- 33 minutes ago
Episode 1:
Explorer Ed Stafford heads into the remote swamps of West Papua to solve a mystery first seen on satellite images—a series of long white lines cutting through miles of flooded forest. Are they man-made, natural, or something else entirely?
Facing suffocating humidity, waist-deep mud, and the constant threat of crocodiles, Ed ventures where no outsider has gone in decades. His journey uncovers clues of ancient tribal activity and survival practices that defy modern understanding.
This episode blends exploration, tribal anthropology, and extreme survival, offering a rare look at the mysteries hidden deep within Earth’s untouched jungles.
Thank you for supporting our channel
Explorer Ed Stafford heads into the remote swamps of West Papua to solve a mystery first seen on satellite images—a series of long white lines cutting through miles of flooded forest. Are they man-made, natural, or something else entirely?
Facing suffocating humidity, waist-deep mud, and the constant threat of crocodiles, Ed ventures where no outsider has gone in decades. His journey uncovers clues of ancient tribal activity and survival practices that defy modern understanding.
This episode blends exploration, tribal anthropology, and extreme survival, offering a rare look at the mysteries hidden deep within Earth’s untouched jungles.
Thank you for supporting our channel
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TVTranscript
00:00To look for the cause of some mysterious parallel lines in one of the least explored places on Earth.
00:07Getting there is going to be one hell of an adventure.
00:15Right now, 1,200 operational satellites are in orbit around our planet,
00:21taking thousands of new pictures every day.
00:24These photographs are revealing some mysterious markings.
00:28And I want to find out what they are.
00:31I live through adventure.
00:33I've walked the Amazon, but there is so much of the world left to explore.
00:37This satellite imagery is bringing up crazy images from all over the planet,
00:41which I just cannot explain.
00:43And the only way to find out what is going on is to literally pick one, pack my bags and go there.
00:48The military call this ground truth.
00:55It could be jungle, it could be desert, it could be arctic.
00:59I've no idea how to get there or what I'll find.
01:03So I'm sure of a genuine adventure where anything can happen.
01:07West Papua is one half of the island of New Guinea, to the north of Australia.
01:21This is where I found my target.
01:24The island is covered in rainforest, but there's this part that I'm looking at where these white lines,
01:28and I don't know what they are at all.
01:30Papua is a place I've wanted to get to for years.
01:33It's one of the last great unexplored areas of the planet, and I leave tomorrow.
01:40West Papua is about as extreme as it gets in terms of the people,
01:43the potential dangers, the inaccessibility, the remoteness, the terrain.
01:48A phenomenally isolated part of the world.
01:50Home to cannibals, black magic, all sorts of ancient tribal people.
01:55It is a crazy part of the world.
01:57My objective is a remote island off the south coast.
02:00I can only guess what I'll find there.
02:02Although, initially, I was thinking this must be a jungle area,
02:05because it is so close to the sea, because it's so low-lying,
02:07it could well be swampy mangrove.
02:10It's probably going to be a complete nightmare to get in.
02:15This is Johnny, who's cameraman.
02:18Together, the two of us will be going on this mission.
02:20I'm packing my swamp essentials.
02:23Machete, jungle boots, mosquito repellent, and an inflatable raft.
02:28Thank you very much, mate.
02:33The first leg is to Jakarta, the Indonesian capital.
02:37And then, on to the city of Maroke.
02:40This is where my real journey begins.
02:43Bloody hell.
02:44Welcome to rainy season in the tropics.
02:46Absolutely hooking it down.
02:48My target is in a vast area of swamp on an island called Kimam,
02:53about 200 kilometres down the coast.
02:56There are no roads, and maps are scarce.
03:00First, I need a ride into town.
03:02Hello.
03:03I've no idea how to get where I'm heading,
03:05so I need to start asking questions.
03:07Do I say in Greece? No.
03:09I think the best place to do that would be to go down to the harbour,
03:13because, invariably, in coastal towns,
03:15that's the centre of everything, really, isn't it?
03:18Just 36 hours ago, I was in London.
