THE NORTH RIDING PROJECT

For centuries, the Chaco was simply L’Inferno Verde, or ‘the Green Hell’.  Early Europeans thought they’d find monsters in this strange, long-lost ocean.  There would have been plenty to surprise them: prehistoric lungfish that survived summer by tunnelling into the dirt; three-foot gunmetal lizards and vampire bats; owls that mimicked their victims and lured them to their deaths; a wild pig believed to have vanished in Pleistocene times – until it emerged from the thorns in 1975.  There were thought to be Ayoreo tribesmen who’d never seen modern man.

Gimlette/Inflatable