Day 10 - Thursday 27 April, Owers Corner - Bomana War Cemetary - Port Moresby

Team Kick Ass at the end of the Track

Well I have been a little slack.  One of the girls from the trip asked me yesterday for the link to my blog. I suddenly realised that I still had another entry to go....oopsies.

Nobody really slept in that morning at Owers Corner, we stayed in bed (well not bed, you know what I mean) longer than normal but were still up early.  I think Kat slept on a table.  The place looked like the aftermath of a big night out, I guess it kind of was.

We were all still excited.  Owers Corner was truly a beautiful place to wake up. We packed up our gear and tents for the final time on the track. It was time for most of the porters to head back to their homes. A lot of them live in villages along the track. We said our individual goodbye's.  They had carved wooden walking sticks for us, which they gave us as we spoke.  We then had a group goodbye. It was really nice. These men are simply amazing.  After the thank you they just turned around and disappeared back into the jungle.  Most of these guys do what we just did in three days. A few of the porters were coming with us to Port Moresby.  

We had some breakfast. I have to say I was excited about eating my last ration pack meal. Totally excited.

Legendary Deb and myself at Owers Corner

Not long after breakfast we were once again graced by the presence of the men in skins. We heard them coming up the track, so a few of us formed a guard of honour (they had given us mars bars afterall). This is something commonly done along the track when coming across other trekkers.  

Linked situps, the men in skins, some now thankfully in
shorts, judgementally looking on

Mexican wave pushups at our last workout. Some clearly cheating. I'm looking at you Whiteleg.
Me barefoot and clearly over my hookworm paranoia. 

Greg wanted to have a final team workout. A few kicked up and complained, we were missing a few members for this workout.  It was a fun workout. Mexican Wave pushups and linked situps.  Out of all the workouts this is the one that I have the most fond memories of.  The hookworm one is close though. The men in skins were watching and muttering that we were crazy.  We were crazy? Dudes have you looked in the mirror lately? Do you know that wearing skins with no shorts over the top is just plain ewww?

We waited around for a while, we had two mini buses coming to pick us up.  They arrived bearing fresh food.  Sandwiches and chicken. So good. We ate the whole way to Bomana War Cemetery, well I did anyway.

The drive to the Cemetery was the hairiest road trip I have ever been on, and I've done a few. Worse than driving in Thailand, worse than mountains in Samoa. People slept on the bus, I'm not sure how, I spent the trip with my eyes either shut tight or wide open in terror. Beautiful though!

This is what happens when you
sleep on a table and don't really
sleep

And this

Happy and fed Team Kick Ass

Bomana war cemetery is a beautiful peaceful place. The cemetery contains 8,823 burials, 700 of them unidentified. The Port Moresby Memorial stands behind the cemetery and commemorates almost 750 men of the Australian Army (inc PNG forces), the Merchant Navy and the RAF who lost their lives in PNG and who have no known graves. It's the largest war cemetery in the Pacific Region.

Bomana War Cemetery

Our mood at the cemetery was in stark contrast to how happy we were this morning. Everybody was unusually quiet.  It was that kind of place. A place of peace, a place that warranted deep respect and a place of reflection.

After a briefing, nobody really spoke to each other. It seemed like a very personal and I guess introspective time for everyone. Alone, we wandered between row upon row of gravestones. This was the place where everything we had heard about hit home, and it hit home hard. The place where the stories, the numbers of men lost, were now no longer things we had listened to and read about but something we could see with our own eyes. The place where everything became real.

It was a sad place, a place that commanded the utmost respect. Completely emotional for everybody.

Anzac Day was obviously a couple of days earlier.  Wreaths were still lying under the cenotaph.  I picked a frangipani flower and laid my own.

Back on the bus, everything was very quiet for a long time.  We were all still quite emotional.  

The porters decorated the bus while we were looking around
Bomana

Back in Moresby we had the afternoon free. We unpacked all our gear and headed to our rooms.  And a shower. A warm shower. To say I was filthy would be an understatement. Kerri and I also weighed ourselves.  I may be the first person in history to put on weight on the Kokoda Track. Yes that's right, I came home heavier!  The rest of the day was spent in the pool, at the bar and in the restaurant.  We all had dinner that night, some of us spoke of our experiences.  All of our Kina that we owed from Joeys black book was on the table.  I thought it would be a late night given the amount of money, mostly mine I think, but we were all quite tired.

We flew out the next morning. After landing in Brisbane I had the same sense of being in a different world as I did when I arrived in Port Moresby. It was nice to be home although strangely I was also a little sad. I think it has something to do with mateship. I made some great mates on this trip. 

And I'll just add, at Brisbane airport, I was last through customs because somebody had to unpack her bag and have everything inspected. Always the dodgy one!

