The Kokoda endeavour entails (depending upon one’s level of fitness) about eight weeks of training, a charter flight to PNG, a day in Port Moresby (probably the most dangerous part of the trip), 8 days on the track (without alcohol) and a day or so afterwards counting your blessings you are still in one piece.
Guy Waterman and I joined a group of about 25 mainly ex Queensland University rugby players on the 2005 Anzac Day trek. We followed in the footsteps of previous Queensland Bar trekkers Jennifer Rosengren and Dominic Murphy. Brian Cronin followed in 2006. They were afflicted by bad weather. Our trek was slippery but the conditions were mainly dry.
Our middle aged group (average age 50) trekked for 8 days. Each carried a 15 kilogram back pack (containing personal gear, 1.5 days rations and 5 litres of water) with no spare clothing (one set for trekking by day and another for sleeping by night after a rinse in the nearest stream).
The following is a summary of the pleasure and pain that was our trip.
Day 1
Charter flight from Brisbane to Port Moresby. Excited. New trek boots worn on plane because my 2003 pair fell apart late in training. Sat in the plane on the tarmac in Moresby for 3 hours due to a dispute about “paperwork”. Dispute coincidentally falls hard on the heels of an incident in the previous week in Australia when a piqued PNG Prime Minister was required to remove his shoes so as to pass through an airport metal detector. Bus trip by night from airport to Crowne Plaza Hotel. Scary. Fires at side of road in suburbs. Throngs of milling locals. Walked 50 metres beyond guarded and razor-wired central city hotel high fences before, acting prudently, returning. Many beers on cusp of adventure.
Day 2
Trucked to Owers’ Corner for the start of the south-north trek. Due to bad road conditions, trucks drop us off 5 kilometres short of the “gates” to the trail. Meet up with porters (carrying tents, medical kits, pots, additional rations). They are proud men, small in statute, with immense strength and very pleasant in disposition. Our trek leader Al Forsyth is an ex SAS sergeant major. We were trained to, and did, obey his every word. That is our guarantee of safety. Wade chest deep 50 metres across Goldie River. Trek up and down mountain spines. Do not step sideways or you will slide 20 metres only to be stopped by a tree. Camp, with too many other trekkers, at abandoned Uberi Village. Sleep soundly in one man tent (carried and erected by porters) in sleeping bag and on sleeping mat (carried by trekker).
Day 3
First of seven days putting back on previous day’s wet and smelly trek vest, tights, shirt, socks and trek boots. Climb the “Golden Stairs” to Imita Ridge. This was the furtherest south Australian forces retreated between date of Japanese invasion at Buna on 21 July 1942 until following 17 September. Australian soldiers told to “fight or die here”. Australians then advanced from 27 September until Japanese were defeated on 4 January 1943. Very tired at this point but fortunately, unlike those in 1942, no-one was shooting at me. Camp on a high cutting at Ofi Creek. As usual by night, put our ration pack food in one pot and share it out. One-quarter of our number now sick with stomach pains, chest ailments and exhaustion. Buddy system helps. Bad snorers (I feel for their spouses).
Day 4
Drizzling conditions of previous days give way to sunshine (which continued). Barricades across the track erected by villagers who complain of little or no money paid to them by PNG Kokoda Trail authority. Fortunately trek company (Executive Excellence) has good relationship with village head men. Villagers very friendly. Often offered us fruit and vegetables from their steep gardens. Lunch at Vaurebi Guest House (an elevated open slab hut, with no furniture, and fitted with a loose thatched roof). Cross the Brown River. Climb the Maguli Range (1,357 metres). As usual very little flat country in between. Constantly climbing or descending – the latter more dangerous. Constantly falling over. Camp at Menari Village. Play touch football with Mal Meninga (who was also trekking) and villagers. Must remember each day to take anti-malarial medication (the cry each morning is “Doxy-up”).
Day 5
Climb Brigade Hill. Many Australian soldiers died here. Fortunate to have multiple trekker and amateur historian, Bill James, to inform us each day of the Trail’s history. Marvel at soldiers’ exploits and endurance. One or two villages each day. No roads anywhere on track. Occasional steep airstrip. Come across several trekkers who are slumped at edge of track and can go no further. Only way out is to be assisted by friendly villager or arranged porter. Possibly helicopter pick up in a few weeks. Leave them extra food. Camp at Efogi 2 Village. We hear NRL games being called in pidgin on crackling radio in a village hut. Japanese memorial at village. No graffiti. Local vegetables and fruit a blessing after ration packs. Must eat or cannot climb and will fall ill.
