Инна Метельская-Шереметьева - Back to the past

A little further to the east along the bay coast there is a village of the Sepik tribe, famous for their primitive drawings on tree bark and carved ancestral statues. By the way, it was this tribe’s fishermen who showed us one of the few islands left untouched by civilization, though it didn’t go without an amusing incident. The matter was, in the past we had been so spoiled by the intrusive and usual tourist services that we completely forgot about such simple things as food supplies. I am sure you will agree that it’s only normal when during “arranged” tours which last for at least half a day you are provided with a primitive lunch box – with an egg and some chicken fried rice. Do you remember that? We counted on that unsophisticated service as well… Here, upon seeing us approaching the boats empty-handed, the locals were really frightened: “What? Haven’t you bought any food? But there is nothing on the island. Absolutely nothing! And it’s not a good time to fish…” Our irresponsible answer that we should make it somehow without food for ten hours caused some slight confusion. Such light-mindedness is totally intolerable for men of the Sepik tribe, so it’s not surprising that all those hours that we spent on the island being lazy and enjoying the luxury, our fellow travelers spent trying to catch at least something. And the fact that our cameraman followed the fishermen’s every step with his camera served as a kind of excuse for our behavior in their eyes, especially because neither they nor us were able to catch any fish, a sea-serpent or a crab, though we truly enjoyed splashing in the clear waters of the warm ocean. Later, these moments proved to be the last minutes of such total relaxation before a rather difficult and uneasy trip into the jungle.

On our way back we dropped into Cendrawasih University, which has a great anthropology museum. Though our main idea was not only to see the exhibits, but to try and acquire some topographical maps of where our expedition was heading and speak to some of the workers. Unfortunately, we managed practically none of it, but we were able to see the collection of Asmat tribe artifacts. The collection was acquired thanks to a subsidy from the John D. Rockefeller Fund. The figures and weapons exhibited, made by this tribe’s craftsmen, are highly regarded by primitive art specialists. Even though the Asmat tribe lives on the southern coast of New Guinea, there is a shop in Jayapira, specialising in Asmatic handcraft.

Excursus One. How to Remain Friends. Alexey’s Story.

Any serious journey is not only a holiday but a rather difficult job too. In our everyday citylife we get used to a certain tempo, loads of duties and even stress. In the jungle, desert, savanna or tundra – everything is different. Another tempo, other stresses, a load turns into an overload. This is why the atmosphere in the team is vitally important. Like Vysotsky’s song goes: “If your friend suddenly turned out to…” You know the end of the song.

In my opinion, in our quadriga galloping around the dark corners of the planet there are no wheels or off-wheelers. It may even be good. We do not have a leader the same way we don’t have those who would drag in a bunch of others as unnecessary ballast. The ability to co-exist peacefully and interact as a team is the main skill we have learned though our years of travel. This is not an exaggeration or trivial words. Anyone who goes on a serious trip should definitely remember that his travelling experience, the after-taste, so to put it, to a large extent will depend on the atmosphere within the team.

There are four of us. And we are all different. Among us Michael is the most reckless, the most sincere and… the most contact-ready, if I can say it this way. This skill of his and his preparedness to socialise with people is a very important trait, because those representatives of the native population we will have to meet should immediately realise that we have friendly intentions, won’t harm them and, even more so, see them as our equals. The distant feeling of a common tourist who will be paying money to see ‘a true caveman’ in many situations can end sadly. Michael totally lacks this “civilization snobism”. Thanks to his integral personality and a natural sense of dignity he is absolutely open, cordial and friendly.

At the same time, I strongly believe that Andrey very often gives us an example of a very patient, reserved, and very masculine attitude towards life. He rarely makes a fuss about anything (unless someone probably needs urgent help but nobody knows what to do). He never complains. And even though Andrey smiles little, natives trust him right away and very carefully watch his reactions: Is he pleased with everything? It is Andrey, as a rule, who has the last say in our team, though he never insists on it.

It seems to me I complement Michael and Andrey in a certain way. I try to be careful and calm and not to be a burden. Sometimes someone has to be the first to honestly say that he is tired, out of breath, to be able to notice this in himself in order to free his friends from being heroes all the time. It is a difficult task but somebody has to do it and say: “Stop! Rest!” By the way, I didn’t get these skills right away. I remember being quite nervous in the jungle during our first trip. It seemed to me for some reason that being a refined Muscovite intellectual, I wasn’t able to take any drastic actions or exhibit self-determination. It all ended badly. I wanted to look like everybody else so much, to conform, so to put it, that I missed a wound that resulted in inflammation on my leg. I was lucky that the disease had already started on the way back to Wamena. Otherwise, I can only imagine how much my friends would have suffered in the jungle with such a “brave” victim: fever, weakness, terrible swelling. Keeping my mouth shut would have ended in them carrying me out of a Papuan village literally in their arms. One can only guess who would have felt worse in this situation.

