TRIBAL QUEST

IT WAS THE DREAM OF A LIFETIME FOR JAMES ASHWELL TO SAIL TO THE REMOTE ISLANDS OF VANUATU, THE SOLOMON ISLANDS AND PAPUA NEW GUINEA

- JAMES ASHWELL

For a month, the boys had been hidden in the mountains with their uncles. They had their noses pierced with bamboo and stayed in the ceremonial hut for three nights, while their mothers and aunties conducted a singing vigil. They started the process as boys, but now it was time for them to be released and accepted as men.

Their fathers took great care to ensure that sons in their most treasured family possessions. They were adorned with huge, century-old hornbill beaks. Priceless pearl shell necklaces, collected from the coastlines over centuries, were draped around their necks. Necklaces made of parrot feathers completed the look, together with head dresses from possum fur topped with the incredibly rare feathers of the bird of paradise.

Finally it was time. The young men were released from the hut and paraded by their fathers and mothers with the entire village there to watch. The procession was one of the most dramatic scenes I will ever witness.

START OF ADVENTURE

Simbai, in the highlands of Papua New Guinea, is the most remote and inaccessible place I have ever been to. Planning to get here has taken years. I’ve been somewhat obsessed with Papua New Guinea (or PNG) since I was 12 and read a feature in the National Geographic. Ever since then I’ve been desperate to visit. PNG is one of the three key places that gave me the motivation to try to sail around the world.

In the UK I lived with my three best friends and every year we went sailing together. One summer we said, “Why don’t we do this for real?” They agreed that if I got a boat, they’d join me. A year and a half later I saw Uhuru, a broken-down Oyster 43 for sale and bought her.