Day 6
Climb to Naduri. Hot. Anti-malarial medication sensitises skin. Last “fuzzy wuzzy angel” lives there. Ten kina for a photograph with him. Much militaria (eg, hand grenades, bayonets, helmets) recovered from track on rough display. Pass Kagi Village where airstrip resembles a long slippery slide. I turn away when a plane lands on strip, expecting a casualty. Constant hydration is essential (the cry all day is “water up”). Camp at “tin shed” clearing in forest. Members of trek group start opening up about their lives. Oldest member of our group (former senator David MacGibbon — aged 71) gets a second wind and puts we younger guys to shame.
Day 7
Walk through the Kokoda Gap. Former wartime air route. Orthopaedic surgeon John Fraser’s father used to fly through it supplying Buna and Gona in the north towards end of Kokoda campaign and used to look down to the mountains and shake his head. Shook his head again at John wanting to walk it, not fly it. Climbed Mt Bellamy. Cross fast flowing and deep Eora Creek several times on the various Templeton’s crossings. Makeshift bridges made of narrow trunks. Half of our group now quite ill. To keep them afoot John Fraser, paediatrician Ron James and vet Tim Foote mix medicines. Great swimming/bathing and camping conditions that night at Eora Creek. Surreal.
Day 8
Steep descent down balance of Eora Creek. Slight drizzle. Mountain village gardens magnificent. Most of village children and also their dogs have names of NRL players (eg, “Alfie Langer”). Mal Meninga considered deity by these people. Trekked into Isurava Memorial on eve of Anzac Day. A piper playing. The hairs on my neck are electric. Kingsbury VC killed here in 1942 protecting his mates in retreat. We stand silent where he was cut down by a Japanese sniper. We camp around the memorial. Maintained by Australian War Graves Commission. Four polished granite slabs facing one another marked, respectively, “Courage”, “Endurance”, “Mateship”, “Sacrifice”. Never have I felt this way before. Proud to be Australian.
Day 9
Up at 4.00 am. Dawn service. Our ex SAS warrant officer leader Al reads the prayer. I am so in awe of this man now I would jump off a cliff if he told me it was the right thing to do. Local choir of villagers sing PNG and Australian anthems in pidgin. Dawn provides the view of a lifetime down through the mountains to the cloud shrouded lowlands of Kokoda. I am in thrall of the beauty of this country. Steep descent down to beautiful village of Hoy where I lie fully clothed in a stream to cool down. Please let me sleep. Long flat trek then to Kokoda township. I see a shop and buy a can of coke. It is hot. There is overhead electricity infrastructure here (not in mountain villages) but it has not worked for 4 years. Visit the local catholic church which is beautifully maintained. Camp on Kokoda township oval. Local police (armed with automatic weapons), for a fee, procure us slabs of hot beer from nearby township. Went down surprisingly well after 8 days’ abstinence. Local villagers (one was a copper who earlier “slabbed” us), bedecked with birds of paradise feathers, put on a show to remember. Visit local court house which has unique sign.
Day 10
Flown by light plane (15 seater) from lawn strip outside Kokoda back to Port Moresby and the Crowne Plaza. Beers and tears. Dr Ron James receives our “Kingsbury” award for keeping our many sick troops on their feet: “I usually treat babies”, he says. So what’s different! Visit Bowana War Cemetery outside Moresby. Maintained by Australian War Graves Commission. 5,000 Australians buried here. Speechless. Told vehicle car-jacked outside gates on Anzac Day as Australian High Commissioner leaving following ceremony.
Day 11
Charter flight from Port Moresby to Brisbane. Many go to the Brekkie Creek for a steak. I just want to go home. Had intended to go into chambers the next day. I let it go four days.
Being in dry clean clothes feels strange. After a day or two, I long for my smelly shirt and tights, together with the afternoon rinse in a crystal clear stream. I “Doxy-up” for 14 days post-trek and, just as well, as one of my fellow trekkers subsequently fell ill with malaria.
Richard Douglas SC
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