03:20Now, I'm already a world away.
03:27Speak English? No.
03:28No, it's all. Just a little.
03:30Just a little? Yes.
03:31I'm looking to get to Kimam.
03:33No.
03:34Not possible.
03:35Not possible.
03:36Okay.
03:37I'm hoping the port police might have a more positive response.
03:39We're going to get to Kimam.
03:40Is that possible?
03:41No.
03:42No.
03:43Impossible.
03:44Impossible, because it's raining weather.
03:46There's what, sir?
03:47Raining weather, raining weather.
03:49Okay.
03:50Well, he's essentially saying that because of the rainy season.
03:52So, it's dangerous.
03:54You want to try?
03:55You want to try?
03:56You want to try?
03:57We do want to try.
03:58We do want to try.
03:59These guys reckon I've got no chance, but they do have a detailed map,
04:03and it's by far the best I've seen of this remote and little-traveled stretch of coast.
04:12The rain is worrying.
04:14It's very much still rainy season.
04:16We have one hand on the wheel, one hand on the makeshift window,
04:19which is a chamois letter.
04:21This isn't going to be a straightforward journey at all.
04:25Our drivers heard that we want to get to Kimam.
04:30Yeah, yeah, yeah.
04:31And after calling ahead, he's ready to take us to somebody who might be able to help.
04:34We going to meet him now?
04:35Yes.
04:36Yes?
04:37Yes.
04:38Let's go.
04:39Pastor Pappy.
04:40Pastor Pappy, yes.
04:41I shouldn't be surprised.
04:42I shouldn't be surprised.
04:43There's a long history of missionaries heading into the most remote regions of Papua to contact
04:47indigenous tribes.
04:48I've got it.
04:49I've got it.
04:50You can use both hands on the wheel.
04:52Papi, Papi.
04:53Apparently this is Pastor Pappy's house.
04:54Are you Papi?
04:55Yeah, I'm Pastor.
04:56Yeah, I'm Pastor.
04:57But I stay in Kimam.
04:58Aha, perfect.
04:59You're the man to speak to, then.
05:00We've been really trying to look for people who could help us get to Kimam.
05:01I think it's possible.
05:02All right.
05:03We must use some motorbikes.
05:04This is the answer I've been looking for all along.
05:05This is the answer I've been looking for all along.
05:06Fabi is a Pastor, and so this isn't his house, it's where all the priests stay.
05:15The priests travel between their scattered congregations by motorbike.
05:20And Fabi has arranged for me to hitch a lift with the next Mission West.
05:23How are you?
05:24How long?
05:25Two hours.
05:26So it's going to be dark by the time we get in.
05:27Yeah.
05:28All right, let's go next.
05:29Fabi reckons it'll be a three-day trip to Kimam.
05:30Tonight's stop is a priest's trip to Kimam.
05:31This is the answer I've been looking for all along.
05:32This is the answer I've been looking for all along.
05:33Fabi is a Pastor.
05:34And so this isn't his house, it's where all the priests stay.
05:35The priests travel between their scattered congregations by motorbike,
05:36and Fabi has arranged for me to hitch a lift with the next Mission West.
05:37How are you?
05:38How long?
05:39Two hours.
05:40So it's going to be dark by the time we get in.
05:41Yeah.
05:42Let's go.
05:43Let's go.
05:44Fabi reckons it'll be a three-day trip to Kimam.
05:48Tonight's stop is a priest's house in a village along the coast.
06:03Wet and slippery roads aren't the only problem that comes with travelling in the rainy season.
06:07Those mosquitoes are just horrendous here, absolutely horrendous.
06:12Look at the amount on Johnny's hand.
06:13Yeah, you've got like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
06:20That is absurd.
06:21Right, let's get going.
06:22Let's get on the bike.
06:23When you're moving, they're less bad.
06:25They're still bad.
06:26I came knowing I'd need to rely on local help,
06:29and this convoy of priests is an unexpected result.
06:32It's slow and bumpy, but it's progress towards my target.
06:36It's getting dark.
06:37I'm just praying it's not going to rain.