Liam Mulligan, one of the guys from Team One, put together a little video of our trip. He did a great job, and summed up beautifully at the end the feelings of everybody. Watch it! Its awesome.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYuwSKs4tsc


I actually feel a little melancholy that my blog is finished now.  Tonight I sat and read over some of my posts, remembering what an amazing experience this was and thinking about the fantastic friends I made.  I feel so lucky to have been able to do this with such a great group of people and great outdoor adventure company.  A pilgrimage that every Australian should make, a pilgrimage of respect and gratitude.

Day 9, Thursday 26 April, Ofi Creek to Owers Corner, snakes, flash floods, separation, men in skins with no shorts, tent spooning

Had a good sleep last night, the best so far, besides the one in Port Moresby, in a big nice cosy dry comfortable bed with a nice pillow. Hot shower, real meat and fresh fruit and veggies in the restaurant, beer at the bar, some nice smelling dry clothes. Oh I digress I'm thinking of other things.

Not pleasant this morning putting on wet boots.  I know that we have a lot of river crossings today, so, no point thinking about being uncomfortable, just got to do it! We are so close to the end. We only have one more night left on the track. Tonight. Wow. I can't believe it.  I've almost kicked the big K out of the ball park.

Massive climb out of Ofi Creek this morning. What am i saying??? There is a massive climb every day all day long. I'm not saying that anymore this place is just rugged and mountainous everywhere all the time.

Trekking up the creek

Today is turning out to be really pretty. I think I counted over 28 creek and river crossings before lunch. At times the track was the river or creek, and that's where we walked. After five hours of this we arrive for lunch at the base of Imita Ridge.

One of 28 creek crossings and that was before lunch

OK so lets remember why we are here, time for a history recap.  The battles on this track began on 21 July 1942 in the north of PNG when Kokoda village fell to the Japanese. Kokoda was important because it is on flat ground and has an airstrip, so is essential for supplies. The battles continued along the track from Kokoda in the north, toward Port Moresby in the south, with the Aussies exercising a fighting retreat. A fighting retreat was against orders, but the only thing they were able to do. Australian command had basically no knowledge of the terrain or the situation at the start of the conflict. More troops slowly arrived weeks after the commencement of battle when command realised how serious the situation was becoming.



By 16 September more Australian troops arrived from Port Moresby (obviously walking the opposite way to us) and dug themselves into defensive positions at Imita Ridge.  The Japanese were exhausted and were short on supplies.  The Japanese were ordered to withdraw. Australian patrols pushed forward off Imita ridge back towards Kokoda, finding that the Japanese had slipped away. Over the next six weeks the Japanese fell back toward Kokoda still fighting Aussies along the way. The Aussies were now also plagued by supply issues as well. On November 2, Australia succeeded in retaking Kokoda village, which had fallen to the Japanese four months prior.


Let's not forget that at the time, PNG was an Australian Territory.  Imita Ridge, which is as far as the Japanese Army got, is only about 40 km from Port Moresby which is where the Japanese were trying to get to to use as a base to invade Australia.  They had already tried to attack Moresby from the Coral Sea and were defeated by the Australian and US Navy.   At this point in the war Japan had already invaded many other Asian countries. This was really close, very close, the security of Australia was in great danger. And meanwhile the majority of our troops were fighting in Europe.


You can actually see Port Moresby from Imita Ridge, that's how close it is.  It is incredible to think that this major threat to our country was just 40 km away from happening, and even more incredible to think that once you are over this ridge, the track is not really so bad, imagine if they got a little further..... 


It's hard to understand that at the start of this battle the army sent 300 army reservist men to Kokoda who were ill equipped, some had never fired a gun and were told to take their tennis racquets. These men battled for weeks on their own to protect our country.  Amazing to think that the battle for Kokoda became such a major threat to national security that the Prime Minister of Australia defied the President of America and the Prime Minister of England and returned troops from Europe and Asia to fight on the track.


OK so Imita Ridge is massive! (I just said it again didn't I).  It's a 2.5 km trek with an elevation of over 850 metres. Tough going.  There seems to be be a bit of an Imita Ridge competition.  Apparently if you can do it in under 42 minutes, thats a really good time.  So today, we get to go for it, if we want to, just get up that ridge as fast as we can. You'd think that after so many days trekking I wouldn't get excited about this, but I did!


Worst thing about doing it after lunch was that we had new ration packs adding a couple of kilos, and we had refilled water as well, adding a few more.  Challenge or what! Bring it on.  So we got all professional, Rob got his stop watch out and we all went for it.  I ran, sprinted actually. It was up hill and soooooo steep. I didn't keep this up for long it was damn impossible. 

