The Lost World of Papua

New species in the unexplored jungles

You often think that the last drops of adventure were squeezed from the world long ago by men with pith helmets and blank maps. A recent effort by a team of international scientists and a BBC film crew to discover the secrets of a mysterious jungle-filled volcano crater on the other side of the world proved there are still places worth getting off the sofa for. Not only did they find a lost landscape of caves, rivers, rainforests and jungle tribes, but they also discovered animals and insects previously unknown to science.

Their target was Mount Bosavi, the collapsed cone of an extinct volcano, buried in impenetrable jungle deep within Papua New Guinea.  It’s one of the most remote places on earth, with fortress-like cliffs over half a mile high. The rainforest-covered bowl of the crater had never been entered by Westerners, and even the local tribesmen shied away from entering an area considered virtually off-limits. Since the volcano’s last eruption a quarter of a million years ago, life in the crater has been able to develop untouched and undisturbed. The thought of what might be discovered within this unique habitat was enough to persuade some of the world’s top scientists to join the expedition.

As far from civilisation as possible

As with any major adventure, planning and logistics were a huge issue and the job of making it happen was down to BBC Series Producer Steve Greenwood, who spent months preparing the ground. His starting point was Fogasova, a four-day hike away from Mount Bosavi and about the furthest it was possible to get from civilization. It was a place where the villagers remembered a time when their grandfathers had been cannibals and they had never seen white people.

After flying in by helicopter, an event in itself for both the villagers and visitors, Steve and his translator sat down with the headmen to try and explain what they wanted to do, a tricky concept in a village with no TV. With the help of a laptop and old nature films they eventually got their message across and managed to secure the help....

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