Rainforest Rafting: White Water Odyssey

In Papua New Guinea, deep in the jungle, a group sets off on a rafting trip. 17-year-old Zamon Kingi and his friend Andrew are having a blast… until the fun abruptly stops. When their raft hits a waterfall, Andrew and another member of the party are separated from the group. Zamon will join the rescue effort, on a mission to find his friend - before the crocodiles do… A Noiser production, written by Joe Viner. For ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Click the Noiser+ banner to get started. Or, if you’re on Spotify or Android, go to noiser.com/subscriptions If you have an amazing survival story of your own that you’d like to put forward for the show, let us know. Drop us an email at [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

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• 0:30Speaker 01

  I hope I don't have to cancel again tonight.

• 0:32Speaker 00

  Chronic migraine means 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more. Botox, onabotulinum toxine A, prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. It is not approved for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. Botox, the number one prescribed branded chronic migraine preventive treatment, prevents, on average, eight to nine headache days a month versus six to seven per placebo. Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue, and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions,

• 1:16Speaker 00

  including ALS Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Ask your doctor. Visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more.

• 1:33John Hopkins?

  It's March 1986, deep in the jungle of Papua New Guinea.

• 1:40John Hopkins?

  Beneath a canopy of tangled vines, a swollen, muddy river snakes its way through the forest. After months of monsoon, the river has burst its banks. Sluggish, brown water spills into the surrounding grasslands and bamboo groves, turning this tropical jungle into a fetid swamp. As the rain continues to hammer the canopy, the forest is alive with noise.

• 2:08John Hopkins?

  But for seventeen-year-old Zamon Kingi, submerged deep beneath the river's surface, the only sound is the blood rushing in his ears.

• 2:18John Hopkins?

  The teenager opens his mouth and lets out a muffled scream. Far above him, thin shafts of light slice through the water, cutting through the murky green depths to the riverbed, where Zamon lies helpless.

• 2:33John Hopkins?

  He tries to move his arms, but they won't budge. Something is binding him tight, like his body is strapped into a straitjacket.

• 2:43John Hopkins?

  Zamon can feel the current rushing past him. He can feel the slimy weeds crawling around his limbs, pulling him deeper into the mud.

• 2:51John Hopkins?

  His lungs are on fire as his body consumes the last traces of oxygen. And suddenly...

• 3:01John Hopkins?

  Zamon wakes in a cold sweat.

• 3:04John Hopkins?

  He looks around at the dark jungle and the kind, concerned faces of his adult companions.

• 3:11John Hopkins?

  He was only dreaming.

• 3:15Speaker 03

  And I remember just thrashing around violently and screaming and shouting and Mike waking me up and then consoling me, you know, I burst into tears and was crying and I remember him giving me a hug and saying, you know, "You're okay, you're gonna be all right."

• 3:32John Hopkins?

  Zamon takes several steadying breaths and slowly, he remembers where he is and why he is here.

• 3:41John Hopkins?

  In the darkness, he can hear the rain pattering against the surface of the river. The river they've been trying to navigate down for the past two days.

• 3:51John Hopkins?

  Covered in stinging bites and painful bruises, shaken by the horrors of the past 24 hours, Zamon lies back and closes his eyes.

• 4:02John Hopkins?

  He may have just woken up from one bad dream, but he's stumbled straight back into a waking nightmare.

• 4:20John Hopkins?

  Ever wondered what you would do when disaster strikes? If your life depended on your next decision, could you make the right choice?

• 4:29John Hopkins?

  Welcome to Real Survival Stories. These are the astonishing tales of ordinary people thrown into extraordinary situations. People suddenly forced to fight for their lives.

• 4:41John Hopkins?

  In this episode, we meet Zamon Kingi. In March 1986, he and his best friend Andrew are on a rafting trip through the jungle of Papua New Guinea. They're having a blast until the fun abruptly stops.

• 4:56Speaker 03

  The entire boat is submerged, right? The whole wave kind of explodes over us. Everyone's underwater and then we're just pushing through. So we were out of control by this stage.

• 5:05John Hopkins?

  When the raft hits a waterfall, Andrew and another member of the party are separated from the group. With no idea if they're dead or alive, Zamon will join the rescue effort, setting off back down the river on a mission to find his friend before the crocodiles do.

• 5:22Speaker 03

  And then I could see that, actually, this log has a couple of nostrils on the end of it and there's some eyes behind those nostrils. That's not a log.

• 5:33John Hopkins?

  I'm John Hopkins from Noiser. This is Real Survival Stories.

• 6:06John Hopkins?

  It's Saturday, March 8, 1986, in Port Moresby, the capital of Papua New Guinea. A lanky, dark-haired 17-year-old strolls along the city's main oceanfront promenade.

• 6:19John Hopkins?

  To his left, the waves of the Coral Sea lap gently against the white sand beach. To his right, a lush, green hillside is dotted with hotels and low-rise condominiums. Zamon glances both ways before trotting across the road, weaving deftly between the traffic.

• 6:41John Hopkins?

  Though he's a New Zealander by birth, he's grown up here in New Guinea. His father is an accountant for a local airline, and his mother is a teacher.

• 6:50John Hopkins?