06:42Though if it did rain, I can't imagine the mud being any worse.
06:45Absolutely caning these rivers through.
06:47Some pretty horrendous conditions.
06:50It's easier to walk at the moment.
06:54The bike at the front, which has got a lot of kit on it, is really struggling.
06:57It sounds like the gears are going.
06:59The gear is not good.
07:01The plan is to go ahead, then the bikes will come back,
07:04help share the load of the bike that's broken,
07:06and then they can ferry the kit back in.
07:09After six hours of slippery roads and bone-jarring bumps,
07:12we've come just 60 kilometres.
07:14That's why I love journey.
07:15But Fabi's team of holy motorcycle riders are old hands.
07:19Finally, we make it to our overnight stop.
07:23What a journey, eh?
07:25Crikey.
07:26No idea.
07:27Today's been a success, as far as I'm concerned,
07:29and mainly because we met Fabi.
07:31Amazingly, he knew about this route,
07:33and so Fabi has just become the most knowledgeable
07:36and helpful guy to have around.
07:39Tomorrow, we're going to push on, take the motorbikes towards Kimam Island.
07:42For now, that's been a long day. I'm going to get my head down.
07:45Next, on my adventure, I glimpse the gateway to the swamp.
07:50The last part of this journey is going to be the hardest part by far.
07:53And I fall at the first hurdle.
07:55It's going to end in tears.
07:56Bloody hell.
07:57Whoa, steady.
08:08I've travelled 8,000 miles to the jungle of West Papua
08:12in search of the cause of these mysterious lines in an unexplored swamp.
08:17Last night, we stopped in a remote coastal village.
08:20Today, we're up early to get back on the road.
08:23It's not raining, which is good.
08:25With the bikes all patched up, I'm hoping for a good day.
08:28But with 100 kilometres and a sea crossing between me and my target,
08:32it's time we hit the road.
08:34Or in this case, the sand.
08:37In a remote coastal region,
08:39the beach often makes the best road surface by far.
08:42Papua's interior is home to hundreds of tribes,
08:45including some classed as uncontacted by the outside world.
08:48It does feel like a bit of a frontier country, this.
08:52In three hours, we cover almost twice the distance we made yesterday.
09:14For the bikes, it's the end of the road.
09:17Oh, I enjoyed that. I loved that bike journey.
09:20This remote fishing village is the next link in the route to Kiman.
09:23From here, we need to try and convince some boatmen to take us across.
09:27All the boats from here are out fishing,
09:30so we need to try and call one over from the opposite shore.
09:35There's no cell phone reception here, nothing like that.
09:37The only way you can send a message across is literally using a mirror to signal.
09:41Immediately, it's very obvious coming out of the city and into the rural areas.
09:45There's just a different people out here.
09:47Hello, mate. How are you?
09:49The indigenous Papuans obviously look very different to Indonesian Papuans,
09:53so it's almost like a different country.
09:59It works.
10:00A boat owner has seen the signal and come to see what we need.
10:03Can we go all the way to Kimam Island in this boat?
10:06Yeah? You can take us?
10:09Yes. Thank you very much.
10:11I'm here to search for some strange white lines,
10:15but I can't help but be affected by the people here
10:18and the kindness they've shown me.
10:22Every time I go into an indigenous community
10:24or living in a little village next to Asia,
10:26almost subsistence level, life is simple, life is happy.
10:29It always makes me wonder what on earth we're doing in Western society.
10:34Kimam Island is separated from the mainland by a sea channel,
10:39and its capital, Kimam Town,
10:41is slightly inland and upriver and close to my target.
10:45And you can see the mangrove-type roots on the banks already.
10:51This is the jungle.
10:52The mangrove is wet and saturated.
10:54The last part of this journey is going to be the hardest part by far.
11:00One, two more salmon.
11:02This one.
11:03Now, I'm getting somewhere.
11:08Hello!
11:09The place I'm trying to find is only 16 kilometres from here,
11:12but that's 16 kilometres of rainy-season swamp.
11:19Okay, this is Kimam Town. Hello.
