Q: Initially you didn’t receive a very warm welcome from the Mek. Were you worried that the whole expedition might fail before it had really begun, and were you prepared for such a greeting?

Mark: There was always a strong possibility that communities in our chosen search area might be hostile to the idea of such an invasion and that we’d have to therefore spend far too much time searching, perhaps even in a totally different part of the island, whilst all the while our filming budget and permits would be trickling away regardless. And yes, that scenario was certainly at the forefront of my mind when we crossed that rotten suspension bridge into Mek territory.

In fact the first community we came across, though at first glance sort of what we were looking for, was not particularly friendly. They started demanding absurd cash prices for everything almost before we had sat down and I know that I wasn’t the only one thinking, “Oh please God, let this not be all there is!”.

We were encouraged though by the fact that we had barely started on our trek away from a missionary airstrip and also by our guide, Bob Palege’s assurance that we needed to go much, much further to find what we were looking for. Merengman was only the second village we came to and I had no idea of how perfect it really was until after that amazing initial stand-off with its inhabitants and I stepped out onto the ridgeline for the first time and saw that view.

As for the stand-off itself: I was expecting something to happen. We were such a big group that our arrival was bound to be expected and the first village had, after all, put on a very similar display to that of the Kombai. The speed with which Markus, the chief, suddenly appeared at the top of that path brandishing his axe and screaming at us took me aback though and for just a moment I thought he really was furious. But if you really want to intimidate some intruders into leaving you don’t come out to face them on your own, you bring the lads with you, and the lads, when they do pitch in, do not bring their wives and children along for the fun.

After that first moment of doubt it was clear we weren’t going to be chased away, at least not yet, and more to the point, their display was not the half-hearted affair of the previous village; they seemed almost at once to be just what we were looking for.

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