Preliminary Expedition Report

Untamed Rivers of New Britain
Nakanai Mountains, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea
Preliminary Report, April 2006

The expedition had two main objectives, which included both exploration and conservation.
The primary objective was the exploration and mapping of the mega-doline of Ora and its associated underground river, the last recorded Nakanai doline with a large river to remain unexplored. Three previous expeditions to this very remote area (1972-73 Australian, 1980 French, 1984-85 British) all failed to explore the white water downstream river to a conclusion, only progressing about 150 m.
The secondary long term objective was to work towards the establishment of the Nakanai Mountains Conservation Area, which will be proposed for World Heritage status. The expedition's involvement consisted of meetings with the relevant government departments (at provincial and local level), NGOs, local village head men, villagers and logging company management, and the collecting of relevant information on the state of conservation.
The team consisted of twelve members, seven from Britain, one from France and four from the USA (which included three appointed by the National Geographic Society). The expedition took place from 11th January to 24th March, 2006, and was supported by the National Geographic Society, the Royal Geographical Society and the Ghar Parau Foundation.

The Exploration Project
While the majority of the team were engaged in meeting relevant government officials in the capital of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, and later in Rabaul, a two-man reconnaissance party was sent ahead to establish the best route in. They were to make contact with the logging camp at Matong shore base and with the two Australian and American families of the New Tribes Mission stationed at Ora village. Ora is situated at the headwaters of the Iso River, in one of the remotest areas of the Nakanai Mountains. The old logging road from Pomio village on the coast of Jacquinot Bay, reaches all the way to Nutuve, but this was reported as being overgrown and with many bridges now in a state of collapse. The original plan was to walk in to Ora from Nutuve, on a trail around 22 km long.

Establishing a base
After flying from Rabaul to Palmalmal and crossing Jacquinot and Waterfall Bay by boat, a Niugini Lumber logging truck transported the reconnaissance team 35 km along the well-maintained logging road which lead north to the Nutuve logging camp. This camp is sited between the Berg Berg and Ikoi Rivers, 6 km east of Nutuve. The road lies mainly east of the Berg Berg River and crosses it 30 km upstream. From the logging camp, a two-day walk via Nutuve took the team to Ora village, where contact was made with the missionary families. Communication with the main team in Port Moresby was established via satellite phone. The walk was described as hard and required the crossing of two major rivers, the Ikoi and Iso, both of which ran through deep gorges. Although there were many villages along the way, porters were few and far between. From this recce experience, it was obvious that the only option was to use a helicopter to transport the main team, along with its three tonnes of equipment and food supplies, from the Nutuve logging camp to Ora village.
Two team members flew by helicopter direct to Ora village from Rabaul, and one member of the reconnaissance party returned on the empty helicopter as he had to return to Britain. The three team members remaining at Ora then climbed up to the plateau and located the Ora doline after a three-hour walk across numerous blind valleys and dolines. Over the next few days, a base camp was built with the help of Ora villagers; it overlooked the Ora doline.
One week later, the main team arrived at Ora village, by helicopter from the Nutuve logging camp, with all supplies. A freighter had been hired from Rabaul to ship the team and its supplies across to the Matong shore base camp, from where logging trucks and accommodation had been kindly supplied by Niugini Lumber.
Over a four day period, all the team, together with all its equipment and supplies (in 160 porter-loads carried for the three hours from the village) were finally established at the Ora doline base-camp; it was 27th January, 17 days after leaving home. The two missionary families based at Ora, administering to a population of 100 Kol people, kindly provided accommodation in the village and translated from Kol to English. This greatly facilitated the hiring of the majority of the people in the village.

