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Hi,
I'm wondering whether I need a personal porter for a trek in July. I'm 18 and fairly recently dislocated my knee but recovered immediately. I am an amateur trekker but have hiked for up ten days. It is recommended that a personal porter is hired by everyone who is not super-fit, and while I am fit I dont want to be too confident and regret not hiring a personal porter mid-way.On that note, what does the personal porter carry? because i have no intention of walking the trail with only a day pack!
ThanksHi Tim,
My son was 18 when he walked, and carried his own pack. When he does the track again, he will have a personal porter. There are several reasons.
1: most importantly,this is for many the only income they have. Most of the natives would have lost everything in the floods so any income for them would seriously help.
2: your porter is not only 'a porter' they take their responcibility very seriously, you become 'theirs' so to speak. They know where the hard parts of the track are and make sure they are there to help you.
3: you will find the track so much more enjoyable, 15-20kgs may not seem like much, but believe me after 20 minutes of climbing straight up and knowing you have 7 hours to go, all of sudden it becomes 120kgs.
4: your porter will make sure that you have somewhere to set your tent up, that you have water for tea/coffee, in effect by the time you reach the end you will have made a friend that if needed would put his life on the line for you.
15-20 kgs is the rule for a porter, bearing in mind he normally has some gear of his own to carry as well. A day pack would weigh around 8-10kgs, depending on what you carry in it. I got the impression from your post:QUOTEbecause i have no intention of walking the trail with only a day pack!that you have the impression that carrying a day pack is 'whimpy' I have to laugh, Anthony had the same attitude, 10 ft tall and bulletproof! ask him today and he will tell you … GET A PORTER!"
Couldn't agree more!!! Get a porter, carrying a day pack up and down those mountains is not easy. You will enjoy the trek much more and surely the end result is that you've done it and enjoyed it. No one cares who did or didn't carry their own pack. Having a porter just takes the load off, not just with your pack, but also having someone to get you clean & drinkable water, to help with your tent or your gear when you're exhausted at the end of the day and just having the companionship. The porters don't intrude on your experience, they just stay within sight and let you do your own thing. If you need help at a difficult spot they're there, if not then they just continue on themselves.
Good luck with the trek, I'm sure you'll love it.
DonnaCouldn't agree more with all your comments. Trekker after trekker who come back for their second or third trek hire a personal porter even if they are capable of carrying themselves.
Why, coz they can enjoy their trek so much more; they have already made friends with porters and simply enjoy their company; they know they are giving back to the community.
For just about every porter employed a food porter is needed as well. Just think about it; if a personal porter carries your pack, who carries his and your food? yes, the food porter and of course his own food from Kokoda to Efogi the half way point. So in realty two porters benefit for every personal porter hired.
If you ever had time to visit with them and their families you could see for yourself how little they have. In the beginning when they first start to trek they purchase small radios/shoes/2nd hand clothes. A few treks later and now they are purchasing small generators to provide light and possibly enough power to run a small TV or stereo.
In 2007 I lost count of the number of generators I saw heading back to Kokoda. The boys have now got past the toys for boys and thinking about some bigger items to make their lives better.
I did the track last october and carried my own. I plan to do it again in a years time in the opposite direction. I will definitely opt for a porter the next time around.
Thanks to those who have replied to this topic. During the past few days I have had the pleasure of travelling around in a 4 wheel drive landcruiser in and out of villages where some of our boys live in order to purchase and pick up sago leaves for our newly constructed guesthouses and I am in shock as to how these poor people have to live day in day out.
I have a soft heart but I could not help thinking how many more porters I would like to hire and there are boys walking all over the place and I did not recognise hardly any of them and we hire some 500 + porters during any one trekking season.
The Oro Province is much like any other area of PNG, sadly neglected. It was with pride that I felt I helped these people in even a small way to better their lives by people like yourself hiring them as porters.
One guy by the name of Grayford apologised over and over again as we drove the 10 km to his village which seemed to take forever to get there due to the road condition. A road that once saw PMV's travel now sees only 4 wheel drive vehicles!
Even around the township of Kokoda you have to own a 4 wheel drive vehicle just to drive up into the Kokoda Station area. People have to wade through water waist deep just to walk around Kokoda due to the flood last November. To drive from Popondetta to Kokoda return we had to cross over 8 river crossings one of which we lost our lights before climbing up the bank on the other side but that is how these people now have to live.
So please, if you have the money hire a porter to give these people a job. In return they will I am quite sure give you their best to make sure you have a great trek both as your friend and as your porter.
Photographs:
Pic 1: How one family has to live with water running through the grounds under their house as they are not landowners and have to where to move to.
water_under_house__Small_.jpgThe little girl on the left in this photograph was walking along the road to visit her Aunty who lived just down the road or so I was told. Turned out just down the road was a 20 minute drive in our hired vehicle and these kids were just going to walk for hours to get from a to b.
Why did I post this photograph one may ask. The reason is that this young girl lost both her mother and father in a PMV accident and her and four other siblings are being cared for by relatives and some trekkers from Australia.
Her father's name was Timias and he walked as a porter with a guy by the name of Allan. It was only a few weeks after Allan returned to Australia that Timias lost his life. When Allan heard the news that his porter of 9 days died, he sent me an email saying he felt like he just lost his best friend.
Allan and his twin brother Peter came back up for the funeral and the trekkers in their trek now pay the school fees for these kids to attend school as Timias told them he was walking for school fees so his kids could have a better life than himself.
Allan who is a plumber by trade just made another visit early this year to put water in a couple of villages and by chance I drove into one of these villages and a young girl was obtaining water from the drum Allan put in their village.
timias_daughter__Small_.jpg
water_in_village__Small_.jpgG'day
i trekked in july 2007 and had a share porter. He carried about half of my gear! it was fantastic and a win win situation,because it was a good wage for him, i got to meet him and become his friend
and i was still able to carry a pack over the track!!
cheers mikmac
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