In August/ September of 2022, I had the beautiful opportunity to explore the island of Peleliu in Palau. Home to one of the bloodiest battles of world war 2, often overlooked due to much larger scale battles. A year since the exploration, is Peleliu: Then & Now, a low key war documentary I created diving back into my experiences alongside historic footage. And while it may have seemed like a fairly straight forward travel day on Peleliu, my journey was actually far more treacherous, eerie and terrifying than one would think.
Here are some of those experiences:
Running out of Food / Snacks
It was quite obvious to me after my exploration, I was nowhere even close to being prepared for the magnitude of a days exploration around war related Peleliu. Hell, after my mid day arrival, i was ready to hitch my way into this adventure not knowing just how much time I needed. With that being said, a six hour journey turned into one from early morning to darkness. Half way through my day of bicycling into south Peleliu found me consuming more food and snacks quicker than anticipated due to the immense workout involved. My remedy, a pack of gum to offset the hunger experienced mid day until evening. I can’t imagine soldiers going through hours to days with minimal to no food amidst fighting.
Nearly Losing My Drone to Rain
‘Peleliu: Then & Now’ is a sweet parallel of two worlds through storytelling experience sprinkled with incredible drone footage from the world above. But what if I were to say, I nearly lost my drone, at the tail end of my day? At the summit of Bloody Nose Ridge was an incredible panoramic view of the island I just explored with a sunset to top it off. With low battery on my phone, I used the small window to get some drone footage of the mountains. After about 10 minutes of flight I pulled the drone back into my direction and just as it got back in my hands, a dark cloud rolled in and slowly began what seemed like a monsoon. Had I been off by a couple of minutes? Yea…
Being Self Guided Came at a Cost…
…A YEAR LATER
While this is probably the least treacherous of the voyage, I have to make mention that my journey was completely self guided. My intuitions both surprisingly and unsurprisingly put me exactly where MOST war relics and buildings are. But that’s not to mention that there are many relics in the now overgrown jungles of the island, much of where a guide would have been..nice. A couple of those are a couple of tanks and a downed aircraft in the jungle which would have been awesome to see and document. For this video project, I had to buy $98 of stock video of that downed aircraft to add a nice touch to the relics on Peleliu.
Again, not that crazy but just goes to show how much truly is hidden across Peleliu!
ALWAYS Get A Permit!
Permits are required in just about all places worth the time and efforts to explore. GET A PERMIT when visiting war relics or face fines. In my whole day exploring, I did get stopped by one local asking for my permit. Of course after providing, spent half hour talking about Belau and my Pacific Islands voyage. Palauans are AWESOME!
Not exactly a bad experience, but I can’t help but think what could have been if I had no permit to show for.
It’s INSANELY HOT!
Earlier I talked about how I ran out of food due to high energy use bicycling in and around Peleliu. A major contributing factor is due to how insanely hot it is between the hours of 9-3pm during the day. After all like stated in the video, Palau is only 500 miles from the equator which leads me to the next biggest problem I faced…
Dehydration: Running Out of Water
A warning one should not ignore is how much water to bring into southern Peleliu. A warning I heeded but not to the scale necessary for my exploration via bicycle. With a small canteen and an extra 16 oz bottle, I found my water usage gone mid day at the suns peak time after exploring some of the ruins. I went from the southern most tip across island to the swimming hole for a cool off swim on only 2OZ of reserve water which I was in dire need of. It got so bad that I had to ask some locals I thankfully met near the airfield who were gathering crops, for water. While they only had a watered down tea and coffee mix, it was everything from preventing full dehydration and allowed me to manage for Bloody Nose Ridge and my dreaded return back to my accomodation in Kloulklubed. (Broken down further below)
Rain.. Low Phone Battery & Getting Lost?
Earlier I mentioned having low battery at the tail end of my days worth of exploring on Peleliu with my drone up above Bloody Nose Ridge prior to heavy rain. The rain did not stop but that was the least of my worries. It was the way I chose to return back to Klouklubed! Instead of going back the main road I used earlier in the day, I chose a road called “Crocodile Road” that runs parallel to the main road on the interior side of Bloody Nose Ridge.
Little did I know, this is a muddy narrow path of jungle and abandoned cars for several miles. With 1% battery, $1,000 worth of gear under a thin rain fly, heavy rain, pure darkness, numerous pools of water and mud (some of which i had to walk through), and with no certainty I was going the correct way, I grew more and more terrified by the minute.
After about 40 minutes of that BS, I found myself back on some sort of widened paved road and shortly back into a lit environment that was Kloulklubed. Pranced into a local Bangladeshi store and guzzled water like I never had it before in my life. Oh yea, the bike got a nice cleaning next day!
The Dark Essence of Peleliu
No matter how dehydrated I was or how lost I got, I think the most significant factor to express poetically, is just how emotionally painful it was to be on Peleliu. Yea it’s laid back, quiet, and low key. But the scars and horrors of war some 70+ years ago is still strongly present on this small island not far south of the colorful Rock Islands. Not just by exploring the relics, but the heavy feeling of just being on Peleliu.
The bullets, explosions, and death that left this island a barren landscape in 1944 is lush green jungle of deafening silence today. The war relics that still stand gave me an unsettling feeling beyond the awe of war exploration. The holes created by bullets and mortar shells echo the screams of death by the thousands in those months of 1944.
In Conclusion
A disclaimer I must at is that no matter what I experiences on island, is no where even close to the horror experienced not so far back in the past. Peleliu, a small island and checkpoint in an island hopping campaign as a means to prevent a shift into a totalitarian world. While some argue that Peleliu was controversial in it’s choice to invade, it still played a part in a bigger picture, only at the cost of many souls, including everyday Palauans.
In my project, I narrate through voiceover “This day [September 15, 1944] would change the island forever”. I have never lived to see Peleliu before 1944 to know so firsthand, but Peleliu truly changed forever. A peaceful island turned into hell in a matter of hours and going weeks without end is enough to transform an island forever.
Thousands of souls perished on Peleliu, Angaur, Ngesbus, and they remain there…forever!
Be sure to check out Peleliu: Then & Now
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