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Yesterday I received a phone call from Amy Campbell and whilst talking to her on the phone I already had a vision of a young woman with a vibrant personality. When we met at the Gateway Hotel last night she immediately came across as how I pictured her to be. I also met up with her friend Liam Dobson and explained to them during a briefing what could be expected during their hike on the Kokoda Track. Turns out Liam owns and runs his own gym in Melbourne so will know after completing this trek what is needed in preparation to walk Kokoda.
As per the 'private' group that headed off today also from Owers' Corner, it was agreed to skip the visit to Bomana War Cemetery and to head off early. When I arrived at the hotel, both trekkers were ready and waiting in the foyer. As its safer to travel out as a group, I decided to wait until the others were ready and to all leave together. Instead of a 6:30am start we ended up getting away a little after 7am.
At Owers' Corner they met up with their porters and guide Ernst Jinga.
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Guide_Ernst_Jinga.jpgTrekkers shortly after meeting their personal porters:
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Meeting_Porter_2.jpgShortly before heading off I took the following photographs:
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Archway_2.jpgAccording to their Guide Ernst he was thinking they would head to Ioribaiwa to spend the night as they commenced their walk around 8:30am so plenty of time providing trekkers were doing ok.
They both appeared really excited as I said goodbye to them.
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Heading_Off_3.jpgHi Liam & Amy,
Great to see your faces. You both look great and ready to go. All your hard work is about to pay off.
Good luck.What a shame it was that group decided to skip visit to Bomana War Cemetery.
In my opinion, a visit to the cemetery before or after your trek is important in capturing the spirit of Kokoda which is what trekking Kokoda is all about.Cheers, Geoff Hardie
QUOTE(Geoff Hardie @ 27 Jul 2009, 12:16 PM) [snapback]9853[/snapback]What a shame it was that group decided to skip visit to Bomana War Cemetery.
In my opinion, a visit to the cemetery before or after your trek is important in capturing the spirit of Kokoda which is what trekking Kokoda is all about.Cheers, Geoff Hardie
Hi Geoff,
Just to clarify visiting Bomana War Cemetery.
Kokoda Trekking at times choose to skip the Bomana War Cemetery, prior to the departing from Ower's Corner due to the fact that the Cemetery does not open until 8:00am each day, which means an 11:00 start to the trek by the time they spend an hour there followed by the drive up to Owers' Corner.
On arrival back from Kokoda after completing the Kokoda Trail, the trekkers are taken to the Cemetery to pay their respects which as you said is what Trekking the Kokoda Trail is all about.
Cheers
Shane
Hi Shane,
Excellent info. I always thought KTL would have been ever mindfull of this issue and make arrangements accordingly. Well done.
Cheers, Geoff Hardie.
Sorry Geoff, YES, the group definitely wants to go to Bomana War Cemetery but per Shane's post above, the security staff are now very strict and do not want to open the gates before 8am at the earliest.
Due to all the trees being cut down this end I assume to build guesthouses, a lot of the track is not under canopy and trekkers are exposed to the heat more so then in the past. As a result I put it to the group and they made a decision to skip on the way out and get an early start. On their return to Port Moresby we will drive them and Trek 550 out to Bomana War Cemetery to pay their respects.
After discussing they all agreed that it would mean so much more to them to visit after they had walked instead of the other way round.
Sorry no updates as we have not heard from them. The radio network remains down except for a couple of radio's who seem to be able to talk. They are carrying a sat phone but we have not heard anything so lets stay positive and say all is well otherwise they would have contacted us.
We heard from Clement in the other group today that they spent last night at Efogi and were on their way to Myola 1900. Before I could ask about this group the line went dead.
I was talking to a pilot who was supposed to do a flight in to Efogi today and he said he could not do so due to cloud cover and will try tomorrow again.
So I am assuming that they are finding it hard to get a signal out due to the weather.
The other group who left the same time have one guy who needs to be up lifted from Efogi due to a leg problem and I am pretty sure they would have said something if there had been a problem.
So hang in there I am sure they are doing really well as they definitely did not stay behind in Efogi and are still on their way to KOKODA.
Pic 1: the track that leads from Efogi to Naduri
Pic 2: Efogi Village
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Copy__4__of_Efogi___Holles_Trek__Small_.jpgHave not heard from the track but today I was talking to John Judge who was air lifted off the track from Efogi and he told me that both trekkers were doing really well.
Apparently they got ahead of the group John was walking with but they all caught up together and spent a night as one large group – I think he said Efogi.
Tomorrow they should be walking from Eora Creek to Isurava Village and will cover the following scenery along the way.
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D2_ISURAVA_MEMORIAL__Small_.JPGUpdate 1st August: Sorry, could not put up a message yesterday as my internet was down.
Congratulations are in order for trek 570 who walked off the track one day ahead of schedule and arrived in Kokoda on the 30th July. Yesterday was a relaxing day spent in Kokoda and this morning as I type this they are waiting on our chartered flight to pick them up.
This group would have spent two nights at our base in Kokoda, Orohaven Kokoda Retreat.
After their arrival the group will be taken out to Bomana War Cemetery before they book into the Gateway Hotel. Telephone: +675 327 8100
Will take some pics today and post later on.
Main_Pic.jpgTrek Update: Congratulations were definitely the order of the day when Amy and Liam arrived in off the track yesterday as they completed their trek one day ahead of schedule and spent two nights in Kokoda at Orohaven.
Liam looked pretty much the same as he did on the day of departure and stated he wanted to come back again sometime and do a 4 day trek! Amy was not quite her bubbly self as she was suffering from a cold and was not feeling that well.
So as it turned out instead of heading out to Bomana they chose to stay at the Gateway Hotel.
When I dropped them off I took the opportunity of another photograph of the two groups including Amy and Liam as follows:
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