Benedict Allen

In West Papua and Papua New Guinea he flew from the Obini community in Irian Jaya. He participated in the "Niowra", a male initiation ceremony (Into the Crocodile’s Nest). In Siberut and Sumatra he investigated the "Orang pendek" ape man, via the Mentawai of Siberut and the Kubu of Sumatra (Hunting the Gugu). He crossed the central mountain range of New Guinea and the Torres Strait to Australia. He made 'first contact' with the Yaifo people in New Guinea. (The Proving Grounds). He crossed the Amazon basin at its widest point, 1,200 miles from the Andes of Ecuador, through the lowland jungle to Mato Grosso in Brazil, helped by the Matses Indians (Through Jaguar Eyes). In the Cocha Brava he went in search of tigers (ducks of the Lost Lake). In the Namib Desert (1995), he spent three and a half months travelling with three reluctant camels, learning from the nomadic Himba tribe to survive with little food or water (The Skeleton Coast). Read Less