By the way, I wasn’t supposed to go on that last trip with the rest of my friends at all. It happened that my work, problems in Moscow, and the forthcoming New Year made my participation practically impossible. But they say, desire has no rest, even though I was trying to do my best up to the last moment… When I came to Sheremetyevo airport to see my friends off, I realised that I just couldn’t leave them alone, that I was fully responsible for them, an inexplicable, totally irrational feeling. Responsible in what way? Everybody seems to be adults already. My driver was waiting for me by the exit. My wife was preparing dinner at home and I had to go over my daughter’s essay, plus my football training was scheduled for the next day…

But when I heard Michael unpurposefully saying that I shouldn’t worry, that this time they were fitted out alright so nothing bad was going to happen, I felt a pioneer hero waking up within… How was this possible? We had been together all those other times but now I was supposed to wait for their return, enjoying the perks of Moscow?

That said, it didn’t take us long to buy a ticket. We went through the backpacks, found me a pair of trousers, some boots, a windbreaker and some other clothes. I called my wife right before take-off, literally sitting on the plane. Thank you, dear, for your understanding and blessing, as well as refraining from making a scandal. I was looking out of the airplane window and had an ambiguous feeling. I felt spooked and awfully warm at the same time. I don’t know why that idiotic commercial came to my mind where he “did everything right” and the song about the inseparable friendship of men. This is how I sort of saw my friends off.

The fourth member of our team is Alexander. He is a very responsible person, a camera-man of the highest professionalism. During our expeditions he carries the heaviest load (literally). Without leaving his heavy equipment, he has to perform like everybody else but also regularly film the most interesting bits (which means everything). Sasha has a lot of traits essential to our other ‘usual’ life: he is neat, scrupulous, he is used to order around him and he is punctual… But in the wild world of nature, your intuition or ability to make instantaneous and sometimes illogical decisions, comes to the forefront. It is even harder for a person who’s too sensible and responsible. To his credit, I must say that Alexander copes with any difficulty easily and many people could only envy his courage which follows him under any non-standard circumstances.

Anyway, why was I saying all that? The answer is rather simple: just in case! When you are out in the wild you must be prepared for anything.

A lot has been written about the humid jungle with its sombre grandeur, its cunning atmosphere over-burdened with humidity. The jungle can break anybody. To put it in the most neutral way – the jungle depresses, especially in the first hours and days of being there. Huge trees, covering the sky, the water (less in some places but significantly more in others) constantly running under your feet and flowing in different directions makes you feel disoriented. When the first branches close behind your back and the usual landscape, be it a village or a river, disappears from your view, when your breathing becomes hard just after a few steps and your sweat reminds you of a summer shower, you start feeling one of the worst symptoms of a tropical disease – panic. At first, it just tickles your nerves. It is not even fear yet, only an expectation of such. It is similar to waiting for an exam which you are not very well prepared for. In a couple hours, the tiredness is overwhelming and you can think only about drinking enough clear water. You aren’t really thirsty yet until… you already are. Then this turns into idee fixa, and you start to try and push it out with other thoughts: Is it still far to the camp? Are we walking in the right direction? Have we taken the backpack with our food supplies? Can we trust our guides? You are trying to calm yourselves down but getting more and more nervous instead. Your heart is beating louder and louder, your thirst becomes unbearable and your brain is thinking the unthinkable: “What the hell am I doing here?” There is only one step to real panic, hysteria. And in such situations a good team is a true salvation. You look around and see Michael, who is so immersed in taking pictures as if he were on a typical excursion around a zoological museum. Andrey is quietly cleaning the camera lense, spreading out on a wide log some rags, tissues and bottles of chemicals which look so out of place in the jungle. Sasha, who is obviously as thirsty as I am, offers to look for some spring water and, surprisingly enough, he finds it. Somebody is calm, the other is fussing around, but all as one are living an absolutely everyday life. Our guides are even whistling a song. Panic vanishes in a moment. Only lead-heavy tiredness remains. And of course, we are still thirsty as heck. But that is survivable…

Excursus Two. How to be Safe and Sound. Michael’s Story.

The jungle is a world of its own which is as beautiful as it is dangerous, so your good will and a desire to test yourself on such an extreme trip alone is obviously not enough. We worked out several simple rules for ourselves. Following them, of course, does not guarantee that you are 100% safe from trouble, but they can definitely be helpful. While you are still planning your future routes, studying maps, looking for guidebooks and working out the schedules, find an hour in your timetable to drop into Moscow Clinic Nr. 14 (in Neglinnaya Street) to inoculate yourself against yellow fever. Only one shot and you get 10 years of serene travelling, or at least the first evidence showing that your intentions are really serious. As far as we managed to find out, in the last five years, the epidemiological situation in the majority of places we visited around our planet has been quite stable, but it is better to be safe than sorry. And thanks to the inoculation it will stay safe. Who knows, anyway? What if you, like us, like the taste of extreme tourism so much that the New Guinea jungle will be a substitute for the Amazonian rainforest or the jungle of the Central African Republic. And you won’t be able to stop at that. Owing to working with Nikolay Nikolaevich Drozdov, we learned this simple lesson very well.

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