Appo (Rob), Brad and Joey, first three boys up Imita

After a few minutes I was in front of Kat and couldn't even see Kerri behind me any more.  I could see Joey and Blake in front of me, just, but couldn't see Rob or Brad anywhere. We climbed and climbed. Kat and I not being able to help it kept stopping to check if each other were OK.   Kat was actually getting quite close to me, I didn't mind though it was a little freaky in the jungle feeling all alone. I had passed Blake by now and could see Joey up ahead.

Myself, Kat & Kerri, first three girls up Imita

We got to a creek/waterfall. I could not see where the track was on the other side. So I went right. Kat behind me was lucky, one of the porters had come up behind her and told her to go left, which she did. Doh. I went the wrong way. I found myself in front of a vertical face covered in tree roots.  This is where I got silly. My legs were so tired I couldn't cope with going back to the left because it was uphill through the creek. So I decided it was easier to to climb the vertical face (yep, i know, blonde, what was I thinking). Anyway when I got to the top (it was fun by the way) Kat was in front of me. That's how it stayed for the rest of the way.  We both grunted up that hill like a couple of Sharapova's.  We were making such noises of pain that we were actually laughing at each other between grunts. We eventually got the top of the ridge, Kat in 34 mins and me in 35. I was pretty happy. I was also tired! But on the bright side we had about 45 minutes to wait for the others to get to the top.  It takes about an hour and a half at normal pace.

At the top of Imita Ridge (almost)

The rest of the afternoon involved, you guessed it, walking up and down hills.  We are camping by Goldie River tonight, we have to cross it first.  It started raining. Today 10 inches in a couple of hours. It was just insane. And slower going that in the rain yesterday, completely different soil type today. 


It was absolutely pouring and really dark under the canopy.  We were just trudging along and suddenly Joey just shouted at me (loud) to stop. I had never heard Joey like that before and I just knew not to muck around so I stopped straight away. Then he said don't move.  I had already frozen anyway, and as my eyes adjusted to the light and the rain I could see an adder lying just centimetres in front of my feet. It actually didn't freak me out at all, I just stood there looking at this snake, in the pouring rain, thinking, shit that was quite close. A flick with a walking pole and the snake was back in the bush and we were off again.  Good buddy work by Joey today I have to say.


Joey and I were up the front.  We didn't know but up the back strong man Isaac the porter was having a panic and trying to get the slowest of the group to walk faster so we could get across Goldie River before it flooded after the rain.  We arrived at the river.  Were told to drop all our packs.  The porters started taking them across.  There was a sense of urgency.  PNG men appeared from all over the place. The river was already swollen, brown and running extremely fast but still passable, just. So Greg gave the go ahead to go, first Deb, then Mark, then Joey, myself and Kerri.  


It's hard to explain what this river crossing was like.  There was a rope from one side to the other, we walked across sideways holding it in front of us. I'm quite strong and it was damn hard to hang on to.  The current and the noise were incredible, the water chest deep (normally ankle deep). More than once my feet left the river bed due to depth or the current just picking them up. I made it across and was standing in knee deep water with Joey.  Kerri was right behind me.   She was just about across when a wall of water came down the river and it rose suddenly in just seconds.  Kerri actually had to let go of the rope and roll on to her back as the water had risen so much and so fast it was just gushing into her face.  She was surrounded by Papuan guys who helped her out. There was no way anyone else was getting over.  Way too dangerous now.  So , 5 on our side and 7 on the other. Whoops. Joey and I estimated in the next few minutes the water rose a few metres.

Goldie River in flood

So five of us including myself are on the camp site side.  We realised that there was another group there. In our spot. Damn. Then we discovered that Team 1 had actually not stopped due to this reason and had continued on to Owers Corner, the end of the track, which was about another two hours walk away. It was already about 4.30 or 5 in the afternoon, this was not looking like a good situation.


We spent a while just walking around checking the river to see if it was dropping (it was still raining and the river still rising).  It dawned on us that there was not much more that we could do, just sit and wait. Some of the porters tried to cut a massive tree down (much to my horror) to create a bridge, the tree snapped in half on impact and raced down the river. The waiting game was on it seemed. We could have walked on to Owers Corner but did we did not want to leave the rest of the team, we wanted to finish together.


The next thing we realised was that our camp invaders were a group of men who were nearly all wearing skins with no shorts over the top. I mean this is just illegal! Geez it was like a superhero dress up party. I needed a blindfold stat.