  For the past few years, Zaimon has been abroad at boarding school. After graduating last summer, he moved back to Port Moresby for a gap year before starting university. It was an opportunity for him to spend some quality time in the country he is proud to call home.

• 7:07Speaker 03

  I was very attached to Pop New Guinea. New Guinea has a quarter of the world's languages. It has 720 languages in that country. It has 720 or even more cultures. With that, you have a pantheon of gods. You have amazing art. You have all of this incredible diversity.

• 7:26John Hopkins?

  Still, Zaimon doesn't let his cultural interests interrupt his beach time. As a keen windsurfer, he spends most days out beyond the breakwater, fully enjoying this rare, carefree interlude before university starts in the autumn.

• 7:43John Hopkins?

  Of course, none of this would be nearly as much fun without a friend to share it with.

• 7:48John Hopkins?

  As he walks along the pavement, Zaimon catches sight of a group of people gathered outside the entrance of a hotel.

• 7:55John Hopkins?

  Among them is a skinny, suntanned teenager leaning against a wall.

• 8:00John Hopkins?

  When he spots Zaimon, the boy grins and waves.

• 8:06John Hopkins?

  Andrew Mulholland is Zaimon's best friend. They've got a lot in common. Both are outgoing and adventurous. Both are the children of expats. And both attended boarding school in different countries. Andrew in the UK, Zaimon in New Zealand.

• 8:20Speaker 03

  But we would come back during holidays and we would hang out together, you know, would usually end up playing squash all day or going exploring and doing things. So it was a pretty lucky childhood. He and I were good friends.

• 8:37John Hopkins?

  Recently Andrew revealed some bad news. The Mahollans are moving back to the UK in a few months. They'll be leaving New Guinea for good. Though the boys have promised to stay in touch, it's a sad moment. Perhaps in recognition of this fact, Andrew's parents, Shuna and Mike, have invited Zayman on a family rafting trip.

• 8:58Speaker 03

  And so they thought they were leaving, this would be a fun thing for the boys, would be to go and have an adventure like this. And not long after that, they were returning back to the UK. So it was kind of like a farewell trip.

• 9:13John Hopkins?

  The trip is a two-day rafting expedition down the Ungabunga River, a meandering waterway that flows through the New Guinean mountains. They'll be going with an organised tour group, Pacific Expeditions, who have promised the Mahollans a gentle float trip, with only one short whitewater section. Still, when he first heard about the proposed excursion, Zayman's excitement was tempered by nerves. Rivers are something of an unknown quantity to him.

• 9:42Speaker 03

  My world was windsurfing, was being on the ocean, was sailing. And the ocean was something that I was deeply attached to and felt completely comfortable with. But rivers were a different thing. You know, I didn't understand the currents in New Guinea. You've got crocodiles, you've got lots of things that swim around in rivers. And so there was an unknown entity. So there was hesitation, but at the same time, I had the opportunity to go with my best buddy and to go experience something new, so I said yes.

• 10:19John Hopkins?

  Later that morning, Zayman sits in the backseat of a Land Rover as it trundles deeper into the mountains.

• 10:28John Hopkins?

  Pacific Expeditions is a new tour company. This will be their first commercial outing with paying clients. The two guides have carefully scouted out the route beforehand. But still, today is a day of firsts for everyone. Among the group, excitement and trepidation builds.

• 10:48Speaker 03

  The entire team was, the two raft guides is Dave and Grant Trunach. They were the owners of Pacific Expeditions. And then, we had our driver, Alu, and myself, Andrew, his parents, Shuna and Mike Senior, and then his brother, Michael.

• 11:08John Hopkins?

  Finally, there's Don, a family friend of the Maholins, who was invited along for the ride.

• 11:20John Hopkins?

  After six hours, the Land Rover pulls up. Zaimon jumps out of the vehicle and, along with the rest of the group, makes his way down to an old, disused steel bridge, abandoned by the Australian Army after World War II. As he steps onto the bridge, Zaimon looks down at the river. A broad, muddy stripe splitting the rainforest canopy, in places overflowing after heavy rain.

• 11:47Speaker 03

  All we could see is this very large, chocolate brown river underneath us. And the river had also gone into the local grasses, and it was obviously high, which we thought was great because it meant we didn't have to walk too far down the slope and drag the raft down to the river.

• 12:08John Hopkins?

  With the group assembled along the riverbank, Dave begins the safety briefing. First, he hands out personal flotation devices, PFDs, or life jackets. He issues helmets and wooden paddles. Then he explains the protocol should anyone fall overboard. The instructions are simple: get to the banks, stay by the river, and don't wander off.

• 12:32Speaker 03

  And I remember this clearly because he said, "The reason for this is if you try and walk out on this river, it's about five, six days' walk to the nearest road, if you know where you're going."

• 12:48John Hopkins?

  Zaymon glances up at the tree-covered mountains beyond the valley walls. They seem to stretch on forever. Gauzy, white clouds drift between the hills like smoke.

• 13:01John Hopkins?

  The Papua New Guinean jungle is the world's third-largest tropical rainforest. Covering over 100,000 square miles, it's also one of the most biodiverse places anywhere on the planet. A seemingly infinite array of reptiles, birds, and insects dwell among its luscious valleys, lowland swamps, twisting rivers, lagoons, and gorges.

• 13:26John Hopkins?