11:22Kimam Town is home to a few hundred indigenous Papuans and Indonesians.
11:27Hello.
11:29It's a trading post and useful stepping-off point on the edge of the swamp.
11:33Hello.
11:34Selamat pagi.
11:35Selamat.
11:36Apa kabar?
11:37Apa kabar?
11:38Apa kabar?
11:39Bye.
11:40Bye-bye.
11:41Good.
11:42Good.
11:44Fabi tells me there are tribes who actually live in the middle of the swamp.
11:48If so, they're sure to know about my target and the best way to get there.
11:53Seems to be a convoy of dug-out canoes coming down the river.
11:56Maybe that's the obvious form of transport into the swamp,
11:59rather than putting my pack on, machete in hand,
12:02and trying to cut through the mangrove.
12:07And I was wondering whether I could ask one of these guys
12:09if they'd lend me a canoe just to practice on.
12:11Yeah, possible.
12:12Because I've never used one of these canoes before.
12:14Yeah.
12:15This man is a strong man.
12:17Ha! Okay.
12:18Hello.
12:19Apa kabar?
12:20These dug-out canoes are far narrower than anything that I've experienced.
12:27This is going to end in tears.
12:29Oh, my God.
12:33I'm distinctly nervous about this ****ing ****.
12:37Okay.
12:38Dug-out canoes like this are made by hollowing out a single tree trunk.
12:42This is the most unstable craft I've ever been in.
12:45Whoa.
12:46And they're the oldest known boats in the world,
12:48dating back to 6,000 BC.
12:51Whoa.
12:52Bloody hell.
12:54Perhaps I'd be more stable sitting down.
13:16Not even close, mate.
13:18My bums didn't.
13:19I can see there's no way I'll master a dug-out
13:22and travel like the locals.
13:24But I have got a plan B.
13:29My inflatable pack raft.
13:31I walk the length of the Amazon.
13:32This is 16 kilometres through the swamp.
13:34I don't want to let that beat me.
13:36My trusty raft is only big enough for me and my kit.
13:39So I've decided to leave Fabby and Johnny behind
13:42and head into the swamp alone.
13:45I'd be lying if I said I wasn't apprehensive about going into my...
13:50when you pack all your kit to go into the middle of nowhere,
13:53into the middle of a swamp,
13:54where you know if you get it wrong,
13:56your own life is at risk.
13:57I've got to be up at 5 tomorrow morning,
13:59so I ain't gonna hit my sack.
14:01I've got one main bag of kit.
14:11I've got my food mainly in there,
14:13and a belt kit with all my essentials.
14:16This is a real mission into the unknown.
14:19There are no maps of the swamp,
14:21so I'll rely on my GPS to get me to my target.
14:24Do it in a few days.
14:25Cheers.
14:26Thank you very much, Johnny.
14:27Thank you very much.
14:29At the moment, I've got hard ground to either side of me.
14:33If I had to, I could get out onto the banks,
14:35but I suspect that won't be the case for too much longer.
14:40It's clear that the narrow dugouts are better suited
14:41to these channels than my much wider pack raft.
14:45Okay, this is the first tricky bit
14:46where there literally isn't much space.
14:48There's still a lot of space.
14:49It's not too much space.
14:50Where there's no space.
14:51It's just a little bit bigger.
14:52At the moment, I've got hard ground to either side of me.
14:54If I had to, I could get out onto the banks,
14:55but I suspect that won't be the case for too much longer.
14:58It's clear the narrow dugouts are better suited
15:01to these channels than my much wider pack raft.
15:04Okay, this is the first tricky bit, where there literally isn't much space.
15:16Just a couple of kilometers out of town, I reached the marsh.
15:21There almost isn't any water to paddle in,
15:26and I just need to be careful in doing this.
15:28I don't break this paddle, because it's the only one I've got.
15:31Oh, my God!
15:32I haven't got the space now to paddle,
15:36so I'm just having to pull myself forward through the vegetation.
15:40With just my GPS for guidance,
15:42I have to guess which channel will take me in the right direction.
