Attention Trek 91a; 91 B; 112a & 112b

[aussie]

Update 12th April, 2006. I just sent off an email to everyone but in case it does not get through, I have posted here as well.

[aussie]

Hi everyone, I hope you are all as excited as us as the 16th April is almost here and you will soon be out on the Kokoda Track/ or as some say Kokoda Trail. We have been packing for days and are happy to say all your food has been sent out to the half way point at Efogi last Saturday. For those of you commencing your trek in Kokoda, your food went by charter yesterday. For all trekkers leaving from Ower's Corner, your food is still here waiting for the 16th departure date. If you can imagine for one moment how much food we have had on our premises to cater for you all plus our numerous porters and guides x 9 days, well you can guess. Each trekker will be given one days ration pack each at the Gateway Hotel which you will have to put in your own backpack. Each morning you will be given an new ration pack.

With regards to food, for those of you who have selected to hire 'personal porters', we have budgeted and packed accordingly plus allowing enough to cover our 'food porters and guides'. If for some reason you find you are struggling and cannot make it and need to hire a personal porter, please be aware that there is no excess food packed for this purpose, as we asked you to nominate if you wanted to hire someone or not. Therefore if this happens, you will be required to share your food with him or purchase food in villages so he has sufficient to eat as its only fair on the other porters and guides in your trek that we have already catered for.

Also if you find yourself in this situation, please be aware that we cant always find a spare porter in a village this time of the year as most porters are already engaged. We can however, find one now in advance before your commencement or from the Kokoda end but its hard on the track itself due to the popular time of the year you are trekking. Please keep this in mind before heading to PNG and out on the track itself.

For those of you who are carrying your own packs, please ask yourselves if you have done enough training and if not, its best to book one ahead of time to ensure you have a successful trek.

Final check list: I require from each of you, the following:

1. Date of arrival in PNG (if not already sent to me)
2. Where you will be staying, which hotel? (if not already sent to me)
3. A scanned copy of your travel insurance emailed to me. If you do not have access to enable this to be done, please bring with you a photocopy for our file. If you have not taken out insurance please do so now by logging onto the following website: http://www.worldcare.com.au

Also check out the equipment list: http://www.kokodatrail.com.au/preparation.html

Someone asked me if they can substitute cotton shirts for the latest trendy camping gear available these days. Sure, no worries just so long as they are lightweight, dry easy and do not cling to you like the synthetic type of years gone by. Each day you perspire heaps so providing they are made for this purpose, we have no problems with you purchasing this type of product.

Also whilst down in Australia recently, a professor from Griffith University mentioned that all trekkers should bring with them some sustogen powder and mix up a small bottle each day as it has apparently has all the ingredients necessary to keep you going if you can't keep any food down. My son informs me you can purchase this from supermarkets in different flavours.

This also worked for my own trek. I had a camel pack in my day pack at the back which contained water. I also carried two small plastic coke size bottles, one on each side.. Bev a nursing sister who walked with me would make up these bottles for each of us every morning. One contained sustogen and the other contained an oral electrolyte. We used to alternate throughout the morning sometimes drinking the water…sustogen and an oral electrolyte. Sustogen seem to go off quickly so we found we drank this as we moved off each day. This is just a suggestion as we never suffered from any cramps/dehydration problems etc. Another popular item was STOP PAIN tablets for our aching knees and this helped a lot.

Visas: for those of you who plan on obtaining tourist visa's here in PNG, this is easy enough but if you want to speed up the process, please change your dollars into kina currency at the airport before you arrive. Otherwise you will wait in one line….then the bank line….then back to the end of the visa line all over again. The cost is K100.00.

If you want less hassles in PNG changing money I suggest you change enough to cover your whole trip as there is no eftpos machine at the Gateway Hotel and trekkers last year had to travel into Port Moresby some 6 km away to change their money. Some trekkers ask me how much to carry on the trail. It really depends on yourselves. You need to have some K5.00 notes on you to purchase bananas and other fruit that villagers lay out for you along the way. If you want to tip your porter I suggest you add on another K50 or plan to give him something from your pack if you think you will never use it again. Some of you might like to buy some beer when you reach Kokoda, if so, keep in mind that the price of beer is double the price of here in Port Moresby due to the location. I am told it works out to be around the K125.00 mark on the black market for 24 bottles or around the K100.00 mark if the liquor store is open. Some of you might like to buy a bilum (traditional bag) or other kinds of artefacts to take home, so allow another K50.00 for this. Sometimes villagers charge K10.00 if you want to go in their museums. Last year trekkers were charged by villagers to go up to Brigade Hill. The Kokoda Track Authority have asked for this practice to discontinue but it is the landowners land you all walk on so they probably think its their right. So as you can see it all depends on what your needs are as to how much you bring with you.