  For anyone lost in this gargantuan, green maze, the likelihood of survival is slim.

• 13:33Speaker 03

  There's just so many accounts when you look at the history of New Guinea. For example, I know of accounts of battalions of Japanese who were moving from one base to the next to completely disappear into the mountains. These mountains are treacherous, so the country is really unforgiving. It's super tough. And as they said, if you were to try and attempt to walk to a road,

• 13:57Speaker 03

  chances are you probably wouldn't make it.

• 14:05John Hopkins?

  With Dave's sober warning ringing in their ears, the six tourists and two guides clamber inside the bright yellow 14-foot inflatable raft.

• 14:16John Hopkins?

  Zaymon is seated in the front alongside Dave. Behind them, it's Mike and Don, then Shuna and 13-year-old Mike Jr., with Andrew and Grant sitting in the back.

• 14:30John Hopkins?

  After a brief tutorial going through paddling techniques and commands, they push off from the bank and immediately pick up the river's brisk center current.

• 14:41John Hopkins?

  The plan for the day is a four-hour float to the halfway point, 12 miles downstream, where a pre-made campsite is waiting for them. Tomorrow, another four or five hours will bring them to the takeout, where they'll be picked up by driver Alu and taken home.

• 14:58John Hopkins?

  Zamon savors the sensation of the wind in his hair, cutting through the midday heat and humidity. He grins as somebody, probably Andrew, playfully splashes him with water.

• 15:11John Hopkins?

  As the river unspools before them, the nerves recede.

• 15:16Speaker 03

  You know, the guides were excited, we were excited. Yeah, it was just like a giant adventure was about to unfold.

• 15:29Speaker 00

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• 15:58Speaker 01

  I hope I don't have to cancel again tonight.

• 16:00Speaker 00

  Chronic migraine means 15 or more headache days a month, each lasting four hours or more. Botox, onabacholineum toxine A, prevents headaches in adults with chronic migraine. It is not approved for those with 14 or fewer headache days a month. Botox, the number one prescribed branded chronic migraine preventive treatment, prevents, on average, eight to nine headache days a month, versus six to seven for placebo. Prescription Botox is injected by your doctor. Effects of Botox may spread hours to weeks after injection, causing serious symptoms. Alert your doctor right away, as difficulty swallowing, speaking, breathing, eye problems, or muscle weakness can be signs of a life-threatening condition. Patients with these conditions before injection are at highest risk. Side effects may include allergic reactions, neck and injection site pain, fatigue and headache. Allergic reactions can include rash, welts, asthma symptoms, and dizziness. Don't receive Botox if there's a skin infection. Tell your doctor your medical history, muscle or nerve conditions,

• 16:44Speaker 00

  including ALS, Lou Gehrig's disease, myasthenia gravis, or Lambert-Eaton syndrome, and medications, including botulinum toxins, as these may increase the risk of serious side effects. Ask your doctor. Visit botoxchronicmigraine.com or call 1-800-44-BOTOX to learn more.

• 17:02John Hopkins?

  The first stretch of the river takes them past rows of cultivated gardens, lush, emerald-green lawns and colorful flowerbeds planted by local villages. Very soon, however, the vegetation grows denser, wilder. Giant ferns and towering bamboo crowd the riverbanks. Weeping fig trees extend their branches over the water, trailing mossy tendrils in the stream.

• 17:31John Hopkins?

  After rounding a few more bends in the river, a vast, rocky canyon opens up around them. Soaring, 100-foot cliffs loom on either side, craggy precipices draped in hanging vines.

• 17:45Speaker 03

  All that was missing was like a giant pterodactyl flying up the gorge. It was kind of like Jurassic Park, you know, green and vines and water. But on a big scale, you know, you had a lot of water moving down and a big angry river charging down the gorge.

• 18:03John Hopkins?

  Zamon peers around in awe.

• 18:07John Hopkins?

  But he doesn't have time to enjoy the scenery. He needs to concentrate. Because as the water funnels into the gorge, the current grows stronger.

• 18:19Speaker 03

  Immediately, the river started to pick up. So you go from little riffles on the river, right? So things are starting to kind of splash and then you'd have these tiny little standing waves that you're punching through. You got kind of a little bit of water coming over the bow a wee bit. And then these waves start to pick up in size.

• 18:37John Hopkins?

  The raft bucks and lurches. Waves form above underwater boulders as the current runs up against the submerged obstacles. These waves, known as haystacks, resemble static barrels of white water, continually cresting and collapsing beneath their own weight.

• 18:57Speaker 03

  So this was fun. We were getting splashed and wow, this is getting exciting. But then the haystacks started to build up and they came at us with greater intensity. So you've got people that are now bailing and we had a large kind of empty paint bucket that we're using to bail.

• 19:16John Hopkins?

  As they crash over haystack after haystack, more and more water sloshes into the raft. Zamon can hear the nervous laughter behind him turning into panic. Things are getting dicey.

• 19:29John Hopkins?

  He glances across at Dave, hoping for some reassurance. But the guide is preoccupied, his face a mask of concentration. He barks a command at Zamon, telling him to lean forward over the bow and drive down hard with his paddle. If they're not careful, they could lose control of the raft entirely.