15:45It's back that way, I think.
15:47And that means a lot of wrong turns, dead ends, and doubling back.
15:52Oh, my God!
16:07Oh!
16:07It's like half-rooted swimming and pushing a wheelchair.
16:29And it's raining.
16:33The GPS in one hour we've gone, got 1.8 kilometres, 12.2 kilometres to the white lines, to the target area.
16:44Since leaving Kimam Town, I've been paddling for nearly six hours, but I've come just four kilometres closer to my target.
16:54I'm shattered and soon it will be dark.
16:57It's dry land ahead. Not much of it, but something like that would be good enough for me to camp on, definitely.
17:08These palms are big enough for me to string up my tarp and lightweight hammock.
17:12After hundreds of nights in this while I was walking the Amazon, it feels a bit like home.
17:16Cut the hammock off in the nick of time, it just started raining.
17:23I feel like I'm running on empty and need to get some food down me.
17:29OK, that's not a sustainable fire, that's a fire for cooking a pot of water, but that means I've got a hot meal and a cup of coffee, which I'm very happy about.
17:37Ah, chicken curry.
17:44Nice.
17:48I need to recharge.
17:54Finding this tiny island gives me a precious chance to rest up before another gruelling day.
17:58I must have been really tired. I got into my hammock preparing to do a video diary and I fell asleep.
18:07It's been exhausting, but rewarding. On journeys like this, I'm forced to adapt to whatever the environment throws my way.
18:15For me, that's what adventure is all about.
18:20Next, as I near my target, my entire mission is under threat.
18:24Every chance, we're not going to be allowed in here.
18:28And I cross into truly uncharted territory.
18:31There aren't many places in the world like that anymore.
18:41Day two of my solo mission into a west Papuan swamp on the trail of these mysterious white lines.
18:48Good morning. First night in the swamp. I have to admit, I don't want to move.
18:54I can hear the mosquitoes outside and I don't want to, I don't want to venture into them.
19:03Mosquitoes around here carry both malaria and dengue fever, both of which can be fatal if not treated fast.
19:11But right now, I need to get some fluid down.
19:13I just missed the edge of the grass. But I'm filling it with water, so I might as well do it anyway.
19:23Didn't smell it. It looks like iodineized water even before you put iodine in it, which normally stains bottles brown.
19:35Iodine is a potent disinfectant, which kills most of the bugs that contaminate dirty water.
19:39Once the iodine's in this water, I just have to wait 20 minutes and then that's ready to drink.
19:44Right, let's get cracking. That took longer than I thought.
19:47It is extraordinarily exciting to travel this far to only be one day's paddle in a little inflatable pack raft through a swamp to actually find out what these lines are.
19:58Satellite imagery highlights this area of mad markings in the middle of a swamp where you would never expect them to be.
20:03And I'm about to find out, by going in on the ground, exactly what they are.
20:11Breakfast of champions.
20:16It's good. Leadyflowers are very nice.
20:24It's early morning, and soon I hit some totally unexpected rush hour traffic.
20:29I've stumbled on a settlement out in the swamp.
20:35And it looks like the working day is well underway.
20:40Quite an extraordinary process. These girls are just literally hacking away at the trunk of a tree with a wooden pole in order to make this mush.
20:47The end product of all this pummeling is a paste that's cooked into a bready dough.
20:51Sagu.
20:53Sagu.
20:54Sagu.
20:56Sagu.
20:58Extraordinary.
21:00Dough. Dough.
21:04As I push on towards my target, I'm leaving the shelter of the palm trees used to make sagu.
21:10And emerge into an expanse of low-lying swamp.
21:15I find it utterly remarkable that there's people here at all.
21:19It's a bit like people living in the middle of the Sahara or people living in the middle of the ocean.
21:24These people have made a life for themselves where most people wouldn't be able to.
21:26If you haven't got one basic carbohydrate staple, you're not sustainable, and these guys have.
21:32They've got carbs. They can live. Incredible. Absolutely incredible.
21:38Five kilometres to go until I hit the target area.