Kindly the men in skins and no shorts offered us tea and some food. They also had a fire and shelter. We were on the good side of the river. The other 7 of our team sitting on the opposite steep bank on tree roots in pissing down rain.  We dried out, chatted with the men in skins and ate. They were really helpful and left a little food before they eventually went to bed (PNG time, about 1830)


After the superheros went to bed we decided to go through the packs that we did have. We had no food except some mars bars (terrible shame), some water, 2 single person tents and 3 sleeping bags between us. Also a small bottle of Southern Comfort (I know lucky right!) which we drank promptly after finding.


Looked like we weren't going anywhere tonight so we set the two tents up under the shelter by the fire.  We spread some banana leaves on the ground first, it was so muddy. Three sleeping bags, two tents. Going to get interesting. Mark didn't want to sleep in a tent as his daughter Kat was still across the river and he wanted to stay awake. Kerri and Deb hopped into one tent, that left Joey and I to get in the other. Besides the fact I stank and Joey stank (we couldn't tell, I know now how stinky people can live together because when you both stink its not so obvious) it was actually quite cosy I guess. Joey and I had a chat and before long both went to sleep.


Some time later the rest of the crew suddenly appeared. They had made it across the river, in the dark, after the water level dropped to a safe level. It was just after 10.30 pm. It was a fairly embarrassing moment when Joey opened the tent and we both looked out with sleepy bleary eyes and disheveled hair. The laughter started and the jokes about spooning and sporking started straight away. We were not going to live this down for a while.


Greg told us to pack up our gear, we weren't staying here, we were going to walk to the end of the track. What the??? Its the middle of the night, no lights except our headlights. Wow. So we did. We packed up, still enduring the sporking jokes, in the pitch black and mud.  We found the rest of our packs.  And we walked. We stayed in single file near our buddy for the day and kept quite close together to improve vision. Some of the porters did not have head lights so they stuck fairly close by.


The walk was about two hours, not as rugged as what we had been doing but it was slippery. We were walking on clay. The most slippery surface we had encountered.  There came a point where it was so slippery that you really couldn't physically help each other any more because then both of you slipped. Everybody went over, a lot. Greg slipped more than once and not very gracefully, once right off the side of the track into what seemed like oblivion. So glad we could not see too far it would have been worse I think.  Nobody really spoke much except to swear or grunt. We were all tired and cold. Joey and I had to space out from each other a little because we were slipping so much we were almost knocking each other over. This is the real Kokoda. This is what our boys were trying to fight in. For months relentlessly.


Then, as we were coming to the top of a rise at about 1 am, I could see through the mist some sort of arch. It took me a minute to get it. This was it, we had done it, we had reached the end of the track.  It happened so suddenly it was almost an anticlimax. We weren't sure what to do for a minute.  There were a few hugs, a few well dones. The feeling of elation was there a little but the noise of the elation was missing, I think we were all too knackered. I took a photo, it was pitch black but there was no way I could let this moment go without capturing it.


We set up our tents, which we usually do in the light. It took Kenneth, a porter, and I 25 minutes to set up a single person tent in the dark. We had three attempts. He's done it a million times before. We were killing ourselves laughing.  Then we all regrouped and ate some food finally and had some hot chocolate. I shared my food with Kenneth, we were both starving and freezing. We were feeling a little more lively by then, it was sinking in.  We were all quite jovial after that.  Team 1 who were already in bed asleep didn't stay asleep for long.


Oh and theres a weird thing in a building here, I think it might be called a toilet but I am not quite sure.


Finally some sleep, not much, just a couple of hours, after an absolutely epic last day on the Kokoda Track. In fact I couldn't have asked for a better last day.

The end of the track, 1 am, this is such a great photo!

Day 8 Wednesday 25 April, Menari to Ofi Creek - Somebody feed me Im considering cannabalism!

Absolutely crap sleep last night.  Seems the best sleep I had was the hour and a half I had prior to 10 pm when I then woke up thinking it was morning. If I do this trip again I'm bringing a hammock.

It's Anzac Day today. It's 4.30 am and chilly.  It's raining, which I think is making our mood even more sombre. We pack up and eat in the dark. We are all wearing the same thing today for the service. I had a little hissy fit about that too because I couldn't find my shirt for a little while in the dark. We look like a team today (but still stink).

Team Kick Ass after the Dawn Service

Piper Joe played Danny Boy as we made our way up the hill in the dark, a thin trail of headlamps, to where we are having the Dawn Service. I have never heard everyone so quiet.

I go to an Anzac service every year. This one felt the same emotionally but much more intense. Greg spoke at length, about lots of things, it was really moving. The guys had chosen several people from our teams to speak, all of them with some kind of connection to the track. Most had brought along medals from relations. This was the really emotional part of the service.  There were times they could not speak at all. That was hard to watch.  There was not a dry eye anywhere that morning. 