• 19:51Speaker 03

  When Dave said, "You've got to really kind of paddle in and hold on, because we don't want to flip over," then I realized that, okay, things have changed now. You know, this is not what we're being sold. This is no longer a float trip.

• 20:09John Hopkins?

  The raft is being swept along like a leaf in a storm drain. They careen across the rapids, powerless against the current. They spin 90 degrees until they're horizontal across the river. They're wildly out of control. Zamon twists and looks over his right shoulder.

• 20:27John Hopkins?

  And his stomach drops.

• 20:31John Hopkins?

  Up ahead, you can see a length of white foam spanning the width of the river before it drops away. It's a waterfall.

• 20:41Speaker 03

  Just remember it being a furious whitewater section with a ton of waves coming at you. But then I do recall hearing "Hang on."

• 20:51Speaker 03

  It's now a river-wide waterfall, and we're falling over sideways. And it's about a six-to-eight-foot drop beneath us. And that's where the raft capsized.

• 21:12John Hopkins?

  At the bottom of a gorge in the jungle of Papua New Guinea, an upturned raft is trapped in the churning froth at the base of an eight-foot waterfall. Suddenly, a head appears amid the roiling foam. Zaimon gasps and splutters, his life jacket shoved up around his ears. Acting on survival instinct alone, he grabs hold of the side of the raft and tries to clamber on.

• 21:37Speaker 03

  So now, the raft is upturned, I'm on the bottom of it. Super slippery, you know, there's nothing to grab onto, you're kind of like a limpet, right? You're trying to suck on like a gecko and hang on to the surface while it's being pulled into the falls behind you.

• 21:53John Hopkins?

  Amid the watery chaos, Zaimon just about manages to get a grip on the raft. Breathing heavily, he scans the whitewater. Dave and Grant appear first, gasping for breath, their helmets wrenched askew.

• 22:08John Hopkins?

  Zaimon helps both guides clamber up, then he looks around for the others.

• 22:13Speaker 03

  Andrew's mum, Shuna, pops up, and she's now bleeding. She had hit her teeth, and she's got blood on her face. The dad pops up, Mike, and he's in shock. We're all in shock, right, what had occurred. And then, Mike Junior, Andrew's brother, he also is bleeding as well. He hit himself, whether it be from the paddle or from the rocks.

• 22:40Speaker 03

  And then, we cannot find Don or Andrew.

• 22:47Speaker 03

  Neither of them pop up.

• 22:51John Hopkins?

  The churning whitewater crashes around them in a deafening, thunderous roar. There's no sign of Don or Andrew. Then suddenly, the raft shoots forward, ejected from the base of the falls and back into the surging current. Now, Zaimon sees a new problem rapidly approaching.

• 23:13John Hopkins?

  The head wall of the gorge is up ahead, less than a hundred feet away. The river slams against it with the force of a runaway train as the Ungabunga follows a dogleg in the canyon floor. The upturned raft hurtles towards this next obstacle.

• 23:31John Hopkins?

  It seems inevitable that all six of its remaining passengers will be violently tossed into the seething maelstrom once again. Seconds are all they have. Zeeman presses himself against the slippery underbelly of the raft, digging his fingers into the taut rubber as they go shooting up the sheer headwall like a surfboard climbing a wave.

• 23:53Speaker 03

  We then wash up into the headwall. We're pretty much standing vertical on this thing. We somehow managed to stay on and then washed down and then we go along the wall and sweep around the corner and we've gone.

• 24:13John Hopkins?

  Curving around a sharp bend, the steepest part of the canyon is now behind them. And at last, the gorge widens and the current eases. The raft flows forward into an eddy of calm where Dave and Grant can navigate to the riverbank. They jump off and drag the boat onto a stony beach.

• 24:38Speaker 03

  And we sat there for about a good 30 minutes, waiting to see if those guys would show up, right, hoping that they would swim around the corner and come to us. And so we sat there for as long as we could in the hope that they would appear.

• 24:52John Hopkins?

  But Andrew and Don don't appear. The guides begin an immediate inquest. Did anyone see them back at the waterfall? Everyone shakes their heads. As Shuna starts to panic, Dave and Grant offer some reassurance. They explain that after becoming separated from the raft, Don and Andrew will most likely have followed protocol. They will have swum to the shore and stayed there.

• 25:20John Hopkins?

  If that is the case, then the best course of action is for the rest of them to continue downriver to the takeout, then drive back upriver and begin the search effort tomorrow.

• 25:32John Hopkins?

  They can't walk back upstream from here. The gorge is way too steep, the current too strong.

• 25:39Speaker 03

  Dave and Grant took over and made the executive decision that, you know what, we're going to go to the halfway point to the shelter. We're going to spend the night here because A, you know, the light is fading. We're getting now into the end of the day and darkness is going to come real fast here. We're in the gorge and also we needed to attend to Andrew's mum, Shuna, and his brother who had been injured.

• 26:01John Hopkins?

  For Shuna and Mike Senior, leaving their son behind goes against every parental instinct. But the guides insist it's the safest way. And so they climb back into the raft and float downstream.

• 26:20John Hopkins?

  Half an hour later, they reach a point where a campsite has been set up on a raised platform above the riverbank. They disembark and unload the raft. While one of the guides starts tending to Shuna and Mike Junior, Zaiman helps prepare dinner in the gathering dusk.

