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I'm interested to know from previous trekkers whether they took a hydration pack (Camelbak type) and, if so, how useful/essential it is to have one.
hope you get this reply, I took a 2 litre camel back for water and 2 x 600ml bottles my gatorade, used them all as I carried my own pack.
It's absolutely essential. You have to keep drinking water, all day long, and by far the easiest way to do this is with a bladder. Get something at least 2 litres. You do not want to run out up a long hot climb.
Most in my group also carried another bottle as well, which was used for sterilisation and mixing electrolytes into. Some had nalgene while I just used a 1.25l PET (i.e. softdrink) bottle. Fill this and the into the main bladder when it's sterilised, which is about 30mins or so if you're using chemical treatment.
Regarding sterilisation, we had a mixture of iodine tables, chlorine tablets and steripens (UV treatment). Nobody suffered from any bugs so all were successful. Take your porter/guide's advice about where to collect water from which is probably the main reason we avoided any nasties.
I had a main bladder which was called "3 litres" but really only held two and a bit, and two 1 litre bottles. One of these I used to top up the bladder through the day, and I could then get the boys to refill it and put a Micropur tab in ready for the next top up. The other I mixed gatorade in every morning so I had at least 3 litres of water and a litre of gatorade with me every day.
The best thing about the bladder is that you do not have to stop and take out a water bottle – you can swig as you walk and keep your fluids up. I agree with Jolly – absolutely essential.
I agree with all the posts here, camelback are a essential item on the Kokoda, in fact for most big hikes.
Hi
I have only just returned from my trek and found that my Camelbak was essential sure made it easy to have a drink at will and took to a couple of falls, crashing on top of it, without any problem.
I could only get a 2 litre version at the time this was fine although I also carried two 1 litre bottles, one each side as well these proved ideal as well as the Micropure tablets I used took around 1 hour to do thier job and I then used these bottles to top up the camelbak as required.
I drank between 4-5 litres per day in addition to the odd cuppa we had along the way.
Have a great trek
Brian
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