21:42Somewhere around here, I should be crossing what looked on the satellite image like a massive lake.
21:46As soon as my raft hits open water, the wind hits me square in the face.
21:54I was going to venture out into the middle of this lake and go straight across it, but I'm not going to anymore.
22:00I'm going around it because I have no way of telling whether I'm even moving or not.
22:06Although I'm paddling hard. I'm barely going forward.
22:10It takes more than an hour of hard paddling to cross the lake, and that's only half the battle.
22:17I'm around the other side, and I need to find how to get off this lake.
22:22I'm banking on there being a waterway, which will lead me closer to my target area.
22:27Very narrow exit point there. The distance, this looks like an exit, but I'm not sure that it is now.
22:34No. Pretty much nothing there.
22:37This has to be it. It has to be it.
22:41Yes, yes, yes, I think it is.
22:44We have an exit from the massive lake.
22:47That was slightly worrying for a second.
22:50I thought I wasn't going to be able to find my way out of the lake.
22:53Out of the wind, it's much easier going.
22:57The next time I check my GPS, I can't quite believe what it's showing me.
23:02The GPS says this is the section where there's lines.
23:09I'm at the target area.
23:12This is where the parallel lines appeared on the satellite image, but I can't see anything.
23:16I'm drawing a complete blank.
23:22This is not what I expected at all.
23:25The only navigable path is still through the middle.
23:28If I step off it at all to go and explore, this is just marsh.
23:32The pack raft can't go through it, and I can't walk through it.
23:34It's just a couple of hours till dark, so I need a plan for the night.
23:39According to Fabi, not far from here is a village in the swamp called Yobi.
23:44If I can get there, the locals might have some answers about these increasingly mysterious white lines.
23:49I don't want to arrive in the dark.
23:52I think at the end of the day, if you're going to arrive in an indigenous community that potentially hasn't seen a white person for many, many years, you want to do it in daylight.
24:01You want to be able to see people's faces, and you want them to be able to see yours.
24:04After another hour of paddling, I'm surrounded by small islands shaded by palms.
24:21Aha.
24:23I think this is the beginning of Yobi.
24:28I've just seen these guys.
24:30I need to make a good first impression, so I put the camera down.
24:43What is your name?
24:47Agus.
24:49Nice to meet you.
24:51Agustinos.
24:54I get the idea that Agustinos wants me to follow him.
24:56We can't understand a word each other's saying, but I can tell these guys want me to feel welcome.
25:02Isn't it extraordinary? You come from the other side of the world, with all your gubbins, your camera equipment, your boxes, and actually the thing that sorts you is the local dude with a football shirt on.
25:12He just says, look, come with me, I'll look after you.
25:15Yobi is strangely still, an oasis of calm in the middle of a wind-battered marsh.
25:25It looks like each small thatched house stands on its own island.
25:28After two days afloat, it feels good to step out onto solid land.
25:34How are you?
25:38Nice to meet you. Hello.
25:40What we've got here is a community completely built in the middle of the marsh and little pockets of dry land.
25:45And there's a little house over there, and if you want to go to the house, you get in a canoe and you paddle across.
25:58I'm having a little epiphany on this island.
26:01At first I thought they'd put all of these posts in the water so that it would be easier for the dugout canoes to dock against.
26:07I reckon that this isn't a natural island at all.
26:15I did this journey through swamp, swamp, swamp, swamp for two days of paddling,
26:20and then suddenly I opened up into a big area of open water with a load of islands on it.
26:25And I reckon this island has been built, has been reclaimed from the swamp.
26:30If that's the case, this place is extraordinary.
26:33They have built their own island.
26:44I think I'm being offered this hut as my lodgings for the night,
26:48even though I'm a stranger who has arrived completely unannounced.
26:51I'm turning on the tablet because I want to explain.
26:58Sia Ed, what is your name?
27:01Sia Ed?
27:03Justinos.
27:05Justinos? Justinos.
27:07Sia, see, uh, these things here?
27:11Uh-uh.
27:13I would like to see.
27:14I can't understand what they're saying. They can't understand what I'm saying. It's just not working.
