In October of 2007, the EP crew returned from a two-month kayaking, caving and scientific expedition on Papua New Guinea’s largest offshore island of New Britain. Exploring in this designated biological hotspot required navigating in a country defined by the 800 plus distinct languages, a terrain cut by 19 feet of annual rainfall, unrelenting jungles and river gorges that look as if they were cut with scalpels. It’s an extremely difficult place to run an expedition. But with the assistance of David Mather of Hargy Oil Palms, the EP crew discovered world-class whitewater, astonishing bio-diversity, and a landscape on the brink of change.
The crew spent most of August 2007, on the shores of the Hargy Caldera, a pristine lake and jungle, with geologist John Lane, herpetologist Ralph Cutter and their team of scientists and cavers. The crew worked closely with the Nakanai tribe to present conservation as an alternative to logging within this designated biologic hotspot. The project was a huge success. New species of fish, frogs, butterflies and an active volcano were discovered and plans were made for a follow up research expedition to return to Lake Hargy in 2008. The future looks bright for the establishment of a long-term research station with Chico State University, the first step toward conserving this land.
Following the completion of the research expedition, cavers John Lane, Mike Lane, Haley Cutter and the EP crew spent September exploring the caves and rivers of New Britain’s karst limestone interior. After hiking across six drainages and negotiating with three different tribes, the crew arrived to the village of Tuke. This tiny Kol village, a tribe whose first contact with the outside world wasn’t until the 1950s, is built near the source of the Pandi River, a cave. From Tuke, the crew launched an expedition into the Southern Hemisphere’s largest cave system to find the Pandi’s true source – roughly six kilometers underground. After ten days in the village, the team began the first kayaking expedition of the island. They first descented forty some miles of the Class V river, survived a crocodile attack and kayaked off a fifty plus foot waterfall. EP’s wrap up of the Conservation through Exploration expedition resulted in an Adventurer of the Year award by National Geographic Adventure to expedition leader Trip Jennings. Now, the team is back in the States, gearing up for their expedition to China.
