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Papua
Explorer Tours & Expeditions
BEST
EXPEDITION OF THE YEAR 2007
TRIKORA
- CROSSING
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Following the tracks of H. A. Lorentz
Historical routing
Extreme expedition in alpine, sub alpine and tropical regions of New Guinea
Successful PIONEER OPERATION from 09.11.07 until 03.12.07 (altogether 25
days)
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The first Europeans which caught sight of this isolated, up to now still partly unexplored island New Guinea in 1527, were followers of Jorge de Meneses, who was Portuguese Governor of the Moluccas at that time. By the way, it is told that it was him, who indicated the name PAPUA, which means “curly haired”! In 1623 the Dutch mariner Jan Carstensz was the first who reported on the snow and ice mountains inside this tropical island. But in far away Europe, nobody believed him: how could there be ice and snow at the equator, was the established opinion!
Mount Trikora with its 4.750 meters, is only marginally lower than Carstensz Pyramid
(4.883 meters, highest summit of the 7th continent). Anyway, Dutch mariners were the first who caught sight of the striking snow covered top of Mount Trikora, behind the mighty walls of prime forests and got curious about which secrets they might discover over there! By order of his military regime, in 1907 the Dutch H. A. Lorentz started his first expedition to Mount Trikora from the sea side, but submontane they had to give up, weak, hungry and exhausted. In September 1909 Lorentz started his 2nd Trikora expedition, this time by the help of 82 Dayak porters from Borneo, he succeeded after 10 weeks: on November 9th of the same year, Lorentz had reached the desired glacier summit together with 6 followers! But only by
substantial victims: most of the participants died, and Lorentz himself died of the extreme strains, during the sea passage on the way back.
With our routing we followed exactly this historical Lorentz expedition route – only the other way round! We started by climbing the Mount Trikora massif and then descended to the endless, pathless rainforests of the lowlands. The challenges of this tour were extreme and demanded excellent physical and mental conditions of each participant. The tour operator is sure that there is no other journey on the complete German market of adventure tourism, which makes such high demands on conditions, which leads through such extreme climate zones, enables such contacts to stone age people and gives you experiences of magical nature as this tour!
Short outline of the PIONEER EXPEDITION:
This tour can be divided into three sections.
1. Ascent of Mount Trikora
2. Descent to the lowlands
3. River expedition through the ASMAT to the coast of Arafura Sea.
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On November 13th, 2007, we started from Wamena by 4-wheel truck of the Indonesian military for 50 kilometres to Lake Habema, by special permit for the first touristic Trikora crossing up to now (!), with 12 participants from Germany, Austria, Switzerland and
Denmark.
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On November 15th, we reach the cave Somalek, from where we start our ascent to the high camp of Mount Trikora on the next day.
On November 17th, around 07.00h a. m. local time, 11 participants reach the Trikora
summit.
On November 18th the absolute pioneer part of our tour begins: the descent in southern direction, down into the primal forests of the lowlands. What might await us there? Will there be “manageable” paths? The first day already was a real blast: we descent altogether 1.100 meters! Exceedingly difficult paths with partial vertical descents must be mastered. Especially for our porters, this is an unbelievable strain. In the afternoon, we reach the area of mountainous rain forests: magical vegetation awaits us. These giant trees are covered by moss over and over and loaded by tons of epiphytes. Spectral fog moves all over this primal forest zone. You can’t get enough of this strange botanical gorgeousness – besides there are absolute ghostly vibes in this magic forest. Before we get to a hunting shack, we must cross a sensational hanging bridge at the upper reaches of the Northwest River.
The following days lead us through more and more populated areas with traditional garden facilities of the mountain Papua tribes, Lani, Waa and Duga. The paths between the settlements are used by the natives constantly, but for us they were hardly to identify. At several points, real acrobatics are necessary to negotiate countless handicaps. Also the constant - nearly straight - descents and ascents require much energy and endurance. At many bridges we had to make reparations, before we could trust in the stone aged construction. But every day was rewarded by an absolute unique wonder of nature and always sincere contacts to the natives.
On the 9th day of our descent, after 2 full days of recreation, we reached the mission air field Kenyam at the upper reaches of the Northwest River. Kenyam was starting point of the 3rd section of the tour: along the Northwest River to the coast of the Arafura Sea, and further on over the ocean to Timika. Unfortunately we had not enough time left, to get deeper into the culture of the Asmat. We also had to shorten the tour along the tropical Arafura coast line.
On November 28th, we marched from the mission place Kenyam in southern direction to the jungle biwak Induk, where our motor boats awaited us. It took 2 full days on the magnificent jungle rivers down to Agats, the main location of the Asmat region. We mostly went on the Northwest River, which is named Pomads nowadays. Even our schedule was tight, we managed to visit some traditional Asmat hamlets along the way, and viewed and bought countless handicrafts of these famous wood carving
artists.
TRIKORA-CROSSING
2011
Following
the tracks of H. A. Lorentz
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