Kokoda Trek: Day 6

Today was supposed to be an easier day, but it was made more difficult because yesterday we only made it to Templeton one while we were supposed to walk approximately two more hours further to Templeton two campsite. So the day started at 5 AM with a wake up call. Things were a little off for me today. After packing the tent, and letting the porter Jackson take it, I discovered that I was missing my eyeglasses. I kept the eyeglasses usually in the tent pocket and that’s where they were, and he had to go find my tent amongst all others, retrieve the glasses and bring them to me. I also had put my hiking pole somewhere and couldn’t find it till the last moment. The anti-malaria tablets which I used to take dutifully in the morning, I forgot to take today until somebody reminded me, and I had to scramble to find where they were. Not only that, getting dressed was an unusually long process today. Everything was damp, and some things were downright soaking wet.

The area we had camped in was beautiful and looked even more pretty in the light of dawn.

It was Amy's birthday, we all wished her a happy birthday and started the hike. The sky was full of clouds but they seemed benign.

A couple of hours of walking brought us to a village and there was an artifact displayed stating that LIEUT. COLIN H. RICHARDSON of 3rd Infantry Battalion was shot through the chest near this spot on 17 October 1942 during the engagement with the Japanese at TEMPLETON'S CROSSING and was pronounced dead but later found to be barely alive, he was carried to Myola by the 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels', the Papua New Guineans, to whom he owed his life,

and he lived to be 94 years old.

After a brief rest, we continued and came to the museum of mortars, missiles and grenades from

World War 2.

Around 11:15AM, we arrived at Eora creek, which was just a very serene place.

The creek had water flowing with a fast current and luckily, we had a bridge to use to cross it. The bridge was made of reeds and looked like the Sydney Harbor bridge. The locals maintained it and charged each person 10 PNG dollars for crossing.

The rest of the trek today was mostly downhills. Some of us ran downhill just to get done with the misery. We arrived at the end of the day spot by 5pm. The view was surreal, with mountains partially visible and mostly shrouded in clouds.

There was a nice lawn everywhere. A windsock and helicopter landing spot is seen at the approach to the campsite.

The campsite is adjoining the Kokoda Memorial and the battlefield. It is on a large multilevel piece of land.

This place is very historically significant and has huge attendance during annual ANZAC day celebrations.

The campsite has two showers with real shower heads and faucets to turn on the water. The two toilets have a sturdy seating platform. Filling up water for drinking is easy because a faucet with running water is available. My knees are hurting today, especially when walking over high steps or tree roots taller than regular step height. I usually don’t take medication, however, taking a painkiller and an anti-inflammatory tablet today would be important. Last medication was one tablet on day 4 and also on day 2 when I slipped on a rock crossing a stream and impacted my knees and hip. Since it is Amy’s birthday today and her gift request was to get two passion fruits, we all asked village vendors for it and did not find them. Finally we found a few at the end of the day and Amy's birthday wish was fulfilled. There was no rain throughout the day today. We were not staying near a river either. When we were sleeping, there was no constant river noise. However, today I was woken up in the night a few times because of the rain which caused the tent to leak, thankfully, not too much. Some of my other trekking friends had a worse experience with more water getting in.

The mood is jubilant across the entire group as we are almost done with the hard part of the hike!