All good advice, however Kokoda is a tough ardous trek in hot and Humid conditions. One of the people tested said that he had drunk 10 litres of water. That sounds extreme until you analyse it….if he had been walking for 5 hours thats 2 litres of water per hour……Most advise for fluids in hot humid extreme physical conditions is that two litres of water per hour should be drunk….advice offered is to listen to your body and drink when thirsty……also very difficult in conditions such as Kokoda…..its a fine line between Dehydration and Hyponatremia with Nausea, dizziness and vomiting common symptons to both….Are the electrolyte drinks such as poweraid and gatorade sufficient…..I think that better supplements may be available for endurance atheletes which may provide better protection against low sodium levels.

At the end of the day its good advice to build up into walks of this nature with "acclimitising" this allows you to get used to how your body will cope….what sort of drinks / supplements will work….Its worth noting that most walkers are coming from a temperate climate (hopefully with lots of training) into a hot humid climate….than add the nature of the terrain. Whilst in the Army we were subjected to this type of climate change and it was very obvious that a great percentage of personel suffered heat stroke / heat exhaustion until the body had adjusted to the conditions….this was normally 4-5 days