Night On the Sanguma (Sorcerer) Trek

"Exhaustion, aches and pains all over my body and annoyed, wet, muddy and grumpy, on top of that the heavy torrential rainfall that felt like a thousand buckets of water poured in a second added to my misery".

This story is about a trekking expedition I did back in 2017 in Papua New Guinea. I was sent on a mission by my boss to visit and survey 6 airstrips in the mountainous terrain of Western province. These airstrips where Golgubip, Olsobip, Kuyol, Selbang, Seltamin and Biangabip. Surveying of these airstrips was the core function of the organisation I worked for as their work made it possible for other government services to flow in. Having worked in the harsh outdoors of Papua New Guinea as a young exploration geologist before moving into the aviation field, I took this task as yet another day at the office. My boss and I knew nothing about the place nor did we know any contact person. There are no roads, cell coverage or any form of big infrastructure, just trees, mountains, rivers and wild animals. This was the beginning of my many epic adventures! The week leading up to the expedition involved lots of desktop studies and phone calls. In the office, we went over google earth to identify these 6 airstrips. I did phone calls to other air operators if they had flown in, however most had not heard or have never flown there. Others knew these places but their pilots were not skilled or “checked in” as pilots call them, to land at these airstrips. If you must know, these airstrips are not sealed, they are grass or gravel strips cleared out on a narrow strip of ridge tucked between valleys or dug into the side of a mountain. These mountain airstrips can have lengths as short as 350 – 450m long, and are narrow, sometimes with a kink in it. Bush pilots have to negotiate landing at 60 Knots (111km/hr) speeds in their single turbo prop,2-ton aircraft on these type of airstrips with constantly changing winds and draughts and come to a complete stop before they run out of space (that’s either a cliff or a mountain at the end of the runway).

The effort paid off and we managed to find an operator that flew into 3 of the airstrips of interest, which were Golgubip, Olsobip and Selbang. No information about Seltamin or biangabip or kuyol was known.

~The Journey~

"it was a constant battle in my mind to give up and cry"

I flew out of Kagamuga airport in Mount Hagen with my field assistant. Our field gear included camping items and two metal trunks of rations filled with instant noodles, biscuits, coffee sachets and canned meat and fish to last us two weeks. The plan was to land at selbang, drop of one food trunk there and then fly to Golgubip and get off the plane. We decided on doing this because Selbang was the airstrip midway between the 6 airstrips so it made sense to have 50 percent of our rations dropped off there to be used later, rather than lugging the whole lot over this rugged terrain.

When I landed in Selbang, I hopped out of the aircraft quickly, unloaded the food trunk and greeted a stranger who was the agent for the airline operator. I shook his hand, handed him the cargo, and told him to take care of it as I will be coming back in 5 days. My thoughts running through as I spoke those words to him was “what the hell are you doing giving your food to a stranger to keep?"

We took off immediately and then landed shortly at Golgubip. Upon unloading all our cargo, I bid the pilot farewell and the aircraft took off. I stood there watching it leave, knowing that all connection to the outside world is now leaving and I am here in this remote place with these mountain people of which their language I do not speak at all!

An aircraft landing in these rural communities is rare and so a curious gathering quickly occupied the airstrip. And there I was, with my cargo and in full workman uniform proudly showing the company I work for while looking lost, literally! So, I turned and addressed the crowd, “Avinun olgeta, mi wokman blo lukim airstrip blo yupla na mi kam lo halivim stretim dislpa airstrip. (Good afternoon everyone, I am an airstrip surveyor and I am here to help fix your airstrip) and asked further if there was any leader whom I could speak to. Then a teacher from the crowd approached me and offered to assist me with whatever I was here to do. We took my cargo and the young men, boys and girls all helped carry our cargo to his place. We spent the night there at his place and discussed the expedition with him. He was so grateful that we were there and so sent word to find 6 strong young boys to help me on my expedition. We lodged up for the night at his place resting for what was going to be the first hike to Olsobip airstrip.

In the morning, the turn out was not that good. Most of the young boys had gone to Tabubil, which is a mining town and so most of the young girls volunteered to assist us. I was hesitant at first as to why there were so many girls on this expedition and they told me because there weren’t enough boys around. They told me that the women are good at carrying cargo over long distances but I didn’t want to believe that at first until we set off. The going was tough however it was mostly downhill. I was told that the walk would take 4 hours (and we set off at 8am) so it was expected we would arrive there by about lunchtime.

Being a tall coastal guy at 6 ft 1 (185cm) tall, I was not built for mountain trekking. I would slip on slippery rocks, logs or bash my head on low hanging branches. With each of those episodes, the girls would laugh and shout, I have to admit this was rather embarrassing. Most of the time they would hike up the steep slopes at speed, get perched up on a rock outcrop and then watch me and my colleague struggle up that slope, sloppily grabbing on shrubs, branches and rocks or anything within hands reach, clawing our way up. We endured that for 5 hours and eventually arrived at the location. There, we lodged up with the local airstrip officer who maintained the strip. That night it rained heavily and we all huddled up in the small fire hut as we had some yam and some food that we had brought along with us. We told stories over the crackle of fire and planned for the next day. In the morning, I surveyed the airstrip and nursed some scratches and bruises that were sustained during the walk. Most of that day was spent recouping our energy for the second leg of the hike to Kuyol airstrip.

