Of Canoes and Crocodiles: Paddling the Sepik in Papua New Guinea

Of Canoes and Crocodiles is a story of adventure set in the remote and threatened landscapes of Papua New Guinea. In 2018, Tony Robinson-Smith and his wife Nadya Ladouceur bought dugout canoes and paddled down the Sepik, the country’s longest river. Travelling with local guides and staying in their villages, Tony and Nadya ate smoked piranha and sago pancakes, heard tales of river gods and sorcerers, marvelled at rainbow bee-eaters and cat-size flying foxes, sank in a tropical storm, and hid from pirates in mangroves near the sea. As the narrative follows the bends of the river, Robinson-Smith incorporates into its flow reflections on colonization, crocodile initiation rites, Christian missionaries, bride price, ＂big men,＂ the barter system, and the joys and fears of travelling down a long, snaky waterway in a volatile Australasian country.

British Canadian travel writer Tony Robinson-Smith is the author of Back in 6 Years: A Journey Around the Planet Without Leaving the Surface, a memoir of his travels by sailboat, bicycle, merchant truck, bread van, and outrigger canoe through fifty-five countries and across three oceans. He also wrote The Dragon Run about the 578 km marathon he and his wife Nadya ran with ten college students and a stray dog across Bhutan to raise money to send local village kids to school. Tony has written travel tales for The Globe and Mail and Druk Air’s inflight magazine Tashi Delek. He is a regular contributor to the American online travel magazine Perceptive Travel. In 2018, Tony and Nadya spent three months in Papua New Guinea, paddling dugout canoes down the Sepik River and hiking in the highlands in search of elusive Birds-of-paradise.