Rainbow over Menarie after the Dawn Service

The Last Post and Reveille were beautiful that morning with the sound echoing down the silent valley and the sun rising over the mountains. After the service a rainbow appeared over the hills. Could have been a coincidence but considering the day and the time it just seemed like it wasn't.

Off again. Today will be another long day. Greg told me that today is his least favourite day of trekking.  Today we are entering the quagmire. That's what we ended up calling it anyway. After climbing up Menari Pass and then down 'the wall' (that says it all), we entered the quagmire.  Days of managing to keep our feet dry were over.

Sunrise Anzac morning

The quagmire

I have no idea how I did not fall over in the quagmire because everyone else did. Especially since I have the coordination and grace of a flamingo wearing gum boots.  I have never seen so much mud. Ever. Not even at that music festival a couple of years ago. It was slow going, our feet buried in mud up to our ankles, the ground sucking at them as we tried to lift our feet for the next step. It was like this for hours. 

Eventually we hit Brown River. This was our first major river crossing with no bridge (logs). Water was about waist deep, brown after the rain and fast flowing (Maybe it's always brown, it is called Brown River?).  Didn't even bother taking our boots off because tomorrow is worse and we are already soaked. Finally the heavy mud was gone, now replaced with boots filled with water that can't get out because of the gortex lining.

More swamp and then more hills. Today we are walking up and down what is called the 'nine false peaks'. People talk about these like they are the worst thing ever but I didn't even notice we were climbing them until I was up to about the 5th peak. It seemed to me that there were false peaks every single day and this was no different.

Rob and I muddy and loving it

Today is huge. We have used so much energy.  There is really nowhere to stop to eat. At about 1 pm it happened. Everyone that knows me knows I love food. A lot. As we had not had lunch yet we had no new ration packs. We pretty much had no food left until then. In addition my metabolism is super fast.  Suddenly I had no energy at all.  Kat who was my buddy quickly noticed I was feeling crappy (apparently I stopped talking). Pretty hard to walk up these hills when you have absolutely no fuel. I struggled for maybe an hour, really struggled.  To make things worse Rob was trek leader today and he walks fast!

Rob the medic who specialises
in harden up pills and teaspoons
of cement

I really had to dig deep. I thought about lots of things. I thought about lunch and the the quicker I walked the quicker I would get it. I thought about Woogie telling me that I was more capable than I thought. I thought about a friend who used to be a marine who used to carry 50 kg over ridiculous distances and I tried to make myself believe that what I was doing was not hard in comparison. I thought about maybe having a rum tonight. Somebody found me some type of nutty bar and about fifteen minutes later I was feeling better sort of. We eventually had lunch after 3 pm. Breakfast was at 4.30 am. I have no idea how the diggers did this.

Instant creek

After lunch a couple more hours of walking. It started to rain, really rain, the most rain we had had so far. 6 inches in just two hours. I started to get really cold, so I ended up putting my jacket on which kept me slightly warmer.  It was actually easier to walk in the rain, the water was pouring down the hills in torrents, it was like walking in a fast flowing creek, but it was washing away the mud and leaving hard ground underneath.  

We actually made really fast time that afternoon despite the conditions.  One more water crossing before Ofi Creek, our camp ground, on the other side. Luckily we had made good time, Ofi Creek was almost impassable and already swollen and rising fast. We made it across with just minutes to spare. I tried to imagine living like this for months on end, being frightened and scared, being away from loved ones, being shot at, shooting at other people, no food, terrible weather. After 6 days on this track I still cannot fathom what it would have been like for the Australian, Papuan and Japanese soldiers 70 years ago.

Ofi Creek camp, slippery central

That night was actually kind of fun. I ate all my dinner and lots of everyone else's.  Being Anzac Day and Australian we had to have a drink. Now I knew why Joey was stealing everyones condensed milk. He was using it to mix with rum. It actually wasn't bad. I was able to drink Bundy rum mixed with it without feeling instantly sick (bad previous experience). Was a really good night. Everyone was happy, laughing and tired. I was walking around with plastic bags on my feet because I still hadn't been able to fix my thongs and I was terrified of hookworms now. It was so muddy, wet and slippery, it was funny. Overall a good day and a win in the sense I drank Bundy for the first time in 18 years and got a good feed eventually.

Day 7 Tuesday 24 April, Brigade Hill to Menari - I had a hissy fit

Today we have a really short day. Its the 24th April, tomorrow is Anzac Day. We are having a Dawn Service at a village called Menari.  We are also meeting Team 3 today for the first time, they are travelling from the other direction.

I loved this place, Brigade Hill, I'll be sad to leave. The kids in the village were singing at 3 am. It was great. This whole country sings, and does it well.  The kids get me every time, their happiness, their shyness and contentedness. They remind me of my own children, who's faces at the moment I can't even seem to remember clearly.  Weird I  know.  

