile, that empty blank on the map now contained,
738
00:53:15,640 --> 00:53:19,520
for the first time, a few river names and altitudes,
739
00:53:19,520 --> 00:53:22,520
and a thin, erratic line drawn across it.
740
00:53:27,240 --> 00:53:29,120
I know that because of...
741
00:53:29,120 --> 00:53:31,800
Well, I have spoken to Laurie since then,
742
00:53:31,800 --> 00:53:33,200
but he was very sceptical
743
00:53:33,200 --> 00:53:35,640
as to whether we were going to make the grade.
744
00:53:36,880 --> 00:53:39,320
And it was hard, hard work keeping up,
745
00:53:39,320 --> 00:53:43,360
but equally, I think all three of us were determined to show
746
00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:46,320
that these poms weren't as soft as all that,
747
00:53:46,320 --> 00:53:48,320
or at least could keep going.
748
00:53:51,360 --> 00:53:54,920
When we saw the house, we were very excited,
749
00:53:54,920 --> 00:53:58,000
because this was the first sign of any human habitation
750
00:53:58,000 --> 00:53:59,440
in this vast wilderness.
751
00:53:59,440 --> 00:54:03,840
Laurie hollered, you know, "Hello!" and all of that. Nothing.
752
00:54:03,840 --> 00:54:04,880
Oi!
753
00:54:06,440 --> 00:54:10,720
But we knew perfectly well that there had been, on occasions,
754
00:54:10,720 --> 00:54:15,320
other patrol officers had found such things and had advanced
755
00:54:15,320 --> 00:54:18,840
and got a spear or an arrow straight through their chest.
756
00:54:18,840 --> 00:54:23,320
And there was no way in which you could tell.
757
00:54:23,320 --> 00:54:26,280
And I was very apprehensive, personally.
758
00:54:26,280 --> 00:54:29,520
I'm surprised, actually, I think in the film we rather play it down,
759
00:54:29,520 --> 00:54:32,520
but I was much more nervous than I let on in the film.
760
00:54:33,760 --> 00:54:36,680
So we made our way inside,
761
00:54:36,680 --> 00:54:40,680
and I thought I ought to make a record of it.
762
00:54:40,680 --> 00:54:46,040
Of what was in the house, which is... I drew it in my journal.
763
00:54:48,560 --> 00:54:50,680
And it's quite detailed, really.
764
00:54:50,680 --> 00:54:54,200
"Piglet jaws, cassowary bone dagger...
765
00:54:54,200 --> 00:54:57,880
"suspended bead rattles."
766
00:54:57,880 --> 00:55:03,360
Here was this very intimate living place of people
767
00:55:03,360 --> 00:55:06,800
who knew nothing of you, and you knew nothing of them.
768
00:55:06,800 --> 00:55:09,280
As though you had landed from the moon,
769
00:55:09,280 --> 00:55:13,440
and trying to work out how they live.
770
00:55:18,440 --> 00:55:22,480
We were within two or three days' march of coming out
771
00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:25,840
of the other side of the blank on the map, as it were.
772
00:55:27,480 --> 00:55:30,400
And we had almost given up hope of finding any people at all.
773
00:55:30,400 --> 00:55:33,920
We have found footprints, and we had followed trails,
774
00:55:33,920 --> 00:55:36,240
but we'd seen nobody.
775
00:55:36,240 --> 00:55:39,880
We went to sleep rather depressed.
776
00:55:41,480 --> 00:55:43,040
And then when I was woken up,
777
00:55:43,040 --> 00:55:47,080
I opened my eyes and there was this extraordinary little man,
778
00:55:47,080 --> 00:55:51,080
with his headdress and so on, and black teeth,
779
00:55:51,080 --> 00:55:54,800
looking at me as though I was a ghost or something.
780
00:55:54,800 --> 00:55:56,960
Standing there, peering at me.
781
00:55:56,960 --> 00:55:59,840
And I got up and tried to be
782
00:55:59,840 --> 00:56:04,280
welcoming and unaggressive and so on.
783
00:56:04,280 --> 00:56:06,440
- Biami, huh?
- Biami.
- Biami.
784
00:56:08,280 --> 00:56:12,400
Marvellously, Hugh Miles always slept with his camera
785
00:56:12,400 --> 00:56:14,480
underneath the camp bed.
786
00:56:14,480 --> 00:56:18,800
And he was already there filming, he was absolutely on it.
787
00:56:21,120 --> 00:56:22,760
There was always a possibility
788
00:56:22,760 --> 00:56:25,320
that these people wouldn't welcome strangers,
789
00:56:25,320 --> 00:56:28,280
and in the history of the exploration of Guinea,
790
00:56:28,280 --> 00:56:31,640
there are plenty of examples of people who were met with arrows.
791
00:56:31,640 --> 00:56:35,320
These people didn't meet us with arrows, they were puzzled,
792
00:56:35,320 --> 00:56:37,120
they were baffled by us.
793
00:56:37,120 --> 00:56:40,400
But they weren't aggressive about it.
794
00:56:43,960 --> 00:56:46,240
One was bending over backwards -
795
00:56:46,240 --> 00:56:50,400
if one could show that you were friendlily disposed,
796
00:56:50,400 --> 00:56:53,440
and you do that with jokes, actually.
797
00:56:55,040 --> 00:56:58,800
Just raising your eyebrows to something,
798
00:56:58,800 --> 00:57:01,520
you can tell a joke, with those sorts of gestures,
799
00:57:01,520 --> 00:57:03,920
with hardly any common vocabulary at all.
800
00:57:07,680 --> 00:57:13,640
Well, on the third day, they turned up with some fruit and stuff.
801
00:57:13,640 --> 00:57:18,240
And we gestured, said, "Why don't you take us to your village?"
802
00:57:18,240 --> 00:57:21,920
And after a bit, they decided yes, and they beckoned us.
803
00:57:21,920 --> 00:57:26,040
And so we moved off, and we could see them
804
00:57:26,040 --> 00:57:30,160
ahead of us in the forest, and then, after about, I don't know,
805
00:57:30,160 --> 00:57:32,480
half an hour, quarter of an hour,
806
00:57:32,480 --> 00:57:36,880
I came round a big tree and they weren't there.
807
00:57:36,880 --> 00:57:39,680
And Laurie then called - "Biami, Biami!"
808
00:57:41,240 --> 00:57:42,480
Biami-o!
809
00:57:42,480 --> 00:57:43,760
Nothing.
810
00:57:45,600 --> 00:57:51,520
And then we came to a shelter, and there was a fire,
811
00:57:51,520 --> 00:57:54,400
it was still warm.
812
00:57:54,400 --> 00:57:58,240
But there was also a stick with a skull, a human skull on it.
813
00:57:59,640 --> 00:58:01,480
And, uh... HE LAUGHS
814
00:58:01,480 --> 00:58:04,080
"Mm..."
815
00:58:04,080 --> 00:58:08,640
Whether we had walked into a trap or not, you didn't know.
816
00:58:08,640 --> 00:58:11,000
But we stayed there for a bit, calling for them.
817
00:58:11,000 --> 00:58:12,360
Biami-o!
818
00:58:12,360 --> 00:58:15,800
And then we tried to find their trail and couldn't.
819
00:58:15,800 --> 00:58:19,280
So we went back to the main camp.
820
00:58:19,280 --> 00:58:20,840
And that was it.
821
00:58:28,200 --> 00:58:31,360
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