Wednesday 17 July 2013

Kayaking Watut River in Morobe Province of Papua New Guinea.

By Gradient Water
One thing you quickly become accustomed to in Papua New Guinea is that people do not sleep in. After first stirring because of the infuriating sound of the village rooster, some insect that makes a sound similar to a angle-grinder finally drove me to get up. As I emerged from the tent, I soon realised that everyone in the village was awake and going about their daily routine. Feeling I had slept long and well, I asked Barny what the time was... it was 6.20am! Ok, it is not a ridiculous time to be awake but for EVERYONE to be up and doing something (a lot were waiting quietly for us to get up).

This morning we made our first 'Green' moment (something we shouldn't have done) and offered to help out Okam with 'EXTRA' money, on top of the 300Kina we paid, for him to return to Lae and get his petrol tank repaired so he could assist us later in the day... I do not think we ever seen his truck again, but moving on. So about 60km, twenty of which was 4x4, away from the nearest town and we were in the market for transport. Fortunately Reuben Mete got onto his 'Digicel' and was able to organise a land cruiser to come and pick us up. So after some PNG-time Graham and Rex rolled up to Sambio and we were on the mission, down to Gwasak to get on the Middle Watut... on day two!

Gwasak is last last village accessible by road along the middle section of the Watut, and the first village without power. We were welcomed by a small crowd of locals and were given permission to access the river from there. Once ready, we made our way down to the river where we seen our first alluvial golden miners. This is the main source of income for the Middle Watut Villages, which has been drastically effected as a result of the silting from the Hidden Vally Mine. After heeding warnings from the locals, "You're going to die" and "Impossible, you will fall our of your boats", we were on the water... big water.

After making our way down the 3 or 4 km of big water IV+ we were greeted by a large group of cheering locals at Bamjim. We had been the first group to paddle this section for over ten years, the last of whom were the unfortunate Israeli group that lost some members of their group that trip. As usual everyone was interested in us, our gear and well us really, so we spent a couple of hours giving people a chance to use our kayaks, pose for photos and just hang out really.

Though coming to the Watut was not part of our original plan, it was a worthwhile being able to help the Union of the Watut River Communities raise awareness for the up-coming forum, to forge some relationships that would turn out to REALLY help our expedition and just to paddle some cool white-water.

That evening we returned to Sambio and made a plan for the next day. Our plan was to go further up the Watut River, through Bululo to a village called 'Society' and then paddle down to 'Baiune', a section that had never been paddled before... First Descent No.1!

No comments:

Post a Comment