The world famous Maikop resident Maxim Bogatyrev returned from an expedition to Papua New Guinea, inspired by it, built a Papuan birdhouse on a tree and created a "branch" of the jungle in Adygea.
Maxim Bogatyrev is not only an honored traveler of Adygea, but also a climber, behind whose shoulders ascents to dozens of peaks of the world. But now we are not about the mountains, or rather, not really about them. Last spring, Maxim returned from an expedition to Papua New Guinea, where, with five like-minded people, he visited several cannibal tribes at once.
In the foothills of the republic, he built a birdhouse on a tree, the idea of which he borrowed from the Papuans, who still live in a primitive communal system. The house has unexpectedly become popular among fans of exotic tourism; the first guests have already rested there on New Year's holidays.
With a club and a stone ax
The journey to the lost world began difficult: for three days you had to sail along the rivers on wooden motor boats and another three days to go deep into the jungle. Bogatyrev believes that the foreigners did not attempt to kill the guests thanks to their local guide Maku.
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“This is an amazing island, the coastline of which has been studied at the very least, while the inner territories have not been touched by civilization at all. In the 60s of the last century, missionaries came there, trying to wean the aborigines from cannibalism. According to some estimates, now the island is home to from 300 to 900 tribes, they all speak different languages, have different cultures and communicate with each other using a club and a stone ax,”Bogatyrev told TASS.
And now there are those on the island who have never seen a white man, and almost all Papuans also believe in evil spirits that walk the earth and kidnap people. That is why their homes are on tree trunks.
Aboriginal people, says Bogatyrev, build houses around the trunk of a tree on supports made of auxiliary material. Several families usually live in such birdhouse houses, there are female and male halves. In one of these dwellings, the Papuans, not without the patronage of a guide, allowed the travelers not only to spend the night, but also to stay with their tribe for several days.
“The natives also build houses that look like giant nests. My friend Papuan Mac, for example, built a tree house at a height of 50 meters. I went up there and shot a video: the sensations are not pleasant, it's really scary to be there. Not a single nail has been driven into it; there is even a clay hearth. But this is a super-house, Bogatyrev said.
"Hi-tech" in Papuan
Returning to Adygea, Bogatyrev decided to build the same house, only improving the technology of its construction. Moreover, the nature itself helped him in this: in the foothills of the republic there are many tall and powerful trees, which sometimes even eight people cannot grasp. His friends supported him, and together they chose a large ash tree on the banks of the Belaya mountain river in the Maikop region.
“On a piece of cardboard, I calculated the design of the house, and we started. It took a month to build without really hammering a single nail. It rests on ties, on hairpins, actually hangs in the air at a height of five meters without any supports, this was my principled position. The trunk of an ash tree passes through the center of the house, the area of which is 20 square meters,”the traveler shares.
House of Maxim Bogatyrev in Adygea.
For construction, only natural materials and insulation were used. The structure can withstand strong winds, while the visitor, being in it, feels like on the deck of a ship. Unlike the dwelling of the Papuans, the house that Maxim built has all the benefits of civilization: a shower, a bathroom and electricity. A solid staircase of 18 steps leads to the hinged hut, in the structure of which pipes with sewerage and water supply are installed. An oil heater saves from the cold of the southern winter.
“Since the ash will grow, we will make an adjustment in a year or two. I will not say that the first pancake turned out to be lumpy, the house turned out to be beautiful. One panoramic window overlooks the river, the second one overlooks the tourist complex. Our house immediately attracted the attention of tourists: it was booked for the New Year, and now it is in demand among exotic lovers,”says Bogatyrev.
First guests
The first guests of the house-on-ash-tree were tourists-Muscovites who decided to celebrate the holiday in mountainous Adygea with Guinean exoticism.
“The house met the expectations of the tourists: they were delighted with both the recreational attractions of the region and the tree-stay. When the booking time ran out on January 3, they asked for an extension, but the pendant hotel had already been promised to others. Now she has no time to be empty,”said Bogatyrev's friend Zaur.
Bogatyrev is going to build a hanging hut on ropes, tying them to four trees, and other stylized structures, but he obviously does not have enough strength for all the proposals, from which he now has no end.
“I’m not a builder, but a traveler, I don’t have time to build tree houses. Already in mid-February, we set off to climb the third largest volcano in the world on Mount Llullaco in South America. Our plans are to conduct an expedition, which may help scientists in some way to unravel the mystery of the Inca empire,”he says.
Oksana Gamzaeva, photos by Maxim Bogatyrev
