The Travel Memoir Review

A lone woman travels Papua New Guinea and chews over the childhood that led her there

Review by Sam Baldwin

• Author: Kira Salak
• Book First Published: 2001
• Publisher: National Geographic Society
• Rating: ★★☆

How our ratings work:

★★★ – Loved it. Highly recommended. Transcends interest in the location alone
★★☆ – Liked it. Recommended, especially if you’re interested in the location
★☆☆ – Didn’t like it. But may still appeal to those interested in the location

The Gist

After a harrowing experience on Mozambique’s ‘Bone Yard Stretch’ – a war zone where armed rebels prey upon those forced (or foolhardy enough) to travel through – Salak sets her sights on the equally dangerous Papua New Guinea. Her plan: to cross the country, south to north, by foot and canoe.

By doing so, she embarks on a series of adventures where robbery, rape or murder have good odds. Four Corners is as much an exploration of Salak’s unorthodox upbringing which belies her hunger for danger – as it is an exploration of Papua New Guinea itself.

The Guts

Salak’s PNG journey begins in the capital, Port Moresby, where ‘rascal’ gangs rampage on payday, carrying out savage attacks on the population, who live behind barbed-wire fences and private security guards.

“I stop and can feel the fear rising in me. It constricts my stomach and shoots adrenaline through my body. Whenever I allow myself to stop, I begin to assess the people around me, try to judge their potential to inflict harm. If the world wants to hurt me, it can and will.”

The following legs of her journey take her deeper into the untamed country, where tribal warfare, tropical illness, and sexual assault are ongoing threats.

The book’s subtitle ‘A Journey into the Heart of Papua New Guinea’ is accurate. Salak hacks through dark jungles, rides crammed PMVs (public motor vehicles) along roads where body parts are said to be scattered. She sleeps in swamps clouded with mosquitos, treks up and over mountains, and enters the pine-dotted plateaus of the PNG highlands.

But though she interacts with various native Papuans – drivers, fellow minibus passengers, and tribespeople from primitive villages – we get only brief glimpses into their lives.

Instead, it’s the lives of Australian expats, American Missionaries, and fellow foreign travellers which Salak reveals most about. As interesting as they are, I would have liked to have learned more about the Papuans themselves, and the diverse fauna they share their country with.

There’s no doubting Salak is fiercely daring. Some might say reckless or rash. She braved what most would not. She is admirably adept at hardship, comfortable with the uncomfortable, and highly resilient. One particularly terrifying encounter with a would-be attacker would have even the most hardened travellers scrambling for the next flight home. Yet Salak keeps calm and carries on.

Throughout the book, she frequently returns to the question of ‘why?’. Why put herself into such situations unnecessarily? She chews over this conundrum almost every time her safety is threatened. Which is often.

Why read Four Corners?

There aren’t many travel memoirs about Papua New Guinea, so for those interested in this still wild, largely untamed, and often extremely violent country, Four Corners provides a solid grounding.

Those intrigued by female solo travel will also enjoy the book. Her perspective reveals the increased level of threats that women face whilst travelling, compared to men, but she also demonstrates what is possible.

An adventurous account of a rare experience, Four Corners is the sort of travel memoir that makes you thankful it’s someone else enduring the hardship and hazards, so you don’t have to.