Show Eaflfl ' ' r r r' 13 The no men confront New Guinea glish but tribes in the interior hive had r no contact with outsiders or pidgin ier and Lippard soon learned the “Happy nun” and after drifting a swamp at night to repeated warnings he “puk puk" realized that is the name ls merciless sea crocodiles Without the explorers became adorn 8 1996 lan-ikil- "You just put on plays for them to let them know you’re looking for a river that runs this way or food or whatever” Kramer says V m I r : JO fc&jS&sssr:- - :my ' -- i We spend the days between extremes of miseries Floating down or paddling up the 10 rivers they would eventually traverse the Americans ndure the hest as long ss they could he blazing sun forced them to the shade hanks Within minutes the mosquitoes cr insects under the trees would drive ck out ran out of food 14 days into the interior nt ihe next month “pretty much eating land" Kramer says After starting with unds of equipment and food — rice ughetti sauce a camp stove mosquito impasses camera maps — the island d us of everything we had” he says Lely they got along with the natives — icals" they had been warned about — n the “main piece of equipment we had nationals” ything they had worked better than what Kramer says laughing at the he and Lippard thought wu “We were always hungry and always You're eating bats and lizards and pigs stretch so bad it earned its own chapter in the eggs and beetles anything you can get book The river flipped the kayak dumping nds on Next thing you're with a tribe most of their remaining supplies and tossed ’re stressed out ‘cause you don’t know Kramer and Lippard in separate directions That cy're gonna' do Then you’re on a was when Kramer says “I thought ‘OK I’m ter river and crashing and you can't go going to die for chasing my dream” After tumer because of the falls you can't climb bling seven or eight miles downriver they were use it goes into Ihe jungle and you're reunited and even recovered the kayak But around like a madman eating grassbop-jus- t they were forced to abandon course and reverse never ended from Ihe moment we direction and the effect on their slate of mind ntil we hit that southern island” wu dramatic Kramer stated in “Beyond Fear": Our desires have now changed — from crossing best of the river everything changes this island to escaping from it with our lives of the New Guinea highlands are You eatemman? nc and often Kramer simply followed snowing it ran in the right general dirao-c- r Headhunting is attached to rituals for exambring ejected from the kayak in vari-iple a boy pawing to manhood may be required and hauling the kayak along the to kill an enemy and display Ihe head in the vilasi extreme Whitewater they hit a lage Cannibalism Kramer says is more of a namc-quipme- nt ds taunt “not really a taste thing or a need for food” although tribes occasionally dine on one of their own who shows spe- cial talents so all may partake of those skills Eating an enemy shows disdain he says and although national law now prohibits cannibalism travel- ers “still don’t want to show up in the wrong place at the wrong time" See MAPLESS on Page II V |