• 26:39John Hopkins?

  Up on the raised wooden platform, you can hear Shuna crying, the sounds of a mother's grief echoing around the twilight jungle.

• 26:48Speaker 03

  I remember taking food up to Shuna and climbing up onto the platform and giving her this food and she kind of looks at me. And then she stops and she points past my shoulder and she screams. And she says, "There's a man!" And is screaming and I remember just, I didn't drop the food, but I turned around and it was just the light and the shadows in the jungle that were playing with her. And then she burst into tears and Mike's consoling her. And obviously, yeah, extremely distressed by the loss of her son.

• 27:27John Hopkins?

  Later that night, Zaiman lies wide awake beneath the canopy shelter, listening as the driving rain drowns out Shuna's sobs.

• 27:37John Hopkins?

  He can sympathize, but for his own part, he tries to remain pragmatic.

• 27:43Speaker 03

  I can't recall having that sense of death, you know, like I didn't feel like they were dead. For me, there was a sense of hope that they were okay, but maybe they were injured. It was more so, where were they? How can we get to them?

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• 30:01John Hopkins?

  It's the following morning.

• 30:04John Hopkins?

  After a restless night, Zaiman, the Malhollans and the two raft guides are back on the river, continuing their journey downstream.

• 30:13John Hopkins?

  The rain has cleared, leaving another hot sunny day in its wake.

• 30:18John Hopkins?

  The group paddles with purpose, intent on getting to the takeout and heading back upstream as soon as possible. The atmosphere is tense, heavy with uncertainty. All around, the jungle buzzes with life.

• 30:35Speaker 03

  As the river started to widen out, you get these kunai grasses and big grass that grows along the side of the riverbanks. You've got bamboo, you've got big trees, jungle. You've got beautiful birds flying, Brahminy kites and toucans and parrots.

• 30:51Speaker 03

  Papua New Guinea has amazing bird life. And then you get kind of these beaches with the grasses and things. And that's where we see our first crocodiles sunning themselves.

• 31:01John Hopkins?

  From a distance, they look like logs. But a closer inspection reveals several pairs of unblinking reptilian eyes, long wartey snouts and rows of yellow snagged teeth. The crocs lazily eye the raft as it drifts quietly by.

• 31:22Speaker 03

  We're looking at them and we're trying to get downstream as fast as we can. So we see them, we notice them, but we keep moving.

• 31:30John Hopkins?

  New Guinea's inland waterways are home to approximately 100,000 crocodiles, both freshwater and the more fearsome saltwater variety. Seeing them only reaffirms the need to find Andrew and Don ASAP.

• 31:48John Hopkins?

  A couple of hours later, they arrive at the takeout. Zaiman helps the guides pull the raft onto land. They deflate it, then hurry up the road to meet Alu, the driver who's waiting with a Land Rover.

• 32:01John Hopkins?

  It's decided that a second car will be arranged to take Shuna and Mike Junior back to Port Moresby. They need to get their injuries checked at the hospital. Meanwhile, the others, Grant, Dave and Mike Senior, will go with Alu back up to the put-in where they'll begin the search for Andrew and Don.

• 32:19John Hopkins?

  As for Zaimon, he's given a choice. Return to Port Moresby or join the search effort.

• 32:25Speaker 03

  They said, "This is the plan. We're not forcing you to say yes to this plan, but if you want to go home, understood Alu can take you back." And yeah, I said, "No, I'm coming with you." There was not a moment of doubt in my mind that I was not going down the river again because it was my friend that needed rescuing. You know, my buddy is on the river. We have to go find him.

• 32:56John Hopkins?

  It's mid-morning.

• 32:59John Hopkins?

  Zaimon and the others sit in the Land Rover as they hurtle back to the put-in.

• 33:04John Hopkins?

  He watches the quivering speedometer creep higher and higher. Alu has been told to floor it.

• 33:11John Hopkins?

  En route, they stop briefly to stock up on provisions, buying food, water and four car tie inner tubes for additional buoyancy.

• 33:22John Hopkins?

  When they get to the river, they waste no time in launching the raft and setting off downstream.

• 33:28John Hopkins?

  Soon, the roar of the rapids can be heard. A distant, ominous rumble.

• 33:35John Hopkins?

  To avoid losing control of the raft again, the team has devised a new approach for navigating the whitewater.

• 33:42John Hopkins?

  Instead of paddling, they plan to get out of the raft and walk along the bank, guiding the boat through the rough water with ropes.

• 33:50Speaker 03

  We were going to line the boat down the river like that because there was no way that we were going to run the rapids. Right? We knew that if we were going to run the rapids, we're going to capsize again. We may be killed.

• 34:03John Hopkins?

  First, they paddle the raft across to a beach on the far bank. They stash the inner tubes as an insurance plan if anything happens to the raft. Then they prepare two ropes, one extending from the bow at the front of the boat, the other from the stern at the back.

• 34:19Speaker 03

  And then we began the process of lying the boat down the river. And so it was Dave and I were on the stern, we go downstream, we secure the line, Mike and Grant are upstream. They release the bow line, raft swings around, we now become the bow, they go down. So we do this a couple of times, right? And we're making our way down the gorge and we're feeling pretty proud of ourselves that so far this is working.

• 34:44John Hopkins?

