Day 2 Thursday 19 April - The longest 72 km's of my life

So apparently our flight to Popondetta has been delayed. Island time is something you need to get used to immediately in this country. Nothing happens on time or quickly.  

The plan for Friday was to fly to Popondetta in the north of the country and then bus to Kokoda, arrive at about lunchtime and then trek for the rest of the day.  The flight is now not leaving until 1 pm so we have a few hours to spare. A bit of time to get to know the rest of the team, great people! 

The most expensive taxi ride in Port
Moresby, Kerrie, Blake,
Joey & I overlooking the harbour

What else to do in Moresby when you have time to spare, no personal armed guard and you don't do well in a razor wired compound? Find some blokes and go out anyway of course! Kerrie, my room mate from last night, Joey, Blake and I decided to catch a cab into Moresby for a look around (not a walk around). Tip 1. When catching a cab in Moresby don't think you're getting a good deal by staying off the meter. Tip 2. Cab drivers need repeated instructions. Cabbie was insistent on taking us to the Botanical Gardens, we had no time for that but had to repeat this at least 4 times. Then he told us again we were going to the Botanical Gardens. It takes quite a bit for me to get mad, he soon knew that I was.

Port Moresby Harbour is quite beautiful. I even spied a waterslide (that I'm sure had my name on it) going from a jetty into the gorgeous clear blue harbour. There was a bit of a discussion and it was decided I wasn't going anywhere, sensible really, but I'm still disappointed I missed it.

We eventually got back to the hotel then off to the airport.  Interesting. Flights were on island time and so was the security.  Don't know how many times the scanners went off when we walked through with no further checks. Island time, island security. At least I didn't have a pat down. During the flight we flew almost over the Track. Oh. Wow. Those mountains are pretty big. I was worried about my fitness before I left Australia, now I am really concerned.

Popondetta

The bus

After arriving at Popondetta Airport, we loaded onto our bus (truck with troop carrier type seats) and headed into Popondetta to grab some supplies.  Never in my life have I seen so much rubbish. Some people already know that I pick up rubbish all the time, every day where ever I am, and every single time I go to the beach, which is often. Wow. I could have been in this place forever.  And the people.  Have never seen so many people in one place just hanging around for no particular reason. It was a bit intimidating actually. 

Just another river crossing
PNG style

And so began our 72 km drive to Kokoda. Not far no, but long yes, 4 hours long.  Road was dirt almost the entire trip.  All the bridges washed away a couple of months ago. Every creek and river was so much fun.  I'm sure that every person we drove past had something loud but nice to say to us. We even had a flasher, a little kid all of about 6 who did a nude jig in the middle of the road after we drove past him.  A great bus trip and pretty funny. Also a good chance to get to know everyone a little better. Could have done with a few extra kg's of padding on my butt and about half a metre off my legs however.  I eventually realised I could hang off the bars on the top of the truck, even pumped out a few chinups. That  helped the leg stretching situation a bit. 4 hours is a long time for me to sit still.


We arrived in Kokoda well after nightfall. It was pouring with rain but fortunately still warm. Threw our gear in a tent and enjoyed our first dehydrated meal.  Here we experienced the toilets Kokoda Track style for the first time.  I'm not going to go into detail but let's just say trees were a much better option and I'm pretty good at climbing fences.


Off to bed. Really pouring now and was stinking hot in the tent. After tossing and turning for a while and feeling hot and uncomfortable I stripped off to cool off. When I woke up in the morning, there was water through my tent and everything was wet. Including me, sleeping bag, the whole lot. And I was cold. I knew the rain was heavy through the night so the tent leaking probably couldn't be helped, but I laid there for a while cold, wet, naked, hungry, tired and trying to suppress the thought that this could be a really crap trip, and then trying to snap myself out of it.