On the next day, we packed up again this time with some young boys from Olsobip and set off. The girls from Golgubip were also returning that day as well so the bush was a symphony of young excited voices as the young boys teased the girls. As we parted, they bid their farewell to us and off we went down a separate track that would lead us to Kuyol airstrip. It seemed like this leg of the expedition was harder than when we started it. We literally would go straight up a wall then reach the top and then drop straight back down again. The high humidity did not help at all, as we constantly sweated and worked our hearts and lungs out to power through the terrain. We had initially set off at 8am that day and by 6pm we had made it 80 percent of the way to Kuyol and so we had to stop at a village perched on ridge. From this village I could see Kuyol way off in the distance. Between Kuyol and the village ran a steep valley. But I was too exhausted to worry about that. For that moment in time, I wanted to rest, get into dry clothes and remove my wet muddied boots. I had dinner that evening and then as usual, I sociallised with the locals over the crackle of fire in the smoke-filled fire hut. They told me there was a certain area you could get a cell signal and so I hurried over to the location. It was over by the church near its wall outside, and it so happened that it was raining heavily. Regardless, I took my phone out and called up my dad. It was nice hearing a familiar voice and we spoke for a few minutes before I bid him goodnight and returned.

The next morning, I woke up to the sound of a rooster crowing and the grunting of pigs below the house I slept in (natural alarm clocks out here in these parts hehe). We had breakfast, geared up and then set off down the valley. The hiking was good as it was downhill. Once at the bottom, we were greeted with a refreshing site of a cool, crystal clear cascading stream. The boys jumped in and invited me to join them. How could I not enjoy mother nature’s gift to man? So I jumped right in. The water was so cold and clear as glass! You could think that this water could have healing properties as it rejuvenated my strength and drove my motivation levels high. We spent about 30mins in the water before we got back on the track to begin the hike up the valley. We eventually made it to Kuyol and lodged up at another teacher’s house.

The following day I spoke to the community and then inspected the airstrip. I spent most of the following day resting, nursing my sore feet. I was worried that I might develop heat rash or friction induced blisters on the sole of my feet but was thankful nothing of that sort sprung up. However, I knew it was only a matter of time on this expedition will my poor feet give in to the blisters.

On the third leg of the expedition we were down to our last rations. The boys who had helped us across from Olsobip returned back to Olsobip and placed us in the care of the boys from Kuyol. We set off again at 8am and began our hike to Selbang. I was told that once we reach the top of the ridge in the far distance, we would be well and truly at Selbang. We hiked up a landslide debris scree. This was the only way up the ridge as all other areas were not suitable (being almost vertical). Getting up and over this landslide was a struggle because the gravel was so loose my strides were 50% less effective. It took us 1 whole hour just to get up and over this landslide debris. Upon reaching the top I was jubilant, and asked one of the boys if we were near. He responded positively and said it was “just” over the slope. That phrase kept ringing out from every boy I asked when I’d conquer the slope they had pointed out (my word, I conquered all the slopes and ridges they had pointed out and still we had not arrived at Selbang yet!).

Exhaustion, aches and pains all over my body and annoyed, wet, muddy and grumpy, on top of that the heavy torrential rainfall that felt like a thousand buckets of water poured in a second added to my misery. It was too late to give up and the sun was setting with no village or airstrip in sight. I could see the concerned looks on the boys and they hurried off the track and began slashing away at the bush creating an alternate track. I followed anyway, just too tired to think. The boys found a small camping hut that was overly grown with creepers. The hut was low set on the ground and its dimensions were 3x4 meters wide. We all got in and lit a fire to keep warm. Bright flashes of lightning would be followed by a body rattling boom of thunder overhead. I just felt so insignificant in that moment and of how vulnerable we were in the rainforest. Most of the boys stayed awake as they were afraid of the jungle. It was believed that the track we took was one that was mostly traveled by the “Sanguma”. The Sanguma is a person that practices sorcery or black magic and is believed to shape shift into animals and devour the unsuspecting person’s heart or flesh. All the boys stayed awake in fear, clutching onto their machetes just in case the Sanguma paid us a visit while we were asleep, but I was too tired to think of such things and went off to sleep instead.

When morning arrived, we had our last rations for the day set off. The trip was arduous. I think it was determination to get out of this jungle that carried me on till we arrived at Selbang. That was a huge relief as it was a constant battle in my mind to give up and cry. It was here at Selbang that I decided I couldn’t go any further to survey the remaining two airstrips. I called up the office using the satellite phone to update them on the progress and to also request a flight out of Selbang as exhaustion had taken the better of us.

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