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itself. Whenever that happened, the women became hysterical, screaming and crossing themselves in a frenzy. One of them, her eyes dark and frightened, took hold of the priest's hand and wouldn't let go for the rest of the flight.

Then the scenery below changed drastically; suddenly we were looking down on rivers winding through vast jungle. In no time we touched down in Apolo, and I quickly realised why the women had become so hysterical during the flight. Hanging from the trees on either side of the airstrip were the broken, burnt, and rusted hulks of earlier flights.

We waited for our packs and were soon on our way into town, along with the crowd that had gathered to meet the plane. Two officers on motorcycles stopped us to ask what we were doing there. When we told them, they said that we should go to the police station to register.

'Nonsense.' Karl waved them off after they had ridden away. 'Just a lot of unnecessary red tape.'

We started walking, Karl in the lead with Kevin and me right behind him. Marcus brought up the rear. I could hear him softly singing,

Freight train, freight train, going so fast,
Freight train, freight train, going so fast,
Please don't tell the train I'm on,
'Cause I don't know where I've gone.

The heat was sweltering, and we struggled up a steep incline. Karl had tied his rubber bag to his