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Exploration of Ora
The exploration of Ora began, pushing down-stream, to reach a flooded section through a siphon after 600 m. Four Tyroleans and a number of high level traverses were required to keep above the roaring white water. A piton and crab, found on a climb 150 m in, proved to have been left there by the Australian expedition 33 year previously, but were good enough to use for aid. Throughout most of the four weeks of exploration, the Ora River rarely reduced in size from 10 cubic metres a second of white water rapids. The upstream cave also hit a siphon after a short distance. The total length of the Ora Cave came to just over a kilometre, with a depth of 317 m from the lowest point on the doline rim. Ora's twin dolines were surveyed - and proved to be a staggering 1400 m in length and 750 m across - placing Ora among the largest collapse dolines in the Nakanai Mountains and in the world.
The insignificant entrance to Phantom Pot was discovered during the early stages of the expedition. It lead via a few shafts to 1400 m of nasty, sharp meander passage - which ended in the upper cave of the Ora River. This large river passage was explored upstream to a massive lake; Lake Myo, 67 m long by 58 m wide, and downstream to a siphon after 200 m. Upstream lead to the magnificent Myo Falls, a waterfall 10 m high that was the main river inlet. This less mature river passage, 800 m long, eventually leads to another siphon. A large and well-decorated fossil inlet passage leads off from the lake. This had clearly been the active river passage before it had been blocked by a collapse that diverted the main river to its present course. Fossil passages are unusual for the Nakanai caves, as the majority of cave passages so far discovered still contain active rivers. Phantom Pot was surveyed for 3.9 km long, over a depth of 191 m.
The waterfall 40 m high out of the Ora resurgence was climbed, and the cave above it was explored to a siphon after just 129 m. The total length of the Ora caves, including a few small and relatively immature caves feeding into the main drain, came to 5.4 kilometres.

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Prospecting the plateau
Many other sinks were investigated, but all proved to be immature; they are either too narrow, or are blocked with sediment. It appears that there are so many blind valleys, dolines and sinks on this area of youthful plateau that drainage is distributed into numerous small catchments, with little scope for large surface streams to develop and drain into larger sinks. Some of the gullies contain mudstones over a metre deep, which may be derived from old volcanic eruptions.
The extremely rough karst terrain makes traversing it very hard work. Tree cover on the ridges between the dolines and blind valleys had been severely damaged by Cyclone Justine in 1992. Of the larger trees, 60-80% had been destroyed. The ridges therefore tend to be overgrown with new tree growth, bamboo and fallen trees. Cutting tracks on level ground is rarely possible, as the only way to progress is to descend into each steep-sided valley and climb up the other side, immediately to descend into another one. Various teams spent six days cutting a track to a large blind valley that had been spotted on the aerial photographs, but they only covered 2 kilometres as the crow flies. The potential for gaining access into the further reaches of the upstream Ora River cave system is good, but would require a mammoth effort in track-cutting, with many bivouacs. Tens of kilometres of upstream river cave probably remain to be explored.
Hundreds of square kilometres of karst in this area remain totally unexplored by man, as even the Ora village people do not venture onto the plateau. Vegetation in its valleys is in pristine condition, rich in epiphytes, palms, and gymnosperms. It is a rare privilege in today's world to be able to traverse large areas untouched by man.

Exploration of Megeni
A previously unrecorded, multiple waterfall, 80 m high, was seen from the helicopter during the flight in to Ora; the local villagers called it Megeni. Half a dozen waterfalls pour from a cliff into the unexplored Iso Gorge. A reconnaissance team was sent to investigate and to establish a bivouac camp. A three-hour walk south from Ora village located the falls - which could be clearly heard from the edge of the cliff. An abseil of 50 m and a traverse lead into a cave entrance with a large river issuing from it. With river passages, oxbows, waterfalls and some highly decorated galleries, the cave was mapped, over a period of ten days, for 7.2 kilometres with a vertical range of +229 m. The Megeni cave system, with open river passage at the furthest point reached, has a strong draught and a major flow of water; it drains from the northwest, from an area beneath the large valley seen on the aerial photographs. This major river cave system lies parallel to the Ora river cave; like all the underground rivers in this region, including Gamvo and the mighty Nare, they drain in a southeasterly direction.
Megeni is now the second longest cave in the Nakanai Mountains, pushing Lik Lik Vuvu into third place and Gamvo into fourth and there is much more to be found. The expedition explored and mapped 12.6 kilometres of caves in the immediate vicinity.
Another large doline spotted on the aerial photographs lies 20 km west of Ora. This was flown over by helicopter, and a river was seen crossing its floor and flowing into a cave entrance. This area is normally obscured by clouds so the doline has not been recorded previously. It appears that Ora may not be the last of the great dolines and river caves that remain unexplored in the Nakanai Mountains.

