Kokoda Trek: Day 1

Early morning on June 4, the whole team of 12 trekkers met for breakfast, seven Australians were in a group headed by Hector who was their personal health and life coach. An ex-military Chilean person, he was as big as Arnold Schwarzenegger and I learned later that he had met Arnold in person. Two others were also from Australia, one from New Zealand, one from Dubai and myself.

After a hearty breakfast, we loaded our backpacks and day packs in the transport bus, handed over our suitcase and passports to Donald, the tour organizer and off we went in search of Adventure.

Two hours of drive through narrow, scenic, densely wooded roads with mountain ridges and rivers on each side, we made it to the starting point of the hike. Many stretches of the drive were very slippery and bus zigzagged wildly. Each time that happened, we all whooped and clapped, and I worried if our noise would distract the driver resulting in all of us ending in the ravine.

We came to McDonald's corner with a monument bearing inscription:

THIS MONUMENT COMMEMORATES THE EXPLOITS OF THE 59TH INFANTRY BATTALION WHO WERE FIRST TO ENGAGE THE JAPANESE ALONG THE KOKODA TRAIL IN 1942, TO HONOUR THE 138 MEMBERS WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN NEW GUINEA AND IN REMEMBRANCE OF R J MCDONALD, THEIR TRUE AND LOYAL FRIEND.

We picked up the team leader Joe here, and a few other supporting staff. Finally we got to Overs corner. The team of 25 support staff was already there at the Overs corner, and they took all bags and daypacks from the bus and weighed them.

The historical big gun used by the Australian soldiers, was displayed at the entrance.

All those who had hired the services of a porter got assigned one. I was paired up with Jackson. He took my backpack and added his own things to it, verified the total weight was within limits and we are ready to

get going on the first day's three hour, 5 km hike starting from the arch.

The trek started with a steep downhill which was slippery and the porters kept calling it daddy, daddy, presumably meaning slippery!

After 3 hours of climbing and descending hills in the beautiful Goldie river crossing area, we made camp.

The tents were setup already, we put our mats, sleeping bags and liners, then went into the Goldie river for a bath. Soon dinner was ready featuring a soup, cheese, beans, noodles, and tuna. I brought out my dry garlic chutney which became an instant hit.

We all shared 2 good stories around the table, and most trekkers talked of how happy they were being on the trail. We had built good camaraderie by now.

To the sounds of the flowing river, surrounded by fireflies and the moonlight, we retired for the day, knowing tomorrow would be the first long and hard day of the trek.