Backpacks: If you are hiring a personal porter, you will need a pack big enough that holds all your own things and that leaves approximately 5inches at the top for the porter to put in his own stuff.and enough space to fit one days ration pack.

Transport from the Airport: All hotels in PNG offer a free courtesy service to pick up trekkers from the airport to your hotel. All buses are clearly marked with their respective hotels written on them. As most of you are staying at the Gateway Hotel, the bus is coloured blue and will more than likely also have the parent name Coral Sea Hotels written on them as well.

Transport Saturday 15th April: as most of you will be arriving on Friday, 14th we would like to offer you a drive around Port Moresby commencing at 10am from the Gateway Hotel pickup point. You can plan to have lunch at midday at the Royal Yacht Club. At 2pm the vehicle will pick up trekkers from the Yacht Club and return you all to the Gateway Hotel. If anyone wants to stay on longer, you will have to make your own way back to your hotel as our truck has a run to do out to Sogeri in the afternoon to take our cargo for your trek out to the commencement point for those starting from the Ower's Corner end.

Briefing: We will all meet at the Gateway Hotel at 6pm on the night of the 15th in the Erima Sarata room. For those of you travelling to Kokoda, you will have your briefing on the night of the 16th in Kokoda at Rusty's place. Here you will be the invited guests of Russell Eroro's family who like to show you their Oro Province hospitality. You will hear the words ORO ORO ORO which means WELCOME in their language. For those of you walking towards Kokoda from Ower's Corner you too will be the invited guests of Russell's family on your last night before you fly back into Port Moresby ie the 23rd April. We would like to ask the trekkers arriving on the 23rd in Kokoda, if you purchase beer for yourselves and porters to celebrate, that you make sure it does not get out of hand. Rusty's block comprises of several families including Russell's elderly parents. Have fun but please try and budget so as to keep your porters sober and only purchase at the most 3 beers each for them.

Sabbath: If in villages from 6pm Friday night to 6pm Saturday night, we ask that you respect the people who live in the villages as they are 7th Day Adventists and as such we request that you are all well behaved and not noisy as this is their rest day. Last year I would have thought this went without saying, but one group were yelling and making lots of noise and we received a complaint hence I now have to emphasise this point.

Contact Phone Numbers: My Contact Phone Numbers: if phoning from Australia: 0011 675 325 4423 or 0011 675 323 6650; if phoning from here in PNG its just: 325 4423 or 323 6650 – Mobile Phone Number: 691 1153

See you all in the next couple of days. Any last minute emails, please write to: gail@pngbd.com as my ticket system is playing up at the present time and I apologise if you have written to me using this system and I have not got back to you.

kind regards

Gail Thomas
Kokoda Trekking
http://www.kokodatrekking.com.au

[Waza]

<img src="http://developer2/board/upload/style_emoticons//biggrin.gif&#8221; style=”vertical-align:middle” emoid=”:D” border=”0″ alt=”biggrin.gif” /> Hi Gail

Just reading your news items gets the adrelalin pumping again. It is nearly 12 months since our Trek with you, which started on 24th April last year and I have done so much research on Kokoda since then, to add to my local knowledge from before.

Good Luck to all your 2006 Trekkers Gail and I hope they enjoy it half as much as I did. Would love to come and do it again and probably walk from Owers to Kokoda this time, but time will tell. I am entering a competition tomorrow for an all expenses paid 10 day trek, so I may be up there sooner that I expected.

Also have been researching the Bulldog Track and I recently purchased a 1934 book by a Patrol Officer Jack Hides, called "Through Wildest Papua", which covers a number of treks from Moresby and Kerema and extending all through the North-West Papua area and ending up in Wau. I also am envious of Pam Christie's Trek, I would have liked to have been on that.

Coleen and I met up with Rosemary and Mark last Sunday in Canberra, where they are now stationed, wonderful to see them again and their girls again.

I found an old video of mine called Australia Story about Kokoda and done about 1981. Sorry I never caught up with you on the Gold Coast this year as I never made it to the Tweed with work as we have been doing a fair bit in the Newcastle area lately, as I wanted to get one of those DVDs from you. Your son is still in Brisbane isn't he?

Finally, could you please try and find Maurice's family name for me please as I need to forward some items to him and also write. Also is Justice still with you?

Regards to all

Warren

[Author]

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