We are going down the west side of the Highlands.
The landscape changes dramatically.
The mountains give way to enormous valleys,
covered in conifers and pine trees
more like the forests of the Mediterranean,
not these equatorial regions of Oceania.
We are going to see the mummies of the Enga or Kukukuku
that is the name normally given to these people who live on the plains of the Aseki river.
High up in the mountains, where there is no vegetation,
in a natural shelter which the natives call the Sacred Rock,
the Enga mummies stand silently watching over the lives of the Kukukuku.
Cannibalism has always been common practice among the Kukukuku,
and it is this that has made them legendary.
They ate thieves and prisoners of war, after fattening them up for a while.
Charles Higginson was the first white man to come in contact with them, in 1907.
He described them as fierce, cannibalistic warriors,
always ready to start a war with the neighbouring tribe.
Leaders and warriors who died in battle were mummified.
The body was placed in the foetal position in the kitchen,
and a fire was lit to smoke it.
When it began to smell, the wives would rip the skin off and tear out the intestines,
which were eaten by the closest relatives,
in order to acquire the qualities of the deceased.
They then continued smoking the body for four or five months,
until the flesh was totally dried out.
It would then be taken up to the Sacred Rock and placed in a sitting position,
looking into the distance,
or in a type of bamboo basket which they nailed to the ground.
Other tribes left them hanging from the trees.
Very few Kukukuku now mummify their dead,
but they have lost none of their warlike nature, and tribal conflicts are still frequent.
Cannibalism has almost entirely died out,
though there are still isolated cases of human flesh being eaten
in the most remote regions.
We must understand that for these warriors,
just fifteen or twenty years ago, cannibalism was perfectly normal.
The land where the Kukukuku live is very rugged and covered in jungle,
but even here we find representatives of the most radical religious sects from the West.
They are everywhere.
In Papua there are over one hundred different churches.
They started coming in the fifties when in Papua New Guinea
there were still around two million natives living practically in he stone age.
This was a valuable prize.
The missionaries from the different sects came with their western beliefs
and gods, frantically vying with each other to convert the heathens.
Tragically, this has led to the loss of ancient customs and ways of life.