I forgot to mention in the last post, my thongs (and I mean flip flops and not undies for any yanks reading this) broke last night. This is a real bummer, it's not like I have heaps of spare shoes here. I never normally wear shoes but you need them to wear around camp protect your feet from hookworms.

We leave Brigade Hill early and have a steep two hour descent then a one hour climb into Menari.  

I am partnered with Brad today, we get on pretty well. I had a pee stop this morning, sprinted off into the bush, came back out to faithfully waiting Brad, packed up and kept walking. About 3 minutes later I realised I left my walking pole behind at the tree I had peed near. So I sprinted back, ran off into the bush again and found it. On the way back to the track I got attacked by some type of man eating vine (yes attacked, there's no way I walked into it) and slashed the back of my leg.  Blood the lot, but not bad. Will definitely scar a little.  So I got a point against my name in the book for being forgetful and so did Brad for not looking after me. Woops. I have racked up a few now.

One of the butterflies I saw by the creek,
 there were so many of them

On the climb up to Menarie we find another beautiful creek. Team one are still there having a break.

Bath time again.  I grab my wilderness wash, which is unscented and suddenly have a girly moment and want to smell something nice.  Unbelievably, Kerri has lavender oil!  So I put a few drops in my wash. Nice. I head to the water.

Team 1 are now leaving and getting out, I'm getting in.  And there before me is a disturbing sight. On the top of a rock in the middle of a pristine creek is an empty (and fresh) muesli bar wrapper.  So, me being the rubbish queen that I am, calmly asks everyone who left it there?  No takers, no one owns up. Im getting angry. I don't care who it is as long as they pick it up and take it with them. I ask again.  No answers. 

Anyway (it's rumoured) this is about the time I have what can be described as a small hissy fit. Doesn't happen very often but it did, in front of my whole team.  Joey the Sheriff was so good about it, I mean nobody had spat the dummy like that yet and he didn't even give me the dummy award.  

Me and the best bath on the planet. Obviously Whiteleg to my right hadn't yet realised my level of nakedness, he left shortly after.  Absolutely hilarious. I love Tanya and Sue's faces in this pic. Tanya reckons I was enjoying it a little too much.

I got rid of the rubbish. Then took a wash.  This bath was awesome, I even smelt nice after and not like a rank wet cat like I had been.  I am pretty sure that Whiteleg almost went blind, I decided to take half my clothes off, when he realised what I was doing he quickly moved himself.  Tanya and Sue were cracking up laughing, Tanya trying to shield me with a very small Australian flag, lucky I'm little. It was sooooo funny, I still laugh thinking back.

After a wash and something to eat we finished the walk to Menari just before lunch.  It was still a bit of a climb and I was almost dry by the time we got there.

Coming in

There is an airstrip at Menari. If you can call it that. About half an hour after we arrived a plane landed.  Holy cow this was perhaps one of the scariest things I have ever seen.  A small plane coming down the side of a mountain and hurtling down a tiny grass airstrip. At the end of the airstrip was a bunch of kids sitting right in the path of the plane.  I was standing next the the Adventure Professionals boss Glenn watching all of this unfold. 

Landing, note the kids at the end of the runway

Glenn is a 42 time Kokoda veteran so he's seen it all before. Me, no. As the plane landed and was charging towards the kids, I may have let the F word fly rather loudly.  Glenn was in hysterics. I was running to save the kids or do something. Everything was fine obviously I was just getting a bit maternal. The take off was almost as bad.

The plane was carrying ration packs (yeehaaaaaa), Andrew the bugler and Piper Joe the bagpiper for the service tomorrow.

The rest of the day we had free, it was almost like a holiday.  Kerri and I walked to market up the hill and bought fresh fruit, I also bought a bilam and carried all the produce back on my head just like a local. I love this place. Joey and Blake went hunting with a couple of the porters.  They didn't catch anything despite the porters efforts at tree lopping to find bird of paradise eggs. Joey stopped them thank goodness.  

Later the afternoon Sam and I decided to do some karate. We found a quiet spot away from everyone (so we thought) near the school, even took our shoes off!! Sam at a 3rd Dan Black Belt is a few belts higher than me so he was boss, even on Kokoda and with no belts in sight.  Sam taught me a kata, which is basically a choreographed series of martial arts movements. The kata we did was a very beautiful one, with lots of breathing, standing on one leg and hands in the air with fingers in exact positions.  It hit me after a few minutes  how amazing it was that Sam and I were performing a Japanese martial art in the very place where our Aussie soldiers had so brutally fought the Japanese.  Another epiphany about acceptance.