27:28These people hold the key to the riddle.
27:31But without a common language, I've got as far as I can go.
27:34I need Fabi here to translate.
27:37My emergency satellite phone is the lifeline that connects me to Johnny.
27:40Hello, mate.
27:42If he and Fabi avoid the detour I took yesterday, they'll be here sometime tomorrow.
27:46Then I hope to find out what is going on.
27:48It means that I'll be able to ask proper questions about the target area and therefore complete the mission.
27:54Until then, I can just be grateful to find myself here amongst the people of Yobi.
27:59It's getting dark now. I'm just very relieved to be here.
28:02When that rain was pelting down and coming across that lake with the wind blowing in my face,
28:07there's been various points today where this has been a real mission.
28:11Tomorrow, wake up, try and find out what these white lines in the middle of the swamp really are.
28:16You really are.
28:18Until then, I'm going to go to sleep.
28:35Morning. It's peaceful this morning. Very peaceful.
28:41Managing to eat and make myself basically understood,
28:44but the one thing I can't actually do at the moment is ask where these guys go to the loo.
28:52And I'm going to have to use sign language to ask how to go for a number two.
28:57Where do you go to?
29:01I have to have two guys, one in a Father Christmas hat and one at the front paddling me.
29:06We're taking a boat ride to go to the loo.
29:15Okay. Come to another island, which might be Poo Island.
29:19I'm just going to find somewhere to go to the loo.
29:31Yeah.
29:33Half the man I used to be.
29:34It might seem a gratuitous, slightly crude thing to film, but the practicalities of actually being able to live, being able to operate, being able to communicate.
29:47And not being able to go to the loo is obviously quite a big practicality in life.
29:51I think I've stretched my sign language as far as it would go.
29:56Okay.
29:57So I'm delighted to finally have some backup.
30:00Here's Fabi.
30:02And Johnny in the boat behind.
30:04Hey Fabi!
30:06Fabi, hello mate.
30:08How you doing?
30:10Hello mate, how are you?
30:11I'm good, how are you?
30:12How was the journey?
30:13It was quite long.
30:14At last, I can ask some direct questions about my mysterious target.
30:18It's these white lines, these parallel white lines.
30:21These are very near here.
30:22Can you ask if I can go to the city?
30:23Apakah Bapadong bisa bantu dia untuk sampai ke sini?
30:30You can see the look in Justinos' eyes.
30:33He's taking us extraordinarily seriously.
30:37This conversation doesn't seem to be going the way I expected at all.
30:44I think they are very, very cautious about me accessing any of these lines at all.
30:49Yeah, this is your deal.
30:53Every chance.
30:54We're not going to be allowed in here.
30:59They say about, what that means, can't go there.
31:05Oh, can't go there.
31:06Well, it's sacred, is it?
31:07It's sacred, yeah.
31:08It's sacred.
31:09If Fabi was having to, he explained to him that these are satellite pictures taken from satellites,
31:17which he didn't understand at all.
31:19He was a little bit perturbed by the fact that we've got pictures of the sacred area.
31:23Completely and utterly respect this sacred area.
31:26If they don't want me to access it, I don't want to access it.
31:30After traveling halfway around the world, I've got within a few kilometers of my target.
31:34But my journey has come to a very abrupt halt.
31:38And there's nothing I can do.
31:44Next, in the swamp, I'm put through a traditional spitting ceremony.
31:49Let's see globules of spit all over the camera.
31:51And get to the bottom of the riddle of the white line.
31:54Today, I've built an island.
32:04I'm in a remote tribal swamp in West Papua, searching for these mysterious white lines.
32:12Last night, the village elders stopped us going any further,
32:15because the white lines are in a forbidden sacred area.
32:18But the news this morning is that things just might be taking a more positive turn.
32:24After discussions with the elders, I think they're going to let us go into these sacred lines.
32:29It was definitely a big decision for them.
32:33They had to really check in with themselves and work out whether they really wanted to allow us access.
32:38The chiefs have imposed a condition.