  It's slow, methodical work. But rope length by rope length, they walk the raft down river. As Mike and Grant secure the bow for a third time, Zaimon and Dave start picking their way along the side of the gorge, looking for a place to tie off the stern line.

• 35:03John Hopkins?

  But they won't get far.

• 35:06John Hopkins?

  Unbeknownst to them, the raft has become caught behind a semi-submerged boulder. As water continues to surge over it, it steadily fills.

• 35:17Speaker 03

  So now the raft is filling up with water and it's becoming heavier and heavier and heavier. And as a result, it's starting to pull on the D-ring. So the D-ring, that's where the bow line is attached to, is getting pulled out and all of a sudden, bam!

• 35:36John Hopkins?

  It sounds like a gunshot. Startled, Zaimon looks around for the source of the noise, and then he sees it. The raft, free of its tether, is racing off downstream.

• 35:49John Hopkins?

  He and Dave are still holding on to the stern line, but the force of the river and the heavily weighted boat is too great, and the rope is ripped from their hands.

• 35:59Speaker 03

  And our raft heads off downstream without us. And now we're in the gorge with no raft.

• 36:06Speaker 03

  Not up the creek without a paddle, we're down the river without a boat.

• 36:14John Hopkins?

  Zaimon, Dave, Mike and Grant stand there trying to process what has just happened.

• 36:20Speaker 03

  We're absolutely devastated. We're gutted and we're standing there, you're listening to this incredible roar.

• 36:30Speaker 03

  And I remember looking up and just kind of looking up at the gorge and at the same time of being gobsmacked and devastated, just being overwhelmed by the beauty that I'm looking at, these falls that are cascading down and just this incredible gorge that we're standing in. It was an overpowering sensation.

• 36:54John Hopkins?

  Zaimon's in a daze.

• 36:57John Hopkins?

  But gradually, Dave's voice bubbles back to the surface. He can hear him shouting across to the others. They're discussing next steps.

• 37:08Speaker 03

  We never lost hope. We never had a moment to say, oh, woe is me. You know, like it was always, okay, this has occurred. What are we going to do next? We kind of had a huddle and we knew that we had the four rubber tubes that were sitting on the bank.

• 37:28John Hopkins?

  Time to regroup and recalibrate. Don and Andrew are still out here somewhere. They've got to find them.

• 37:36John Hopkins?

  And so the four stranded rescuers pick their way upstream to where they stashed the rubber rings. The plan is to fashion a makeshift raft out of the four tire inner tubes and continue down river.

• 37:51John Hopkins?

  But there is a problem, a deep, turbulent, violent problem.

• 37:57John Hopkins?

  To try and run the rapids on a makeshift vessel like that would be madness. Instead, they'll need to carry the tubes as far as possible along the base of the cliff before launching into calmer waters.

• 38:10John Hopkins?

  The end of the gorge is only a few hundred metres away. But stretches of the bank are impassable, repeatedly forcing them to wade through the treacherous water.

• 38:21Speaker 03

  We started walking down, but the walls of the gorge were super steep. And in some places, vertical, so you're in the water, you know, with the tube kind of navigating around rocks and trying to to make your way without getting pulled into the current.

• 38:37John Hopkins?

  Inch by inch, they make progress along the gorge.

• 38:42John Hopkins?

  After a while, they bypassed the waterfall where they capsized yesterday. But there's still no sign of Don or Andrew.

• 38:51John Hopkins?

  At one stage, their route is blocked by a fallen tree. They managed to find a way underneath it by squeezing through the gap between the roots and the rock wall.

• 39:01Speaker 03

  And so we get into this little gap and we're up against this tree. And as we're going through, someone starts yelling. And then we all start yelling and we're all getting stung by these wasps.

• 39:13John Hopkins?

  Blindly swatting at the stinging insects, the team scramble through the tunnel and out the other side. Red hot welts begin to burn all over Zaiman's face and arms.

• 39:24Speaker 03

  We come out the other end and we're all stung. And, you know, lips and all our faces were all swollen and hands and everything. And I remember Dave telling us that, you know, put mud on it because the mud will take away the pain.

• 39:39John Hopkins?

  Smear in clay, their skin throbbing, Zaiman and the others continue making their way along the inside of the gorge. As they go, they scour the river for Andrew and Don, to no avail.

• 39:53John Hopkins?

  By now, evening is approaching, forcing the team into yet another tough choice. Do they keep searching, or do they find somewhere safe to camp?

• 40:03Speaker 03

  So the decision was made that we were going to spend the night there in the gorge. We weren't going to swim in the river. And we were going to try and climb up as high as we could, up into the corner of this gorge, as high as we could because we knew it was going to rain again that night. And the river was going to rise, right? So we wanted to get away from the rising water.

• 40:24John Hopkins?

  They climb up to a patch of trees overlooking the gorge, high enough that even with more heavy rain, the rising river won't touch them. Hopefully, wherever they are, Don and Andrew have taken the same precaution.

• 40:41John Hopkins?

  The sun has dropped behind the mountains now, taking the heat of the day with it.

• 40:47John Hopkins?

  Soaking wet, filthy, and covered with wasp stings is going to be a long, uncomfortable night.

• 40:56John Hopkins?

  To stay warm as the temperature drops, Zaimon crosses his arms over his chest and asks Mike to tighten the straps of his life jacket.

