Day 4 - Saturday 21 April, Isurava - Templeton's 2, I Think I'm in Avatar

Cute Isurava village kid

Blake had to give the thought of the day this morning.  He did a nice little spiel, and ended with 'keep smiling'. It was a phrase that was used repeatedly throughout the rest of the trip.

I'm feeling really good this morning, despite the person in next tent who snored so loudly I actually thought someone had come in to my tent and started snoring right in my ear.  My first task of the morning was a quick reconnoissance mission to discover who the snorer was.  Culprit identified, I'll be sleeping on the opposite side of the camp ground tonight. No wet tent last night. I never normally wake up through the night but I have been here.  We are pretty much sleeping on the ground. I go to sleep OK and then wake up later with my body aching where I am lying on it.  There are a lot of times during the night I wished I had some body fat. They have given us an inflatable pillow but I'm not feeling the love.  I ended up using my dry bag with clothes in it for a pillow.

Today we have a huge day.  We are walking to Isurava Memorial and will have a short service there. Then we need to push on and make up the hours we have lost. It will be a late one today.

We said goodbye to some of the kids in the village. They're pretty cute. Kerri is my buddy again today.

Avatar flowers

I cannot tell you how beautiful the walk to Isurava Memorial was. Through mountains covered in choko vines, crystal clear streams and misty valleys. It was this stretch of the track I had my 'I think I'm In Avatar' moment. I actually had to check I didn't have superpowers and look at myself to see if I had turned blue. If I had not of stepped on a flower on the ground I never would have looked up at this tree. I have never seen a flower like this, they were massive, beautiful and smelt gorgeous.  If this track was difficult I had not noticed because I was enjoying myself so much.

The team is starting to get on really well. There's lots of laughing and joking, it's really great having this much camaraderie so early on. Kerri and I get on really well also which is great.

A moment of reflection of Isurava Memorial

Isurava was the site of some of the most intense fighting in the Kokoda campaign.  The Isurava Memorial was built by the Australian Government in 2002 in remembrance of the Australians and Papua New Guineans who fought and died in the Kokoda Campaign.  The memorial is made up of four pillars made from black granite from South Australia and masoned in Melbourne. The pillars were then then flown to Port Moresby and choppered to the memorial site.  They are simply engraved with the words Courage, Endurance, Mateship, Sacrifice, words the Australian Army has built its foundations on.

Joey, Appo and Blake having a boys moment as
Isurava Memorial

The memorial is immediately adjacent  to the site where Private Bruce Kingsbury performed and act of valour for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.

This really is an amazing place for a memorial, high up in the mountains above the clouds.

Glenn, Greg, Rob (Appo),
Jason and Brad

We had a moving service at Isurava.  Greg our trek leader, and Glenn trek leader for team one, gave a talk on some of the history of the the battles here.   He also filled us in on how brigades, platoons etc worked which helped a lot.

Unbelievably Glenn had brought an iPod and afterward played John Williamson's True Blue while we had some reflection time.  We all lost it about then obviously, if we hadn't already done so.

Right after the service a butterfly landed on my hand and stayed with me for quite some time, until we left the memorial, weird.  I was worried about what vermin I would encounter on this trip, so far I was fairly happy with a butterfly I have to say.

After another shout by Timmy we were off again. 

Not far from Isurava Memorial was Cons rock.  This rock was used by soldier Con Vapp as a makeshift operating table. I couldn't begin to imagine the suffering that went on here.

Con's Rock

Soon after leaving Isurava we had our first casualty, Kat from Team 1 went head over in a creek, cutting her eye on a rock and leaving a massive bump.  She was OK, and in typical Kat fashion dusted herself off and kept going. She must have taken one of Appo's harden up pills earlier in the day.

The rest of the day was long and very hard for some.  Greg told us when we arrived at Templeton's 2 camp that this was the longest day they had ever had on the track.  We left at about 0600 and arrived at about 1800. You can't just stop anywhere along the track to sleep, there are not really that many places to sleep, so you just have to keep going.   There's a creek here, big, fast flowing, clear and absolutely freezing.  We tried to wash here, it was so cold I got my breath back sometime the next morning. And I will add here that you can't take your clothes off when you wash for cultural reasons. Hard to wash yourself while your dressed.

Creek crossing, our trek leader Greg was very close to falling in here

What Joey at for lunch every day
Dry two minute noodles and
tuna. Feral.

We did no workout today :(.  After dinner we had another team meeting. It was funny. It was also shocking for me and nobody else.  Joey gave us the damage from his little black book.  Apparently I have 13 points. I don't get it. I have at least 11 more points than anyone else. I haven't said anything negative, didn't double cheek (falling over on both butt cheeks), I didn't even ask the time. The only thing I definitely did was look when Blake said 'there's a Koala'.  I'm thinking about asking Glenn if I can borrow the sat phone to call the bank to get an increase on my credit card limit.  I'm not going to fare well in this competition converting my points to Kina at the end of the track if I keep whatever it is I'm doing up. I think Joey just wants to have a big night at the end. To this day he still hasn't explained to me what I did!

The clothes I washed yesterday are still soaking, so tonight I decide to hang them up on the side of the main shelter by the fire.  This is the first time I've had to do this and it's kind of embarrassing hanging your undies and bra up in front of almost complete strangers. At least they have stuff hanging there as well.

Rest time

I went to sleep that night pondering my only disappointment of today, picking up other peoples rubbish they have left behind on the track.  There's not a lot but this place is pristine, it makes me wild. People are so lazy I hate it. It wasn't from our crew but obviously someone's pack was so heavy they couldn't handle carrying a little bit of plastic. From hereon in I did this every day.  The other team members also started doing it and I carried it.

Cool fungi, you see heaps of great stuff when you stop
and have a poke around