Stone Age Culture Of Korowai Papuan, The Adventure:
The walking adventure is mostly through the dense jungle, swampy, and we sometime walking up the single log. Sometime our porter will free their hand to help you in the hard or difficult trail. The Korowai Batu tribes live in the jungle only with their family or relatives, as they never stay in one big compound. We can found 2 or 3 Tree house in one camp only. Caused they are nomad peoples and they never life for such a long time in the one places, they have to moved to one and another places to get more food and animals to be hunt. We will stay with Korowai Batu in their bevak or we build a tent or up the tree house if permitted.
Korowai batu tribe always moves from one place to another in order to be close to the foods and hunted animals provides by nature. Korowai Batu, Korowa and Kombai are hunter and gatherer who move and build a new tree house once every 3 years. For this reason we do not fix the place of our destination or what activities we do day by day. Once we arrive in Mabul or Upper Mabul, our contact person will telling us and update all the information in Koroway batu, Korowai and Kombai area including the people and their tree house or if there is any sago grub feast take place while we are in the area. Sago grub feast is the main ritual ceremony in Korowai Batu tribe to re-new their world and relation with God/Spirit and among their own people in the clans or groups. We will arrange our visit to the place where the feast will serve a lot of foods including the most delicacy “Sago Grub” to the invited guests and every one will put on their best wear and dancing. Traditional wear of Korowai Batu is very simple, men wear a piece of leave or a small penis gourd to cover their penis and women wear the skirt made of woven sago leafs. Compared Kombai tribe wear the same with Korowai but some of Kombai men wear Hornbill head instead of the gourd during the feast time.
THE TRAIL ; The trail is going through the swampy lands so you will get wet and could be very slippery and muddy when it rains. The weather is very unpredictable here. During the dry season (May – Oct) it can be very dry. So, prepare yourself to the wet or hot weather condition with a humidity from 65 – 99% or may be more. The surface of our trail into the forest is almost flat, no hike and we likely walk under the canopy of the forest’s trees most if the time. Tropic rain forest provides varies of wild life, beautiful and exotic fauna and flora, but you have to concentrate and watch carefully your steps especially when you have to walk on logs or fallen tree in the small river or sago swamp. For that we will always take 15 to 30 minutes break every time you need to drink water after one or two hours walk.
NIGHT CAMP; We overnight a tent near the tree house, but should you want to sleep on a tree house with Korowai Batu family bring your own mosquito net or you can use our own. We sometime spend 1-2 nights in one place of the tree house of there are some interesting event in the place and the family would like to host us that we can joining their daily activities. We really think that by joining the local daily activities is the best way to understand and experience the local life and culture. If there is no sago grub feast take place while we are in the area, we will joining the local people daily life activities (e.g. gathering foods/sago, fishing, hunting or put on the trap for animal like pig or birds). We sometime watch people build a new tree house .
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