• 41:05Speaker 03

  I recall putting my hands inside my PFD and asking Mike to kind of just cinch down on the PFD so that I could be snug like this. And I remember falling asleep with my arms inside my PFD and then having this nightmare. I had this dream that all of a sudden I'm in the river, right? And now I can't swim. And I remember just thrashing around violently and screaming and shouting and Mike waking me up and then consoling me. You know, I burst into tears and was crying. And I remember him giving me a hug and saying, "You're okay. You're gonna be all right."

• 41:46Speaker 00

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• 42:12Speaker 05

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• 42:31Speaker 01

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• 42:33Speaker 00

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• 43:16John Hopkins?

  It's daybreak.

• 43:19John Hopkins?

  Down at the water's edge, Zaimon, Dave, Mike, and Grant stand looking out of the river.

• 43:25John Hopkins?

  Where it meets the head wall at the top of the canyon, the violent, thundering wave of whitewater crashes up the rock face and around the bend in the gorge.

• 43:35John Hopkins?

  It's a terrifying sight.

• 43:39John Hopkins?

  After another near-sleepless night, the toughest part of this assault courses upon them. They've managed to lash the four inner tubes together with a length of rope. Not a bad piece of improvisation under the circumstances. But will it survive the head wall wave?

• 43:57John Hopkins?

  Only one way to find out.

• 44:00Speaker 03

  We lashed everything, walked upstream, looked at each other, and I remember Grant saying, "Whatever you do, do not let go of the tubes," right? And so, yeah, we jump in and we start kicking as hard as we can into the center current, and immediately we were just swept underwater, pushed up against this wall.

• 44:20John Hopkins?

  Zaimon holds his breath as he's engulfed by the wave. His world goes dark, the only sound out of the churning water. His eyes are squeezed shut. He's being whisked along by the current at breakneck speed. But still, he doesn't let go of the rubber tube. He clamps down with his forearm even as he's flipped upside down.

• 44:41John Hopkins?

  He braces himself for a fatal impact with rock. But instead, he feels a sudden upward jolt.

• 44:52Speaker 03

  And then next thing is we pop up and we look around and all four of us are still attached to the tubes, right? We're like, yes, we survived. And swept around the corner and we knew from that point on, we'd survived the gorge and we'd survived all the worst rapids and we'd made it. Now what we had to do was to find Andrew and Don.

• 45:16John Hopkins?

  Any sense of relief doesn't last long.

• 45:20John Hopkins?

  Scanning the calm stretch of river in front of them, there's still no sign of the missing pair.

• 45:26John Hopkins?

  Are they running out of luck? Was it ludicrous to think they could ever find them in this vast, dark jungle?

• 45:33John Hopkins?

  They continue floating downstream, calling out for Andrew and Don.

• 45:39John Hopkins?

  Zayman cranes his neck and shields his eyes from the sun.

• 45:44John Hopkins?

  And that's when he sees something strange up ahead.

• 45:49Speaker 03

  I'm looking up and I remember looking downstream and seeing two helmets on a rock, right? And I yell out and I'm like, oh, you know, what's that? And then all of a sudden we see these two heads pop up. And then we start yelling and waving and then these guys start waving back to us. And sure enough, it's Andrew and Don, you know, and we couldn't believe it.

• 46:10John Hopkins?

  Zayman paddles harder than ever over to the rock where Andrew and Don are waiting.

• 46:15Speaker 03

  We're able to kind of pull in behind that rock, flamber out. Mike was able to give us on a giant hug and we all hugged each other. We just couldn't believe that they were, they were alive and that they were safe and that they were okay.

• 46:28John Hopkins?

  In this giddy, joyous atmosphere, Andrew and Don start recounting their epic story.

• 46:36John Hopkins?

  Turns out, when the raft capsized two days ago, they were pulled back underneath the waterfall. By the time they swam out, the raft had already vanished around the corner.

• 46:48John Hopkins?

  They then heeded Dave's advice and positioned themselves on a rock in view of the river. Only as the water rose, they had to keep climbing higher and higher. When they saw the empty raft float by yesterday, they were forced into a high-stakes decision.

• 47:05Speaker 03

  Are we supposed to jump into this raft and make our way down? Or are we supposed to wait? And so there was that conflict between what they should do and what they'd been told to do. And they decided to let the raft go. And they said it was just, you know, a really traumatic decision because afterwards they kept questioning and asking themselves, was that the right decision to do?

• 47:27John Hopkins?

  Thankfully, they made the right call.

• 47:32John Hopkins?

  But now, the six adventurers must confront the scale of the challenge that remains.

• 47:38John Hopkins?

  They've still got a long way to go, a journey of around 12 miles. And they'll have to make it squeezed onto what are effectively four small rubber rings. They come up with a system whereby four people will take turns sitting in the rings, while the remaining two do shifts swimming alongside.

• 47:56John Hopkins?

  They paddle out into the middle of the river, picking up the center current. And for a while, things are going to plan. They're making progress. Perhaps, this nightmare is nearing its end.

• 48:10John Hopkins?

  Then Zaimon spots something in the distance, just above the surface of the water.