I was really embarrassed to see a whole bunch of villagers watching us when we turned around to leave. Anyway, I have practiced it often since I have been home.

After dinner we had a little surprise.  The kids from the local school gave an impromptu performance to raise money for their school. It was so awesome.  Everyone can sing here it's really unbelievable. 

Menarie school kids giving an impromptu performance

Bed time again.  I fell asleep fast and had been asleep for what seemed like forever when I woke up to flashing torchlights and voices.  I think I already said I don't wear a watch. I had no idea what time it was but it was obviously morning with all the racket going on, we were getting up at 4.30 for the dawn service.  So I got up and headed towards the fire where Kat from my team and Paul from Team 3 were sitting.  Paul looks at me perplexed, 'Hey Jen, what are you doing?' me, fully awake, pumped, ready to go told Kat and Paul that, well I was pumped and ready to go.  Paul and Kat nearly fell over laughing, then Paul said, 'Jen, sweetheart, it's 2200 go back to bed'. Oh OK. I did, but I did not sleep very well. It had also started to rain. 

Day 6 Monday 23 April, Naduri to Brigade Hill, Underneath the uniform we are all human

Joey and Kenneth on one of
Kokoda's engineering works'
of excellence. This one is actually really great.

Today I seem to have heaps of pictures and not as much to write. Everyone must be thanking their lucky stars my diary got wet.  Joey (The Sheriff) is my buddy today. Going to have to be on my best behaviour since he is in charge of the black book.


This morning we make the steep descent out of Naduri toward Efogi.  Of course we have to go up again after. And down. And up. The terrain is similar the whole track, but the vegetation and the soil types change quite a bit.  Lots of the track is basically tree roots. PNG is probably held together by tree roots.

I have my skins on again today. Mistake. Hips are aching already and I have to keep adjusting them. Efogi is approximately half way along the track.  Greg has been telling us that at Efogi we have a surprise. I hope its fresh food. Maybe eggs, some chicken some fruit or some veggies.  I've been dreaming about it for days.

Bilams the locals make and sell. You hang she strap over your head and the bag hangs down behind your head, as opposed to carrying over your shoulder. A really sensible idea. But I get weird looks in the shops now.

Oh yeah!!!

We reach Efogi village.  This is not the surprise but its good enough for me. Fresh fruit and some pan fried sweet potato.  So I buy from the villagers some bananas, sweet potato, tamarillo and tomatoes. Quite obviously I am hungry (i'm always hungry, damn hookworms) but I share it with everyone of course. So good. Appo had never had a Tamarillo.  He though it was a bit dodgy so he sucked the insides out and the filled it up with condensed milk. And he thought I was weird hugging trees.

People have been amazed at how much I eat, given my slight size. You need about 7000 calories a day to sustain trekking like this. I wouldn't be surprised if I ate that normally. I seem to be the only one getting through my entire ration pack every day and sometimes other peoples left overs. Brad was saying this morning that he thinks the hook worm has got me and thats why I'm hungry. 

Kat going over in a creek, again

Kat and her Dad Mark

Kerri and Blake doing, um, something with stones

After our break we continue on.  Shortly after we discover that the surprise is a swim.  We have had one swim back at Templetons but it was almost dark then and the water was 6 degrees.  This is about 15 degrees. The day is fairly warm and although it's still morning its a great chance to clean up and relax. During the swim Sam and I figure out where we know each other from. We used to compete at the same karate tournaments, we have even watched each others events it turns out. Small world.

Greg our team leader

Footy before the tears

We moved on to the next village where we stopped for lunch. This village was filled with kids and dogs.  Lot's of dogs.  Joey at one point I'm sure whispered to me 'look at these parasitic animals'. And they were, I felt so sorry for them. You could actually see the fleas crawling on them. You could even see fleas in the grass where the dogs had been.  


Joey and I were keen to move on, neither of us wanted to really sit on the ground, so Joey decided to have a game of footy with the kids. It was all going well until he threw the ball and hit a little boy in the head.  Tears over, they continued playing, Joey threw the ball and hit the same boy in the head again, more tears now.  Poor Joey didn't know what to do.  I gave the little guy a hug and calmed him down. Well, lunch was a flea ridden teary disaster.  
More walking. Going up Mission Ridge was quite scary, at times the side of the track dropped away alarmingly. You really had to concentrate.

Following the battle of Isurava, the Mission Ridge/Brigade Hill battle was the next attempt to halt the Japanese. Brigade Hill is a beautiful mountain ridge. Extending from its north face it is Mission Ridge. At Mission Ridge, men weary (and depleted) from the battle at Isurava were placed along a back line and a fresh battalion was placed at the front. Headquarters were also placed at the back. This effectively created two Australian positions. The Japanese approached Mission Ridge from the north, heavy firing by a Japanese battalion commencing the battle head on.  

