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This is directed mostly for Gail, but feel free to add to it…
Is Orohaven open to other trekking groups? Just wondering as I am (unfortunately) not trekking with KTL and would love to have the opportunity to experience this magnificent piece of paradise
fluppy
yes most definitely! In fact Jack of 'No Roads' visited me at Orohaven during my quick visit there and said he wanted to start putting his trekkers in there to overnight.
It is perfectly situated right next to the airport adjacent to the runway. I sat at Orohaven and watched our chartered aircraft land and then made my way down to where it was parked to welcome our trekkers and to catch the flight back to Port Moresby. It took me approximately five minutes to walk the distance and this is easily done while the plane is offloading passengers and cargo.
This is a whole separate business from our trekking company and I deliberately set it up like this. The name came from the fact that it is situated in the 'Oro' province. The name 'Haven' came from the fact that I hope after days in the bush living on dry rations that when you hit Orohaven, it truly is a 'haven'. Cold beer; shower; flushing toilet; hot food; relaxing atmosphere; volleyball area if you still have the energy to take on your porters for a game; plenty of area to play cricket if you are a fan of this sport; friendly ducks that wander around; pet rabbits that are looking for a pat; movie theatre (yep at Kokoda); running water; electricity etc.
I informed staff during my visit that Kokoda Trekking t/shirts were not to be worn except when there is a trek coming in or going out and at that point we will be just like any other company staying there.
The whole idea is to build this area to grow to such a point that we employ more people from the Kokoda area especially the women. Just this week I employed Brendan Buka the trek champion to be full time on the payroll to look after the gardens. When I left yesterday he was hard at work digging and planting!
On a flight the other day I sent over 200kg of plants to Kokoda. Hopefully these will flourish under his direction and along with other plants already established, in time it will be a tropical paradise! …
Awesome. Thanks Gail. I want to pat the duckies!!! (if they'll let me!). It is sounding so good that I almost want to cancel my extra night at the Gateway in favour of OroHaven!!
Editor's Note: The ducks are really big and fat and just so PROUD. They fly and walk around like they are making out they own the retreat! In fact when you wake up of a morning its the first thing you hear. The ducks fly around and then land on the roof of the huts. In the hotter part of the day they head for shade but as soon as the sun goes down they are out strutting themselves around all over again. However, I was disappointed as I did not once hear a QUACK QUACK
I am a farmers daughter but clearly did not have much to do with ducks. On the 19th August I phoned my mother for her birthday and was talking to my father. I informed him our ducks had started laying eggs and that I left one in the nest and brought the rest in here to Port Moresby.
He questioned why I did this as he said when ducks are ready to brood, they lay eggs and then sit on them to hatch little duckies for you to pat! I replied, oops I had better send them back and have them put back in the nest. He laughed and said they would reject them as they know they had been touched….he can tell all this about ducks!
So next week I have an incubator arriving on Wednesday so perhaps I can hatch them using this method….haha whats the saying, you learn something NEW everyday!!! I told him how many layer hens we had and it was him who suggested the incubator! He was amazed that we have 70+ hens but no rooster….now I am on the lookout for a ROOSTER to hopefully end up with fertilised eggs….haha yep, back on the farm and loving it!!!
According to the internet, they should start laying eggs at the end of next month!
Hi Fluppy
I spent 3 days at Orohaven after my trek enjoyed it so much that I am hoping to go back again during 2010 for a shorter 4 day trek this time as I will taking my 8 year old grandson with me.
I will be flying both in and out of Kokoda this time as I have every faith in the pilots taking us both in and bringing us back out.
Enjoy your trek please ask for Brendan and Wallace if you get to Orohaven if they are there please pass my best regards on to them, tell them that I am hoping to see them next year.
Brian
When I was in Kokoda staff suggested to me that I purchase some second hand clothes to sell at Orohaven as its really hard for people living in the area to buy anything without heading off to Popondetta. They can't even buy anything 'new' in Kokoda. This is not the first time I have heard a similar comment to this and judging by some of the clothes I saw people wearing, there is obviously a huge need for such a service to be introduced.
So today I went second hand bale shopping. I must say, that all the years I have spent in PNG, I have never been in some of the shops I now see myself shopping on a regular basis. Previously I have always purchased retail but now companies wholesaling their products are fast becoming a common place for me to visit.
