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!