I ask Samuel, one of the foresters, what's happening. “It’s some fight between two families. You can see them running with arrows, bows and spears right now!”

Looking towards the village, I definitely see a lot of people running around with weapons. Suddenly, a man comes running, carrying a bow. He points his arrow at us! I head for the boat to be make sure I’m safe. Coming over to apologise, he explains that he thought a guy he is chasing was hiding in our boat. Wow ... what a relief.

As we leave I ask one of the other foresters, who had been gossiping with a guy from the village, to tell me more about what was going on. He said that a woman was hurt, fell into a coma and died, after a fight earlier today. The woman’s scream we heard coming from the village signalled payback time. Everybody from the dead woman’s clan took up their weapons to take revenge. This is common, he said.

I thought it was quite harsh but the forester explained that in the highlands of Papua New Guinea it is even more severe. If there is a tribal war, the complete village is often burnt down, including its crops and cattle. There is nothing left of the opponent’s clan.

We are all a little shocked by the violence, which came so out of the blue. Fortunately, our stop at the next village is much friendlier.