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The Conservation Project
To enable real progress within the plans for conservation, meetings took place with the Department of Environment and Conservation, the National Research Institute, the Provincial Government of East New Britain, the Governor of East New Britain, the Tourism Authority, the Local Level Government Pomio District and non-government conservation organisations, as well as with local village headmen, villagers, and logging company management. 
A hasty and impromptu presentation, just before the team caught the flight back to Singapore, was presented to the World Heritage Workshop in Port Moresby. This was well received. The Nakanai Mountain karst areas are to be included on the tentative list to be submitted to the World Heritage Bureau. The Sublime Karst of Papua New Guinea Conservation Group is now working on this list.
There was widespread grass-roots support for conservation of the karst that could be coupled with elements of eco-tourism. Support for timber harvesting in areas under licence is high, which is hardly surprising as the local employed population are thereby able to earn an income.
Awareness programmes for local villages now need to be carried out, and agreements must be reached on realistic boundaries for a conservation area. One village asked for an access fee of 20,000 kina to visit the Nare, arguing against the people of the Ire village who claim that the cave as within their clan area. The expedition therefore decided not to visit the Nare, but recommended that a meeting be arranged to reach agreement on access to this internationally important site.
The following notes are preliminary comments based on the expedition's observations in the field.

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Notes on the state of conservation
Logging concessions now need to be reviewed, with second cuts prohibited. Concessions have been awarded for all of the Nakanai Mountains, and these include the high limestone plateau. However, logging on the limestone appears to be prohibited under the forest code; this is yet to be confirmed, and nobody in the district could confirm the rule.
Almost 100% of the lowland forest has been logged, but abandoned coupes (sectors) are recovering rapidly. For the most part, the lowland forest is on poor soils, mudrocks and soft crumbly limestones, including raised coral reefs. There are few dolines, blind valleys or caves. The Pomio forest officer is engaged in re-seeding perimeters of logging roads, log ponds and skid trails. Seedlings have taken firm root in many places and are growing rapidly. Second cuts can be undertaken after as little as six years, depending on the forest type, but no second cuts were observed. In many cases it is a 20 year cycle before a second cut takes place.
It is highly recommended that second cuts are prohibited in the lowland and highland areas, as enormous damage results to the natural drainage routes. Existing and new skid trails are extended and incised to such an extent that calculated recovery rates can be as long as 600 years.
The logging managers confirmed that extraction has reached altitudes of over 1000 m. Although not observed, it seems certain that logging is taking place on the karst of the Yalam limestones. Previous expeditions have reported dolines blocked with road debris, but this was not seen by this expedition.
Logging managers and workers are aware of the forest code - which is observed. Riparian forest is intact as no felling is allowed along river banks. Rosewood and trees of less than 500 mm diameter are not cut. Slopes of more than 30-40º are not logged. No large areas of alluvial forest were observed this year, though vegetation maps were not studied. The forest type is that of lowland limestone ridge and scree.
The logging companies that the expedition encountered are well managed, employing large numbers of local people, some in positions of responsibility. Their resource maps were made freely available.
Coupe 1 contains the Nutuve camp of Niugini Lumber, which has now been abandoned (March 2006) due to the steep terrain, numerous villages and high rainfalls. It was not confirmed if this will re-open at a later date. The Tokai Matong area has already been logged.
Coupe 2 covers the northern sector and also the unexplored high limestone plateau east of the Iso gorge. Operations are scheduled to start here in 2006-7. It seems doubtful that the limestone plateau will be logged, as the terrain is similar to that in the Ora region - with few large trees, heavy cyclone damage, numerous dolines and many steep sided depressions.
Coupe 3, due to be exploited in 2007-8, covers the area west of the Iso River within the catchment of the Kiage River, a tributary of the Iso. This sector will come within 2 km of the Nare site. A timber resource survey has not yet been carried out; if the area is unproductive, it will not be logged. It would be appropriate to impose an exclusion zone 5 km wide around the Nare and Pavie cave systems.
No information was available for the Berg Berg extension, situated between the two rivers, but a road was seen near the coast, so presumably this has been logged.
The Aman Timber operation at Galowe has not progressed beyond kilometre 16; this is still 5 km from the Muruk cave system, but at an altitude of over 1000 m. An exclusion zone 5 km wide was recommended, but the suggestion was defeated by a vote of the Galowe villagers. An exclusion zone of just 50 m was proposed. At present, Aman Timber management have no plans to log beyond the 16 kilometre mark, as the ground is steep, unless instructed to do so by the holding company.
It was reported that the old logging camp between Pomio and Galowe is due to be reopened this year, probably for a second cut. The Kavakuna cave is already protected as a Wildlife Management Area, and the old abandoned road is now overgrown. The forest is intact in the area surrounding the cave.
Generally the high Nakanai karst is in pristine condition, the majority un-traversed by man. Cyclone Justine was a natural disaster and the forest will recover given time. A high percentage of the large trees were destroyed - and this may fortuitously preclude logging operations. The ground is steep, with many dolines, so it will generally offer a poor yield.

David W Gill, April 2006