Geographical Magazine Searching for the source of Papua New Guinea’s longest river Written by Charlie Walker 04 Feb 2021 Applying Western geographical concepts to distant lands isn’t always a straightforward pursuit, as Charlie Walker discovered during a quest to locate the remote, unmapped source of Papua New Guinea’s longest river
We left the lush coffee gardens and began to climb. A tangle of hanging vines, knotted undergrowth and barbed tree trunks pressed in on either side of a path worn by generations of bare feet. Kephas, a primary-school English teacher, led the way. His broad feet and spreading toes gripped the ground while his two-foot machete trimmed back the jungle. In his wake, my ankle-high boots were heavy, noisy and clumsy, slipping every few steps on the monsoon-washed trail. Behind me was Philip, the coffee farmer whose small plantation we had just walked through.