KOKODA, THE MOUNT EVEREST OF TREKKING

                     KOKODA, THE MOUNT EVEREST OF TREKKING-click on pictures to enlarge

It was the third day and a quiet desperation was taking over both of us, we had finished 15,000 feet of elevation change, attempting the first 3 major peaks and our bodies were screaming. My kiwi buddy Jay, and I were tackling the historical Kokoda trek of Papau New Guinea (PNG), the mountainous tropical island nation off the eastern coast of Australia. Jay had said to me early on this trek is not to be taken lightly, little did we know our physical limits would be tested.

JAY FEELING THE PAIN

HELP

Two days before, Gail our driver and owner of the Kokoda Trekking, had just picked us up from the airport and was shuffling us to the hotel and she turned to us to say, that the lady trekker that she had just dropped off commented, "I thought Kokoda was tougher than Mt. Kilimanjaro" we nodded. Then as we were having a beer at the Gateway hotel, the guide at the next table giving his intro to a group of trekkers said, "and I just heard from another trekker that he thought this was more challenging than the Mt. Everest Base Camp", at this point I turned to Jay and said, "What the heck have you gotten me into?"

AUSTRALIAN GRAVE SITE

The Kokoda trek is rich in history stretching back to the early days when the local natives used this as a postal route between villages. Nowadays, it is celebrated in Australia as the one of the great defensive holds of WWII, by a rag tag group of Australian milita reserves out numbered 5:1 by the invading Japanese army. Many lives were lost including 15,000 Japanese, 3,000 Australians and 900 Americans. As we walked along the trek we encountered interesting battle sites and memorials to the fallen comrades, and the amazing thought that most of these confrontations were fought along a singular, narrow, treacherous path thru the rainforest of the PNG highlands.

MEMORIAL BRIGADE MTN.

CANNON FIRE-A 10 KM SHOT OVER RIDGES

PAULO OUR LEAD GUIDE

THE PORTERS: 90% of the trekkers hire porters to carry their backpack and this will save your back and body. My porter, who like to be called after the famous actor, was Tom "Hanks". A gregarious soul who loved talking politics, and couldn't have weighed more than 130 pounds, carried my 32 pound backpack barefooted the entire way. His favorite thing to say is he wanted to come to America and meet the real Tom Hanks. Paulo the head guide is a college graduate and has already walked the trek 80 times. The porters loved to chew beetle nuts, mixed with mustard and lime, this turns all their teeth RED. The beetle nut makes for a nice buz and is their traditional way of relaxing. They sure seem to smile more after the chew, plus they would throw in a rolled tobacco smoke and they were ready to jump on the trail again.

TOM "HANKS' MY PORTER

OUR 6 PORTERS--WE NEEDED IT!

THE TREK: Up, down, up down, up down, is there any flat ground on this trek? I kept wondering if we were ever going to have a reprieve. There was a 30,000 foot elevation gain and drop over the week= (2,000 feet up and then 3,000 feet down=would be a 5,000 foot elevation change).

WATCH YOUR STEP

ONE SLIP AND YOUR DOWN
A 100 km (60 miles) trek, and at least 30 stream crossings, many of the crossings were on foot, and tree bridges, but some trees would have and unsuspecting bend to them and put all your agility to the test. 

5 MIN. NAP- I CAN DO THIS

RIVER CROSSINGS--FUN STUFF

The trek demands your full attention and this is one of those times I had to reach way deep inside into my core, my inner being and push, just put my head down and watch one foot plop in front of the other, hoping I didn't step on a slippery root and slide off into the forest.

JAY( BIG BABY 2)  PSYCHING UP

ROOTS, ROCK AND MUD AS TOMMY WOULD SAY

Upper body strength is important too. On many of the climbs we had a 60 to 70 degree incline and I was grabbing the poles half way down and hoisting my body up. I can honestly say my limits were pushed beyond the comfort zone. Add a torrential rainstorm, some not so pretty outhouses, canned food and rice every night and you're in for some fun.

CUTE LITLE VILLAGE KIDS

LOCAL VILLAGE

THE CAMPSITES AND VILLAGES: After our daily challenging 8-10 hour hike we would end up stopping at a bamboo style campsite for the night. The guides were off starting our dinner fire inside a lean-to, preparing our carbo packed rice and canned meat stew for the night. As for us we would dash off to a sparkling clear river near the camp and wash up for dinner. Sometimes the villagers were doing their wash or bathing, that added to the ambience. Since there was only 2 of us we had our choice of guesthouses to sleep in, and sometimes these were a rickety elevated structures made from the local plants and you hoped you didn't fall through the floor in the middle of the night. One of the cool parts of the trek was passing thru the villages and sometimes meeting the local people and buying their fruit and vegetables. Some villages have been there for 100s of years and the thatched looking structures adorned the landscape.

EOLA FALLS ALONG THE TRAIL

FRESH FRUIT AT THE MARKETPLACE

WALKING THRU A VILLAGE

PANDANUS TREE IN THE MOSS FOREST

SHEAR BEAUTY: The highlands of PNG has an incredible biodiversity of landscape. The trek is intertwined with a canopy laden rainforest, and twists, climbs, drops, crosses or follows a river at every turn. The calls of the Paradise bird in the background only add to the experience. One bird in particular is the Brown Sicklebill bird, a bird of Paradise only found in one region of the trail between two peaks of the moss forest. The Sicklebill makes a show stopping sound like a submachine gun that resonates thru the forest.

BROWN SICKLEBACK PARADISE BIRD

LAST LEG LOOKING AT THE VILLAGE OF KOKODA

WE MADE IT!!! Never was I so glad as when we saw the village of kokoda and better yet the thought of ice cold beer and pizza.  Exhausted, beaten down and completely covered with dirt, we were pushed to our limit. This was the kind of experience that helps you realize how special life is on this planet, you become submersed in the total experience and lost in your thoughts of life, while discovering the basic necessities of survival. You feel at peace with who you are and if you're lucky you get to share with a special friend like Jay.

CELEBRATING WITH THE BOYS

FIESTA AT THE VILLAGE

CHEIF LAWERANCE

One of my favorite porters was Lawrence, he was a chief of a village near Kokoda. Since we finished our trek a day early, he invited us to his village to be a part of a colorful festive fiesta that brought villages together from near and far. We were the guest of honor, and cheered by several thousand villagers when introduced, Ola,Ola,Ola, (welcome)--You couldn't have written a better ending to the Kokoda Trek--The Mount Everest of Trekking!

JAY MAKING A DONATION TO THE VILLAGE

TIPS and TRIP DETAILS:
Make sure you hire a porter= @$600 he will carry your big backpack.
Trip cost: @ $2,800
Bring a mat with lots of padding and a mosquito net to hang up in guesthouse.
We did it 6 days instead of the normal 7--you hike an extra one and half hours on day 6 --you get a nicer bed that way ---and the beer comes quicker.
Do the trek from Owers pt. to Kokoda village, this way you get all the big mountain ridges out of the way in the first couple of days.
www.kododatrekking.com: is the company we went thru--excellent local guides and porters, and run by an Australian family.
The kokoda trekking company will have the guide take pictures of you along the way and give you a disc at the end, and the pictures were excellent and provided great memories.