• 48:18Speaker 03

  I remember sitting up and looking downstream and kind of watching and seeing what I thought was a log. And then looking, and then I could see that, actually, this log has a couple of nostrils on the end of it, and there's some eyes behind those nostrils. That's not a log. That's a crocodile.

• 48:39John Hopkins?

  And a big one, at that.

• 48:42John Hopkins?

  Zaimon can't tell from here, but this beast could well be a saltwater croc, more territorial and aggressive than their freshwater cousins. He yells to the group, who freeze, barely daring to breathe. The group watches the crocodile, watching them.

• 49:00Speaker 03

  We see it coming towards us, and then you see the tail kind of swish, and it goes under, right? So this thing kind of submerges. And we're now floating towards where it was. And you've got six guys on four rubber tubes. You've got bums in the tubes, you've got legs sticking out, you've got arms out to the side. And we're all looking at each other, thinking, who's it gonna be?

• 49:24John Hopkins?

  Zamon waits for a sharp tug to pull him beneath the surface.

• 49:32John Hopkins?

  But it doesn't come.

• 49:37John Hopkins?

  They float on, downriver. A few miles on, they make a discovery. The raft.

• 49:46John Hopkins?

  It's caught in a bamboo thicket near the bank, but seems to be unscathed.

• 49:53John Hopkins?

  Grant swims over to it and drags it back over to the others. They all gratefully climb inside.

• 50:00Speaker 03

  We all get back into the raft and then we discover we've got all this food on the raft. And we think, okay, great, let's have a feast. You know, we've survived. Thankfully, we're now all alive. We're on the raft, we're out of the river. Here we are, we can get to the takeout, and now we can go home.

• 50:15John Hopkins?

  And that's exactly what they do. With renewed strength, they make light work of the final stretch.

• 50:25John Hopkins?

  A few hours later, exhausted, aching, scratched, and sunburnt, Zamon sits in the back of the Land Rover as Alu drives them home to Port Moresby.

• 50:36John Hopkins?

  After three long days in the jungle, they finally made it out, all of them in one piece.

• 50:43Speaker 03

  I just remember getting home, Dave dropping me off, and then saying to my mum, "Mrs. Kingy, we left with two boys and we came back with two men."

• 50:54John Hopkins?

  In the months that follow, the full impact of Zamon's three days in the jungle takes time to sink in. He soon moves on to the next adventure: university. But as the years pass, Zamon comes to see his experience on the Angabunga as one of the most significant moments in his life, an incident that would shape things to come.

• 51:15Speaker 03

  It opened the door to all of these other ventures that, to use the metaphor, came downstream as a result of this.

• 51:23John Hopkins?

  During his first week at university in Auckland, New Zealand, while signing up to various clubs and societies at the freshers fair, one stand catches Zamon's eye: the university rafting club.

• 51:36John Hopkins?

  He approaches and strikes up a conversation.

• 51:40Speaker 03

  They said, "Have you been rafting before?" And I said, "Yeah." And they said, "Where have you rafted?" And I said, "Papua New Guinea." And they go, "Oh, man, we've got a raft guide." And I'd only been as a passenger twice before. I mean, it was just a whole bunch of super enthusiastic people who wanted to go down rivers and then became a commercial raft guy, went back to New Guinea and worked on a lot of my holidays. So I would go back and work in PNG for Pacific expeditions and then became great friends with Dave and Grant. And to this day, we're still in touch.

• 52:18John Hopkins?

  Zaimon's experience on the Angabunga sparks a lifelong love of rivers, inspiring him to travel all around the world on epic kayaking trips. But what about the others? In the following years, Zaimon often wonders about the Mulholland's, how the event impacted their lives. He and Andrew lost touch after leaving for university. But in 2018, Zaimon arranges to meet up with Andrew, Shuna and Mike in a London pub to hear the story from their perspective. And for a brief moment, the separate tributaries of their lives come together in the same river again.

• 52:59Speaker 03

  For all of us, it was such a defining moment in our lives. It was a major event, you know? It was a bucket list item of mine to take them out for dinner and sit down and say, "What happened to you?" For me, that full circle moment of meeting again in that London pub and sitting down with Andrew and his mom and dad and seeing them face to face. And, you know, we cried, we hugged each other.

• 53:27Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 53:30Speaker 03

  It was pretty awesome. It was a, it was a, it was a full circle moment. Sorry, man, just getting a little overwhelmed. But yeah, as you've, as you can tell, yeah, this story's had a deep impact on my life.

• 54:01John Hopkins?

  Next time on Real Survival Stories. We meet Viv Bird, a British aviator whose plane is thrown off course by an Arctic blizzard. When Viv and her friends crash land into a frozen wilderness, no one knows they're alive. Their radio batteries are dying and they have no idea where they are. Rescue appears almost impossible. As a freezing tempest swirls around them and darkness sets in, the three friends settle down for the longest night of their lives. That's next time on Real Survival Stories. Listen to Viv's story today without waiting a week by subscribing to Noiser Plus.

• 54:43Speaker 00

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• 55:12Speaker 00

  Are you ever shopping online and suddenly a discount that helps you save pops up? It makes your day, sometimes even your week. Want that feeling month after month? Well, new customers who save by switching their home and auto insurance to Progressive save hundreds. Cue your happy dance. Get your quote today at progressive.com. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company affiliates and other insurers not available in all states.