Climbing Brigade Hill/Mission Ridge theres about
2 cm between the front of my toes and nothing
much below for quite a while.

Meanwhile another Japanese battalion trekked throughout the night and scaled the steep western slope of Brigade Hill. At dawn the following morning they lodged themselves between the two Australian positions. Many Australians and Japanese were killed. It was a major victory for the Japanese.


We had a short service at Mission Ridge, all of us trying to comprehend the brutality of the conflict. It was so hot, there was no tree cover at all, we soon forgot all about our swim at Efogi. During the Mission Ridge service Glenn played a song written by a musician from Brisbane, Hamish Wyatt.  He did the track with Glenn a few years ago.  This is a link to his song.  Its hard to explain the emotions of Kokoda so maybe this will help for those who have not been. The film clip contains some great footage from renowned journalist at the time Damien Parer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wasceChoMfw

Now we move on to Brigade Hill, a beautiful walk today. I guess we have only done maybe 6 hours of trekking today.  

Tree stump where Kokichi Mishimura hid to escape
the Australian forces

Along the track to Brigade Hill we come across this tree stump.  This for me is a reminder of one the most moving stories from Kokoda I have heard.  Actually not just from Kokoda, ever.  Kokichi Nishimura was a Japanese Soldier who was the only member of his platoon to survive the Kokoda campaign.  For a time he hid in this tree stump to escape the Aussies.  He was eventually evacuated back to Japan, not before making the grim pledge to return and find his comrades to take them home to Japan for a proper burial.

At the age of 60, Kokichi left his wife and two children in Japan and returned to Kokoda. For the next 26 years (and 400 million yen in life savings) he lived alone on the track, searching for the bones of his comrades. He dug up and repatriated the bodies of 350 of his fallen comrades. What a truly unbelievable man. Honour, commitment, fortitude, determination. Incredible. In any battle every soldier on any side has family and friends at home waiting for them.  And that makes me think that whatever the circumstances, underneath the uniform, we are all human.  (There is a book about Kokichi, The Bone Man of Kokoda, by Charles Happell, it's really good).

We arrive at Brigade Hill in the afternoon, we have a little time to spare, so some of the porters make some spears and we try our hand at throwing them. Time for washing clothes and ourselves and then we meet for a solemn service at the Brigade Hill memorial. 

L at brigade Hill, and yes I realise I am not wearing shorts over my skins, I may have got a point in the black book for this
R checking out the damage, one blister right foot, the rest is maintenance

The service was great and we were joined by our Papuan porters also.  The site where we are standing was the burial site of about 67 Australians, until their remains were moved to the Bomana War Cemetery.    The graves are still symbolised by a pole placed in the ground for each one, for the service our porters had tied red ribbon around the tops of the poles.

Camp at Brigade Hill

Brigade Hill

At the end of the service we sang our national anthems.  Ours compared to the Papua New Guinea Anthem seemed embarrassing.  Here is this group of maybe 30 local men, some of whom have never met before and just sang their national anthem in perfect harmony. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard. I honestly would have paid money to hear it. It was spine tingling stuff.  Ours sounded like crap, except for Kat who can actually sing. We seriously needed to do more with our anthem when we were  in school.  I was so proud of the PNG boys for being able to sing their anthem like that. 


Unfortunately none of us recorded this, mostly out of respect.  I looked around on you tube and I found a clip that sounds similar from another trek, the image and sound quality are quite poor but you can get the general idea. Then if you imagine hearing that in the misty daylight at the top of Brigade Hill, in amongst the poles with red ribbon, symbolising graves of Aussie soldiers, and our crew and porters, you might kind of get a feel for it. It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoVuuA5LZqw

All of us after the Brigade Hill service

This kids loved posing for photos, and then loved
looking at them

Chatting to some local kids, um OK we may have been singing. These little guys were singing at 3am.
I didn't mind, it was great

Possibly one of the cutest kids ever, I really really like this photo

Workout, dinner and and then team meeting time again.  Whiteleg is really racking up the points in the book. This afternoon he sat on the ground exhausted at the end of the day, looked up at me and said 'Jen, don't you ever get tired?'. I was not sure what to say. I told him I do get tired,  but it's just walking, one foot in front of the other and getting your head and attitude in the right space. I hoped it helped him. I would need to use this advice for myself in a couple of days....

Bed time again. It's chilly and a little bit rainy. We go to bed so early, its weird.  We only have a short day tomorrow I'm looking forward to it. Oh and that bit about not having much to write today, I was so wrong!