‘He had a big machete’ says Kathryn as she recalls terrifying travel scare

RTE star Kathryn Thomas has recalled the terrifying moment she thought “it would all end” after a scary run in with a foreign tribe.

The Operation Transformation host is renowned for presenting the 2000’s hit travel series No Frontiers.

Kathryn hosted the TV show on RTE One for over 10 years, starting off at just 20-years-old and travelled to over 100 countries.

Appearing on the Changing Times podcast with former Irish president Mary McAleese and broadcaster Mary Kennedy, the 45-year-old spoke about her experience filming the show.

When asked about a standout moment from her years of travelling the popular presenter was quick to say Papau New Guinea.

She said: “Papau New Guinea is probably one that stays in my head the most because I had produced the whole thing and tried to get there for so many years.

“Statistically, Port Moresby, back then it was the most dangerous city in the world.”

The Carlow woman continued to explain how Irish businessman Denis O’Brien, who had been setting up his Digicell company in Papau New Guinea at the time, bumped into her at the airport.

Denis expressed his fears for Kathryn and her filming team and asked her “Do you know how dangerous it is here?”

Kathryn added: “In fairness to Denis he had given us the name of his primary security guy out there and he gave us a satellite phone because he said ‘if you’re going up into the Gulf Province you’ll need a phone’.”

As the Irish star and her team continued there travels to the Gulf Province, Kathryn told how she wanted to try and find a tribe that had been “cut off from the outer world”.

She said: “So we hiked for two or three days up to the Gulf Province and there are only two different road networks in Papau New Guinea and everyone speaks I think 800 different languages so it’s very tribal.

“We were with six guides who we had hired from Port Moresby, but they basically stepped into land that they should not have been on.”

The mum-of-two began to tell the terrifying story of how herself and the production team almost lost their lives.

She continued: “We were trying to cross a river and we had all the bags and all the equipment and the river was neck high, but the camera crew were trying to get across this fast flowing river to take footage of me coming across.

LIFE CHANGING

“Then the next moment from out of the trees came something I could only describe as a holler. Then a tribal leader came out and he had a big machete and he was running at us.”

The host described he intensity of the situation as she said: “He was coming for us and I just went ‘oh my god this is where it’s all going to end’ and in that moment you think ‘what do I do in this situation?’.”

Kathryn confessed how “surprised” she was at her reaction as she added “I just put my head down and closed my eyes and I was frozen with fear.”

“I was rigid with fear and I remember he was shouting and screaming in a language I didn’t know and all of his spit was on my face and I just knew he and I just knew he had this huge big knife.

“And the guides that were with us couldn’t even communicate because they were speaking a different language.”

After 10 or 15 minutes, Kathryn explained how the “everything was settled”, however it all came at a cost.

She said: “The camera crew came back from the other side of the river, but our watches had to be given over all of our water supply any cash that we had, all had to be given over.”

“It was one of those moments I will think about often.”