Kokoda Trek: Day 5

Today was supposed to be the longest, hardest of the 8 day trek. We were woken up at 4:30 AM and had to hit the trail by 5:30 AM with the expectation of reaching camp by 7 PM. My solar battery was completely drained and I was hoping for a sunshiny day.

Getting ready is a chore. It almost takes one hour. The method I use is to take out the snacks for the day and put it in the front pocket of my day pack. The water purification tablets go in the front pocket of my shirt. The two energy bars go in the front pocket of the daypack as well. The dry clothes worn last night get rolled up and put into the dry sack.

The toothpaste and brush and toilet paper roll go back in the dry sack and a small roll goes into the daypack. Then gingerly I wear the wet, damp shirt, put the sweat rag on its sleeve. This is followed by putting on the other damp clothes and pants. Next go on the gators, followed by the damp socks, and finally the shoes. The gators clip onto the shoes. The sleeping bag is rolled into its pouch. The air pillow is deflated and pouched. The sleeping bag liner rolled and is put in its pouch. All the pouches go in their respective dry packs. The dry packs finally go in the backpack. The water prep has its own challenges. In some places there is a running water faucet in the village or you use the river to fetch water that you filter to purify. Sometimes you find the river or stream along the route. I just used my double safe method, which was to use one of the trekking mate's water filter to fill up the water and then place the water purification tablets in it for 30 minutes to feel secure that the water is healthy to drink. All of this takes time because you have to secure the Camelback bladder inside the back pocket of the backpack and tie it up. Getting too much water, of course makes the backpack too heavy and too little water is not good especially since I am not carrying a water filter device.

In the 1 Litre Camelback waterbottle that I carry, I put a tablet of noon, which is a electrolyte replacement tablet and gives water a good flavor and I consume it several times during the hike. Yesterday, many of the trekking buddies had a mid trek package drop off which I had no idea about and so I did not get anything planned for the middle of the trip. Many of them got new clothes, different and more varieties of food and everybody was so friendly and sharing that I benefited a lot from their package drop off as well. I use the sky tonight iPhone app and saw that Jupiter, Pegasus constellation, Neptune and Pisces constellation were clearly visible.

After a 45 minutes relentless climb, we arrived at the Launumu village rest stop.

We got some avocados, passion fruit, and a fruit which looked like in oblong tomato with had a stem like that of an eggplant. It tasted something like a combination of tomato and passion fruit with seeds like tomato and guava.

It is hard to remember all the things you want to put in your blog as you are thinking about them while walking down the trail. So I just use mnemonics. Or I just make some vivid image in my head, which captures the essence and then, when people are behind and catching up on the trail, and rest of us have to wait at a rest spot, I write it down or dictate the whole paragraph on iPhone. Yesterday's mnemonic was a crocodile wearing a damp ranger hat walking like a zombie, holding a passport in one hand and a computer in the other 😁

As we sat for the afternoon tea in village, a porter came to us asking for help. He had a leech in his eye. He was walking downhill and stepped on one end of a palm leaf. The leaf flipped and a leach flew off the palm and it directly got lodged in his right eyeball. He was visibly in pain. The real Aussie nurse in our group started putting saline solution drops in his eyes from her first aid kit, but that was not helping.

Some hot water was available for the tea and some trekkers were carrying Himalayan salt. She used the hot water, salt and mixed in some cold water, and then put the concoction in his eye. It still did not help. His eye was bloodshot. Then she got tweezers and sterilized them in the open fire. She then gently pulled out the leech from the eye and threw it in the fire burning nearby. We gave the porter several paracetamol tablets to take for the next couple of days to relieve his pain. Over the past several days, I was glad that the prescription medicine Nabumetone that my doctor ordered for me as a pain reliever and anti-inflammatory drug came in very handy in multiple occasions. Many days, different trekkers felt sore or were in pain and I was able to offer them this tablet which provided relief. Once our chef had a back pain and with this tablet, he recovered a bit. Joe, the PNG leader of the trek, came to us once when we had stopped to catch our breath, asking for help. One of the porters was suffering from nausea, pain, and general malaise. We offered him the painkiller, antinausea drugs, a banana and a trail mix pack. After a couple of hours, we saw he was walking happily and feeling much better.

We started walking again and now the terrain was less steep featuring many flat sections and many steep downhill sections. It started raining and within minutes picked up pace, so that it was pouring heavily. My shoes were a little dry, and I did not have water sloshing in them the rain and the mud.

As I walked with shoes that did not have water sloshing in them, and it was raining heavily, puddles forming everywhere, I was trying to keep my shoes relatively dry. So I was spending more time to avoid the puddles. Then I realized that this lack of commitment to the hike and increased emphasis on keeping shoes dry was getting detrimental. I committed to the hike fully, banished the worry about water and puddles, and that made for a more immersive experience, pun intended. We were a little slow today. We were supposed to walk till Templeton 2 rest stop and camp there but instead only reached Templeton one. The actual stop for the night was about an hour and a half away, and due to the weather, we decided to call it quits earlier instead.

Towards the Templeton 1 area, we saw many trees

that looked like mangroves.

The campsite was fabulous, in actuality, 'a river ran through it'!