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Congratulations to everyone! It is clearly a huge achievement. Chris I hope this will quench your wanderlust rather than fuel it. I hope France won't seem too tame.
Really looking forward to seeing you on Wednesday.
Love from us all
Mummy, Daddy and Nicola16th May: Congratulations Trek 507 as I just heard by two way radio that you have walked off the track and are now relaxing at our Orohaven Kokoda Retreat.
We trust you enjoyed your sing sing welcome and look forward to meeting up with you all tomorrow.
For any drinkers I guess they may enjoy a local SP beer or two in celebration and no doubt will tuck into some home cooked pizza's prepared by our filipino chef based at our camp.
If they are in the mood, my son has set up a projector to show movies. There is also a swim in a creek located closed to the retreat or some might like to take a walk around with their porters and guides and meet the families of those they have walked with.
We have a saying, you start out as strangers but you come back in as friends as we encourage integration with our local staff who we trust to get them safely across the track.
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Pizza__s.jpgDominic, Chris and all those I don't know on the 507 tour, thank you for sharing the experience with us. To say 'well done' seems inadequate but true.
Jo
PS much appreciation to Boss Meri for the blogHi Leanne & Dawn, we have just learned that you have finished so congratulations to everyone on your walk for achieving this fabulous result. Especially big hugs to you two girls, I know you would both be pretty happy with your awesome performance. We certainly are. Looking foward to seeing you on monday night. Love Peter & Kate XXX
To Dawnie and Leanne congratulations on your massive acheivement, I am so happy for you both, Dawnie what crazy thing have you got planned next.
Thank you to all the Trekkers on 507, and especially to the porters for caring for my gal Dawnie.
Relax and enjoy the moment, See you on Monday love Jed.
I informed everyone before they left that Fred our cook is also a qualified masseur so who knows they may enjoy a massage later today if he can pull himself away from the kitchen!
I asked some trekkers recently if we were ever likely to see them again to which they replied:
forget about the track, I'm coming back for the massage!
Trekking team 507 – what a great achievement – all with so many stories to tell, however they all end in the same way – you have achieved something fantastic – something that some of us will never be able to do.
Luke – looking forward to seeing you tomorrow sometime – I was really worried about whether your knees would hold out but they obviously did – see you soon.
Love Lorraine
I am so happy you made it Dominic and Chris! What an incredible experience it must have been! Everything else will seem dull compared with it. Hope you managed to take lots of pictures.
Dominic, so looking forward to your call! In the meantime enjoy as much as you can! Lots of love and see you in June! Veronika and familyHello to all on Trek 507, special warm greetings to our trekking chicks from the Gong, Leanne and Dawnie. We have tapped in every day to the site to track where you were all up to, eagerly awaiting the latest news. We are all so proud of you and your achievement. Can't wait to hear all the stories this week. Enjoy a hot shower and clean clothes today. See you soon. Luv Pamie
Congratulations to everyone on trek 507 for making it!! What an amazing achievement.
Leanne and Dawnie: Am so proud of you both for doing this. You've both achieved something that not many people ever will in their lifetimes and have good reason to be chuffed with yourselves.
Can't wait for a lunch catch up where we can hear all about it. And photos, goodness I can't wait to see the photos.
Again, just really proud of you both, what amazing gals you are
Sim
xxx17th May:Trekkers arrived back in Port Moresby around 10:30 and are now resting back at the Gateway Hotel with the exception of Luke who resides here.
Everyone was happy and seemed to really enjoy their trek. When I asked out of 10 what would they give it…one guy remarked 11 !!! which I think says it all.
For the families of the two young boys, they both looked really pleased with themselves and so they should be as I heard it was really tough going for them especially Dominic. I think on day 1 they would have been asking themselves just what they had in mind in booking in the first place to walk the track. However, once the dust settles, I think these two young lads and everyone else will look back on this with such pride as they have walked on the hardest treks in the world and can hold their head high as they completed the walk.
On reflection they all agreed it was the best way to walk the track and seemed glad it was turned around in the opposite direction to what was intended. Besides as Luke mentioned he had heard it was harder this way so more of a challenge as well.
When I asked the trek champion Brendan Buka (current record holder in 16 hours 24 minutes) which direction was the harder, he replied that he thought Owers's To Kokoda was easier for him. When I asked the reason, he replied that for him he gets the majority of hills out of the way when he is still feeling fit at the beginning rather then at the end.
The girls mentioned for them it was better to finish in Kokoda with the boys they walked with heading home and to have a chance to enjoy their time at Orohaven Kokoda Retreat and to with time to clean gear and other items.
Well done trek 507, congratulations to each and everyone of you. Also to all the families and friends back home for posting on our website. To Brigitte, well done the guys did not expect anyone from their group to post anything so when I mentioned this, there were smiles all round.
Photographs:
Pic 1: Taken after they returned from Kokoda
Pic 2: Group Photograph taken at Isurava Monument
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IMG_6403___Group_Pic_Isurava.jpgOn behalf of Management and staff, thank you all for choosing to walk with Kokoda Trekking.
Kokoda3_COL___160_size.jpgBoss Meri thank you so much for keeping us in touch every step of the way, we almost feel we did the trail ourselves, without all the hard work!
The whole group glows with happiness and presumably a huge sense of achievement well done to you all.
Chris we are now counting the hours till we see you again.
Love from us allSome pics for you taken on the track & in Kokoda.
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IMG_6478.jpgOur KTL boys who walked with trek 507 – and yes they walked and sang along the way:
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