Last month I fulfilled a long-held dream to walk The Kokoda Track over the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea. The Kokoda Track was etched into the war history of Australia when Australian and Papua New Guinean forces fought and stopped the invading Japanese during the period from July to November 1942 over some of the most rugged terrain imaginable.
I undertook the walk with a local guiding company, South Seas Horizons, and was accompanied by two other trekkers and a team of 10 porters, leaders and a historian. We flew from Port Moresby to Kokoda, where we met our porters and walked the track from Kokoda to Owers Corner over 8 days. The walk was hard but very rewarding. Whilst the track is nominally about 96km, we walked a total of 160km with detours to historic sites. These included battlefields and villages at Isurava, Templeton’s Crossing, Eora Creek, Brigade Hill, Menari, Ioribaiwa Ridge and Imita Ridge. We also stopped at a number of memorials along the way with plaques about the war history.
Jeff and the other two trekkers at the start of Track at Kokoda
We woke in the dark each morning and, after packing and a quick breakfast, started our day’s trek at first light. Days varied from 6 to 10 hours walking over ridges and crossing creeks and rivers on slippery log bridges or fording them where there weren’t any bridges. In some rivers, we swam to help cool off from the tropical heat, though at the highest sections, over 2,100m altitude, it did get quite cool, especially at night.
We stayed in huts for all but the last night. Generally, these had bamboo frames, timber floors, woven mat walls and thatched roofs. They proved to be waterproof as there were storms some nights. We encountered rain on the first two and last two days with the others being dry and often sunny. We were pleasantly surprised at the lack of mosquitoes and insects, having heard many horror stories before leaving. This was in part as many of the villages have been moved away from the rivers now that they have piped water supplies.
Two memorable evenings involved music. At the third camp, I was asked to play my harmonica at the guides’ fire whilst some of the guides and the historian sang along. We started with Amazing Grace but moved on to Christmas Carols which were known by all. At Menari, I met my porter’s auntie, who played the harmonica, so we stood on the village rugby field and played some tunes to an enraptured audience of local adults and children.
One of the incentives to undertake the Track was that my parents lived in PNG in the early 1950’s. At one stage, they lived at Sagari, near Owers Corner, and Dad walked part of the track whilst many war relics were still visible. He then managed plantations where many of the ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’, then in their twenties and thirties, came to work for periods. I grew up with the stories and Dad’s photos of their life there and always wanted to visit it for myself.
Trekkers and the guides at the finish at Owers Corner
Originally I booked for July 2020, but Covid forced many delays. Hence I started training in 2019 and had over 3 years to prepare with the aid of my son, Patrick, who is an exercise physiologist.
This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience which I am so grateful I was able to complete with no health issues or injuries. Standing at the sites of intense battles and having climbed over the mountain tracks gives you even greater admiration for those poor soldiers who endured the terrible wartime conditions and the many who made the supreme sacrifice. Viewing the 3,000+ graves at the Bomana War Cemetery in Port Moresby is very sobering, especially as about a quarter of them are unknown.
Jeff Brown is a retired surveyor whose last position was Surveyor-General of the ACT. Prior to that, Jeff owned and managed a surveying firm in Yass, undertaking many private and government projects in the region and further afield.