Hence today found me in a wharehouse with bales of clothing with phrases being thrown at me such as:
What are you looking for; mixed family A; mixed family AB; workwear; children 7-12 and so on. I had no doubt it all gets split up like this. Here was I thinking I would just waltz in and purchase a couple of bales of clothing!
The end result is I now have approximately 250kg of clothes heading to Kokoda tomorrow. It took half the day to find the place and purchase items. The other half of the day to go from wholesale shop to wholesale shop buying all kinds of other things required in Kokoda. One such purchase today was a drink fridge at Brian Bell and an upright freezer as we are running out of space; tinned tomatoes; bags of potatoes etc.
By late this afternooon, I had pretty much purchased all that was expected of me along with more chicken feed to stop our chickens from starving in Kokoda and somehow ran out of time before making my way to two other shops on the wish list. One was to get some 30kg of cheese for pizza's and the other was to purchase wire coat hangars for this new business venture and racks to hang the clothes on.
The bales I purchased today are as follows:
- Baby Clothes
- Jeans
- Work Wear
- Children 1-12 years of age
- Mixed Family
- Shorts
Now I have to figure how this will fit into the image of a retreat? and how to display them all. Being an Australian we immediately think of the type of structure required to hang the items etc whereas through a PNG pair of eyes they would be thinking of rope!
I have often been asked what trekkers could give their personal porter at the end of a trek. How about purchasing some second hand clothes for them to take home for themselves or their family, its a win win situation for everyone.
Hope other Ex trekkers who have trekked with any company will follow my lead with a small gift/donation to allow those second hand clothes to be purchased and handed out to those in need in Kokoda.
Please consider there is no social security there those unable to obtain or unable to physically work have little or no means of getting clothes at all.
Just a small donation that is all and it will go a long way to help.
I will start it of with a small one of $20 that I will pay by credit card or bank transfer when Gail or Nathan tells me how they want me to do so.
Really hope others will add to this, nothing big just a small donation is all that is required as a lot of small ones soon add up.
I feel for these wonderful people who give so much whilst having so little.
Brian
PS: Gail/Nathan when you read this tell me how.
Hi Brian, gee mate, I had not even thought of what you have suggested, but it would mean trekkers indicating which family and/or guide/porter to give the clothes to as their donation.
If we were just to hand them out to anyone we thought may be in need, sooner or later it would breed jealousy as to why 'them' and not 'us'. To avoid this you would have to nominate say Brendan Buka, then we put put together a bundle to match your donation amount and hand to that particular person with a gift voucher from yourself and your wife. This is just an example of how it could work. In much the same way now that trekkers post up presents for their various porters who have made an impact on their lives.
Everything went well today. The flight got away to Kokoda with all the goodies on board and my son Shane met the flight and no doubt by now, the fridge is full of cold beers and soft drinks and hopefully the freezer is doing its job!
Around 6pm last night I found myself in the wrong part of town at 2mile looking for a guy by the name of Lusa who spent three months in Kokoda but wanted to come into Port Moresby for a break to see his family. During my visit to Kokoda last week Shane asked if I could get him back as he does all the jobs no-one else wants to do and seems is a workaholic.
Although I did not catch up with him as he lives further up the hill and I did not want to venture any further in this neck of the woods then I had to, the message reached him and this morning he was at the terminal waiting on the flight to Kokoda. He looked so happy to be heading back and was full of ideas as we talked before he caught the flight.
After seeing off the flight, as planned I went looking for wire coat hangars. Steel Industries had none in stock so they sent me to Atlas Steel. However, their office is also in a no go zone for someone like me on my own. However, with Russell in Kokoda and no boys in sight, off I drove to Baruni. As it turned out the office itself is in secure grounds, its just the isolated feeling of getting there should I have a flat tyre; car stop on me, whatever…
About this time I started receiving phone calls asking if I was on my way back as they could fit my purchases on the last Hevi Lift flight into Kokoda which was due to leave around 10:30. In PNG, staff are not renowned to move fast but today they responded to my desperate plea and before long I was making a dash for the airport. What was normally a 25 minute drive I turned into 15 minutes and made it to the airport with seconds to spare. One box and some steel rods were snatched from the prado and pushed straight out to the twin otter waiting on the tarmac.
