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Introducing a MUST HAVE diary out on the Kokoda Trail.
Comes Complete with the following features:
- A5 Size in Glossy Paper
- Lightweight – carry it with you in your backpack
- 36 pages – 12 for your own notes
- Write it down whilst fresh with emotion
- Kokoda campaign
- Battle Maps of Isurava, Mission Ridge, Ioribaiwa, Templeton's Crossing and Eora Creek.
- Statistics
- History
- Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels
- Mail run and track records etc
Front and Back Cover of the A5 Size Diary:
front___back_cover_600.jpgSample of material written inside the diary:
The Kokoda Trail is an ancient ninety six-kilometre native track that crosses over Papua New Guinea's spinal Owen Stanley Range and is a concertinaed jumble of razor edged peaks, with unbelievably steep ascents totalling 5,500m and descents of a similar figure.
This rugged terrain is made up of abrupt mountain gorges, delightful gurgling creeks, fast flowing rivers, breathtaking views and the myriad greens that make up a tropical jungle.
Distance is seldom calculated. You think only of the time it takes to reach the top of the next mountain or the following creek crossing.
The country constantly changes: from rainforests with towering trees entwined with creepers and studded with orchids,jungles of ferns, eerie moss forests, open grassland, to dry lake beds and each day on the trail maintains an excitement of the unknown and unexpected.
Join this with 5-degree nights and 15-degree noons (this is in the swnmermonth of December) at an altitude of2190m and you have a truly magical setting.
That is if you are trekking in the dry, with adequate provisions, carriers to look after your pack, cook your meals, pitch your tent, and help you not get lost. And without a well trained, determined enemy to contend with. The very thought of fighting in this type of country is difficult to comprehend.
The Track has the capacity to bring out the emotion in you, whether from the realisation of the unimaginable hardships endured by the soldiers in 1942, or from a greater understanding of your inner self.
It leaves a mark on all who walk it.
Inside the Front Cover:
Inside_Front_Cover2.jpgAuthor of the Diary is Bob McDonald long time resident of Papua New Guinea.
Bob spent 41 years living at McDonald?s Corner at the Moresby end of the Kokoda Trail.
The corner is named after his father P.J. who in 1941 had acquired some virgin jungle called Ilolo where he started planting rubber trees. There was no ?corner? in 1942, it was just a road-head where the walking track to Kokoda commenced.
The 8 kilometre road to the plantation, which PJ built by hand, was of great strategic importance when the Kokoda campaign commenced. P.J. refused to be evacuated and was commissioned a Lieutenant in the field, at age 52 (he was ex Gallipoli) with ANGAU, and stayed for the duration of the war at McDonald?s Corner.
Bob?s childhood was alive with the ?real? toys of war. Tommy gun, Japanese woodpecker and type 99 light machine gun, 303?s and a 45 pistol, all which were ?sort of aimed? and fired regularly. Each Christmas holidays a whole box of 303 ammunition was put through the barrels.
Bob took over the property in 1967 and operated it until being acquired under the Acquisition Act in 1980. After settling amicably with the local Kioari people, he moved to the Sunshine Coast where he happily pursues all manner of odd opportunities.
He walked the Trail last December with his son and nephew, who kept asking probing questions. To answer these satisfactorily he has produced this Kokoda Trail-McDonald?s Corner album, which covers all aspects of the Kokoda Campaign and has room for 120 photos for those who have walked The Bloody Track.
The monument was built by the author in 1967 for the 39th Battalion's 25th Anniversary Pilgrimage, using P.J. McDonald's issue 303 rifle and tin hat.
Acknowledgements: The bulk of the compilation was made possible by the Australian War Memorial who generously gave permission to use text and images from their book Kokoda to Wau 1959 by Dudley McCarthy.
McDonalds_Corner.jpgItems of Interest inside the Diary:
- The Battle of the Coral Sea
- Infantry Losses
- Various Maps
- The Pacific – WW2
- Events on the Kokoda Trail 1942
- Level of command and unit structure
- The Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels
- Kokoda Trail Mail Service Route
- McDonalds Corner Information & lots lots more
Kokoda to Port Moresby Map:
Owen_Stanley_Map.jpgTrekking Guide Diary – Cost – A$ 25.00 including Postage and handling in Australia
all other countries, price on application by emailing: gail@pngbd.com
If you are interested in this diary, you can Order Online by Credit Card
Another sample of contents of inside the Diary:
Infantry.gifIt is easy to agree with gail on this item as having a Diary to remember your epic adventure will be extremely rewarding for yourself.
I'm lucky to be the proud owner of Two trek Diaries, having completed a Southbound Trek in 2005 with my brother and his Son, two wonderful Tassie firemen, a wonderful couple formely of Port Stephens, Canberra and now Ipswich and a great trio of RAAF personnel from Williamtown. One unfortunately was lent to a friend who has forgotten to return it and the other takes pride of place in my "Kokoda Library", along with perhaps two of the absolute best stories writeen about Kokoda, "Retreat from Kokoda by raymond paull and "Green Armour" by Osmar White and also a book Kokoda trial – A History by my old Moresby Mate Stuart Hawthorne, where he thanks my Dad for his contribution to the book. ironically Stuart's Dad Ron Hawthorne presented my Dad, Fred Turner with his Life Membership for the Ela Beach RSL Club in Moresby, now unfortunately defunct.
It was a great initiative by Gail to work with Bob McDonald in having this book written and presented like it is, just so full of information, fact & figures, as it is so hard to rwmember all of the events & incidents that occur during your week on the Track.
best wishes to all current and future KTL Trekkers
Warren "Waza" Turner – Trek 83 & 792
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