32:43We must be initiated in the ways of the tribe before we're able to visit the sacred lands.
32:48And that means visiting some elders way out in the swamp.
32:52This row of sticks that are in the ground here means that all of this, at one point, used to be inhabited.
33:04There must have been a far, far bigger population.
33:07There must have been a far, far bigger population.
33:09There must have been a far, far bigger population.
33:12There must have been a far, far bigger population.
33:16But what are the most small people that are living in the past?
33:18We're heading into a portion of swamp
33:40that even Fabi thought was totally uninhabited.
33:45Serenaded by the boatmen,
33:46it feels like we're crossing into another world.
34:05I really don't know what to expect next.
34:16As part of the ritual, we're blessed by the elders
34:25with a fine shower of spit.
34:28Even our cameras don't escape.
34:37Even our cameras don't escape.
34:56There's literally globules that spit all over the camera.
34:58Just been told that there's never been a white person
35:06come to this remote settlement here, ever.
35:09No missionaries, no tourists obviously,
35:13no explorers, no film crews.
35:15We are literally the first white people to have ever,
35:18ever come to this area.
35:20And there aren't many places in the world like that anymore.
35:41Having won the trust of the elders,
35:43we're finally able to head into the area of the white lines.
35:59It's clear from the GPS,
36:00we're heading to the heart of my target area.
36:02At last, I'll get some answers.
36:09We're very, very close now.
36:18I'm actually standing in the middle of the lines now.
36:22This is the precise location of the mysterious lines
36:24on the satellite image.
36:26And still, there's no obvious explanation
36:28of what they might be.
36:30And that's what ground truiting is all about.
36:32It's actually finding out what it's like on the ground.
36:36But in the kit I've brought from home,
36:38I've got one more trick left to try.
36:41This quadcopter is essentially a drone.
36:43It's got a camera underneath.
36:45I know.
37:10And there they are,
37:11The huge grid of parallel lines first seen in the satellite photos.
37:26It looks like a vast pattern of channels cut into the reeds.
37:31The white colour is created by sunlight reflected off the water.
37:36The lines expand as far as the horizon. It's extraordinary, the scale of them.
37:42This is exactly the target that I've been looking for.
37:46I found them, and now I've seen them.
37:50But I still don't understand how or why they got here.
37:53So the whole village has decided the best way to explain is to show me.
38:00This isn't anywhere you would even remotely consider inhabiting.
38:04It is literally up to my knees in swamp.
38:06But the people here have a way of turning swamp into land, and this age-old island-building process turns out to be the key to understanding the white lines.
38:16Within minutes, an island has almost formed, and patches of water are opening up.
38:19Once the grass above the water line has been cleared, they go deeper, pulling up the mass of roots from the bottom of the swamp.
38:30There's a machete being worked under my feet at the moment.
38:34These fertile lumps of reeds are the building blocks of the new island, and the basis of the swamp-dweller's entire way of life.
38:45So he's cutting, and then diving, and pulling all of the roots up.
38:50This is old knowledge, isn't it?
38:51This guy is efficient. He really is. Impressive. Very, very impressive.
39:00Finally, I understand that the white lines I've seen from space are a by-product of a beautifully sustainable system for living in this swamp.
39:09When the population here was much bigger, island-building was almost constant, and that called for a steady supply of raw material.
39:15So the reeds were cut from far and wide, and floated back to where they were needed.
39:21Brilliantly, by only taking the reeds in thin strips, making dead straight channels,
39:26enough swamp is left over for it all to regrow over time.
39:30Three plants planted. These will help consolidate the island. Job done.
39:36I came here in search of some white lines I'd seen in a satellite image.
39:40But I've discovered much more than a pattern in a swamp.
39:47Every male in the settlement has come out here from the ages of three to the age of about 65, and all helped build this island, and it's amazing.
39:56The ingenuity and generosity of the Qimam people is something I will never forget.
40:01Absolutely extraordinary in terms of a whole society surviving in this way, creating a life, creating a home.
40:08Oh my God.
40:09Here we go as a dog —
40:10Greens meet and
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