On the return flight some of our porters came in to prepare for their trek commencing next Tuesday. They mentioned there were smiles all round when they saw the bales of second hand clothes come off the flight, a FIRST FOR KOKODA!!! In fact as I drove them to where they are accommodated, that was all they could talk about. One guy was afraid all the 'good' stuff would be bought before he got back with his wages for next weeks trek.
Later this afternoon our jack of all trades, master of none, who goes by the name of Dickson, had his wife come to the house to pick up his fortnight's pay. On the next flight to Kokoda she will return with their children and has agreed to run the store for me. With four kids to feed and school fees to pay, this will help them as well so they both earn a living. I ended up driving them home to another area of Port Moresby, commonly referred to as ATS, another no go zone for someone like me on my own.
From today onwards I am going to tell myself to stop taking these risks and hope that Russell arrives back in town real soon to go to these no go zones on my behalf!
This morning however at Atlas Steel, I met with the boss and he is going to come up with some ideas of permanent dwellings to be built at Orohaven so we can proceed with stage II. He was being a good salesman and started showing me how everything is numbered and how it all fits together and come as a kit etc. If he is to be believed, the whole house could be built in two weeks!!! got me thinking….any builders out there who would like a working holiday in KOKODA on us?
Hi Brian,
As always you display a heart of pure gold and your intentions are without question.
Our group of 21 in 2007 gave donations of clothing and money to our individual porters at the end of our trek. One of my sons subsequently sent a brand new pairs of boots to his porter. (The postage cost was nearly as much as the boots themselves.)
Via Soc Kienzle last year, noticing that many Porters used them, I donated a near new set of KT runners which I had not used for a number of years.
As Gail says, these actions are the best way to assist the locals. To send donations in the manner you suggest would undoutably cause Gail many conflict's of interest. Even with all the best of intentions, which I am sure would always be the case, Gail would be open, unfairly, to accusations of bias.
Following the Cyclone in November 2007 The Kokoda Track Foundation raised substantial funds in Australia. Donations to the Foundation are tax deductible and I have no doubt, and feel most comfortable, from their frequent reports via their Web site that my donation at that time has been put to excellent work to benefit the wonderfull people of the region as a whole.Kind regards,
Geoff Hardie
Hi Gail and Geoff
You are both right in what you say. Geoff I sent a package and in my case it cost me more to post than it did to buy the items. Gail I can imagine the jealousies that would happen down the track.
The reason I have been very reluctant to send anything else across is not the expense in buying it here the cost of the postage in getting it there. An expense that really does not help those in Kokoda at all. When Gail suggested trekkers may like to buy some clothes for the porters I immediately thought it was a good way to make sure all money got to those actually in Kokoda without much of it going to the postal monopolies in Australia.
My idea whilst possibly a good one would never work but yours Gail would be the preferable option.
Certainly something to think about.
Very late here off to bed
BrianHi Gail,
Your accounts of the organisation going into the establishment of Orohaven Retreat are most interesting. They of course illustrate the difficulties you face, whereas in Australia they would happen so much more easily and I feel so helpless.
In relation to the Kokoda Track Foundation and their Cyclone appeal late in 2007, I recall the International Freight forwarders, DHL, were very generous in providing free freight of emergency supplies to Oro province. Do you have contacts with the Foundation who maybe able to see if DHL are able to assist in some way on an ongoing basis ? DHL no doubt would want to see that any transport of goods were purely for charitable purposes and not for commercial uses.
Much to my wife's annoyance, I am an habitual horder and I have many items( e.g. old, but good quality carpentry tools from her late father) which I am sure could be of use at Kokoda. Maybe these tools could give a local carpenter the tools to further enhace a worthwhile career working at Orohaven Retreat. If DHL were able to offer a service at a realistic cost I would be pleased to assist. I am more than happy to package items and deliver shipping cases to their Melbourne Depot.
From my past knowledge with difficulties shipping medical supplies from Australia for Kokoda Hospital, all the above maybe too simplistic and that I am being a little neieve in expecting commercially transported goods even reaching their intended destination in PNG.Any thoughts or suggestions you may have are welcome.
Kind regards, Geoff Hardie
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