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Some of you may have watched the Foreign Correspondent report shown on ABC – Tuesday 4th April. If so, the other trekking company shown in the report was ourselves Kokoda Trekking. Our KTL boys were in the PNG coloured t/shirts who also appeared singing the KTL song.
Whilst the program I felt was fair and positive, I did not like the fact that we were made to look like 'we carry in' and 'leave behind' rubbish, such as coke cans seen stacked up in the corner of a village on the track.
Villagers themselves sell drinks to you our trekkers we do not carry them in. If we tried to remove the cans you purchased and drank, we would more than likely be asked to pay compensation to the owner of the cans. Why, because here in PNG local people collect cans to be recycled.
As a result of their culture, if our KTL boys 'removed cans' from a village it could be perceived that they were bringing them back into Port Moresby to sell for themselves. Consequently instructions could not be given for this to happen so its best the villagers take care of this as they are the ones who purchase and sell to make a little extra pocket money. A common sight here in PNG is for cans to be placed on the road so that vehicles run over them to flatten them. The only way to avoid the situation would be for you the trekker to walk away with the can and throw it in your backpack.
Photograph: Our guide Andrew and other porters playing their uke'ule's at Rusty's Kokoda Block. As there is no TV in Kokoda, these boys make their own fun. When I asked Russell one day to pick some boys who could play and sing, he replied as if it was a stupid question. He said, Gail, all our boys can play and sing, because we often sit around and entertain ourselves with our music.
Andrew___others_singing_on_the_block.jpgBoth Russell and I ask our porters and guides to make sure they clean up after themselves before leaving campsites. However, as we are not out there to ensure this happens, it would be appreciated if you our trekkers took note of this and mentioned it to the guide or assistant guide if you ever witnessed such a practice not taking place. All guides are instructed to clean up their campsite before heading out the next morning. We would be very disappointed if this was not in fact happening.
During 2005 on two occasions, we paid for our porters to walk in from Kokoda to Ower's Corner to do nothing else but clean up the track. This meant they picked up rubbish left behind by OTHER trekking companies and also by the villagers themselves. The Kokoda Track Authority is aware of this as they were informed at the time of our intentions to clean up any rubbish left on the track.
Sadly having lived here in PNG for many years, there is no priority in cleaning up the streets of Port Moresby or other major towns and cities. They do not have campaigns on TV like 'keep Australia Clean' hence PNG people need a nudge sometimes to be conscience of this. Another problem in PNG is buai. This is a nut that almost everyone living in PNG chews. When it is mixed with lime and mustard it turns red. When you visit you will see our streets are paved in red as it has to be spat out at some time or other. If you travel to Popondetta you will see it even more so as they just love their buai in the Oro Province.
If our KTL boys know you the trekkers care about the environment and keeping the track clean and tidy, they too will want to impress you by doing their bit to make sure this happens. As a result if you do see any of our porters or guides leaving rubbish behind, please report them to us so that Russell can talk with them to make sure it does not happen again. Better still talk with the guide on the spot so he can deal with the situation and train his staff how we at KTL want our treks to be run.
Thank you in advance as we too want to keep the track clean of rubbish. It also costs a lot in wages and return airfares back to Kokoda for them to walk in to clean up the track. If all trekking companies and villagers pulled their weight, this would not be a problem.
Gail & Russell
on behalf of Kokoda TrekkingPhotograph: Gail Thomas and Russell Eroro taken at Naoro guesthouse on the Kokoda Trail
Nauro_Guest_House.jpgWe also noted in the program, the food their trekkers carry and how it is distributed and packed by their own trekkers. With regards to you our trekkers, you are given 24 hour ration packs which are packed well ahead of time and ready to hand out to you each morning. At our briefing you are handed your first days rations. If you are carrying yourself, this will have to go in your own pack. Each day thereafter, you will receive a new pack. We purchase three different packs, A, B & C and try to rotate them around as much as possible depending on stock levels. As a result you know each day how much you have to eat and can choose to barter with it…eat the total contents or swap with our KTL boys…or even give some to villagers. Or the very few will eat the whole contents on a daily basis. They are hence designed to satisfy everyone irrespective of how much food you consume on a day to day basis. We also purchase local food from the villages to have with the evening meal. Rice is also cooked each night to eat with your back country main meal. Local fruit is also offered to all trekkers by village people living along the track. Compared to what I ate when in Australia recently, the fruit is beautiful and very tasty so make sure you bring some small K5 kina notes with you for such purchases.
They are designed to make sure there is a variety of food that will ensure you have enough to sustain your taste buds and give you the strength to complete your trek. In fact over 500 kgs of cargo will leave here today destined for Kokoda & Efogi the half way point. We always try and do this well in advance of our treks in case bad weather sets in or the biggest worry of all, with the busy season fast approaching, cargo is sometimes left behind to make sure trekkers reach Kokoda. We do not want you our trekkers going without food so we plan well ahead.
Food packs are supplied to us by Food 4 Treks and then shipped to PNG. You can be assured that all 'used by dates' are ok and only food of the highest quality is designed and packed for us. Recently we had the packs checked by a professor at a University in Australia. We were informed they contained a proper mix of products to ensure you have enough energy to complete your trek. They added however, that we should encourage all trekkers to bring with them some sustogen to be made up each morning. It appears that sustogen has all the ingredients that is required to keep our bodies going and is a complete meal in itself according to the experts. On my own trek I had one bottle made up with sustogen on my left hand side pocket of my day pack. Another bottle on my right side containing oral electrolyte and a water camel pack inside my pack on my back with water. I alternated between all three and did not suffer any problems whatsoever.
Back country products are all dehydrated packets of food total weight 90grams.
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