Kokoda 6. Saucepans for helmets

I have nearly ran out of superlatives for the word steep, but today we climbed up a killer gradient to  Kokoda Gap. On arrival to a small, flat bit in the track we were welcomed by the cutting sound of an automatic rifle. Cameron noted that there was a rifle bird up in the tree – an appropriate ‘rata-ta’ sound in these parts which may have confused the 39^th some time ago.

 Monday 13 June 2016 - Templeton 1 – Afogi 



Courtship of the Rifle Birds. Photo courtesy of www.flicker.com

Orders from above were that the engineers were to blow up the Kokoda Gap with explosives. The Kokoda Gap is an 11km wide valley. Blowing it up is a seriously bizarre proposal and any enemy force would easily be able to climb around it. It bares testimony to the lack of knowledge the upper echelons of the Australian army had about the situation on the Kokoda track. I am glad that no explosives were used to disfigure this undisturbed valley.

The gap that remained

Further more, the soldiers on the track and the man in charge, Brigadier Arnold Potts, were under immense pressure to stop the Japanese advance. After several weeks of this conflict, General Blamey and General MacArther - the famous but American leader - who were in charge of these men still didn't understand the disparity in numbers of soldiers between the Australians and Japanese. The two leaders, outraged by the loss of territory, scorned the 39th battalion unjustly in my opinion.

The long, above ground roots of the Pandan trees
 relinquished to the advancing Japanese

We had lunch at a village called 1900 named after the year it was founded. It is nestled at Eora creek which you have to cross to get to this beautiful place. 

The Pandan forest leading to this village is very rare – 1 out of 4 left in the world. That same day we caught our first stunning glimpse of Brigade Hill – the second significant battle site of the Kokoda campaign. 

We hiked past the Myola turnoff, which is a small side track into the jungle leading to a flat area. Myola was used to resupply the troops in 1942 by dumping large crates out of aeroplanes - a technique called biscuit bombing. Many crates exploded on impact with gear spreading out all over the landing sight. Many supplies ended up in the jungle never to be found. Not an exact science this biscuit bombing.

Craig - an inspirational figure of our group 

My knee swelled up worse than I have ever seen, possibly due to the relentless downhills. The ballooning skin bulging out of the sides of the knee-brace I was wearing. A lovely nasty rash in the hollow of my knee giving the whole thing a little extra colour. Bring in one of the most inspiring hikers of our group, Craig who totally belies his age of just a mere seventy-three. During a chat with the quiet and unassuming man who was carrying his own pack, we spoke about the story of a digger that was shot in the head. The severely wounded soldier was asked how he was feeling – he replied ‘I’ve got a bit of a headache’. From that moment on I decided to avoid making my knee an issue as the suffering of the young men in 1942 was far greater than mine.

A soldier with a head wound helped by a Fuzzy Wuzzy

I wasn't the only one carrying some sort of injury. There were blisters, exhaustion and some had to tape all sorts of body parts to help them get through. Some of the hikers had survived way more serious ailments during their lives and it was an absolute pleasure to have walked with them.

Helen crossing another wonky bridge

On the Kokoda track you make do with what you've got. You walk using one dirty, wet, but hopefully daily washed shirt only, if your hiking pole breaks you look for a stick and if you can't get down a steep slope you go backwards or slide down on your backside. You improvise!

A common sight on the trail

You adapt to the circumstances you find yourself in. Some of the hikers of our group would leave camp 15 or maybe 30 minutes before Jimmy's "rock and roll" call so as not to fall too far behind. Incredibly, after several days, they found themselves still out the front of the group and had to wait for the main bunch to arrive. I have to say that every single person of our party improved during our battles with the hills. It was quite remarkable that 23 hikers could stay together as much as our group did. No stragglers here.




Jo P - the first to leave

In his book 'Kokoda' Peter Fitzsimons describes the following

In such conditions the only way to get dry wood was to do what the natives did: get a huge log and with a machete hack away the pulpy wet outside of the log and get to the tinderbox dry wood inside. Then, while your mate held the groundsheet above you, you got a precious dry match to the tinder and, hey…presto…fire. Once the fire was going all the other wood could dry and you were away. A cooking pot? Why not your helmet, or ‘panic hat’ as the soldiers called them? First one bloke had tried it, then another, then the whole battalion had taken to using their helmets for saucepans, or perhaps they’d been using their saucepans for helmets - it didn't really matter. Admittedly, their first few meals tasted remarkably like burnt paint, as the insides of their helmets seared, but you could get used to that too.

A handy commodity

Soldiers that suffered from the dreaded dysentery on the track were known to cut out the backside of their pants for the purpose of ....... I'll leave that one to your imagination.

An amazing looking seed pod on the trail

It was 25 years since I had cracked a can of that well known Cola for myself. This is by no means an advertisement of the black, bubbly stuff, but feeling a bit low - missing Julie - I did what was recommended and gulped down a can of the super, sugarised, fizzy brew. The move was an instant success with energy flowing back through my veins. A flat spot, I suspect, everyone would be going through sooner or later.

The serene but energy sapping jungle

In the afternoon the first of the two biggest hills on the track were conquered. I found myself getting stuck into the challenge and charging up this heartbreaker. What is it about the competitiveness of human kind? There was a stretch in this climb where our hands were needed to pull ourselves up the roots and rocks that were right there in our faces. Sweat was pouring down into my face, down my back, through the valley of my lower back, down my legs and into my boots. Everything I wore was drenched in sweat. Even my feet were squelching in my boots. On top I could have shaken myself like a dog after a swim. Up there we all high-fived each other and took a short break. After a discussion with Cam, a fair few of us went down to help the other hikers, either by carrying their packs or by offering moral support - another one of those memorable occasions recalled during news time.

Adam helping Nataly up the hill

Dinner was an awesome spaghetti with lentil and tomato sauce for us vegetarians. It was totally unbelievable how much food I ate on the track. All the food we ate had the sole purpose of regenerating the body and fuel it up for a hard day's toil.

Providing enough food for this hungry mob must have been a logistical challenge

Grey Bits

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The porters cater for special diets as much as they can and carry most of the food with them. Imagine how heavy their packs must have been when we first set off from the Kokoda airfield. All food and hot drinks were cooked on wood fires. Kokoda spirit buy the wood for these fires from the locals. Our rubbish was burned in the morning after breakfast.

When available fresh fruit and vegetables were bought from the locals and added to the meals or cut up for us at lunch. The bananas on the track were sweet and tasted unbelievable. You could buy them  locally as there were several pop-up shops on the way. The most popular was the "Kokoda happy meal". A can of the dark, bubbly fluid with a packet of Twisties. This was worth ten Kina in most stores. Many of the mobile market stall owners did not believe in giving change and I waited for my 1 Kina in change for a couple of minutes on one occasion just to see what happened. Except for all involved being embarrassed, nothing much happened. Fifty cents lost - oh well!

I was relieved to find the boys scrubbing the pots and crockery with a lot of soap after every meal. An awesome job.

Smiddy new the best rivers and water sources on the trail and I have to say that the water was always crystal clear and tasted like water should. Soft, untreated and a pleasure to drink. I did drop an iodine tablet in each bottle just to make sure but none of us had any problems .





You only need one pair of hiking clothes on the trail. Every evening in the village the opportunity arose to wash our clothes under a tap or in a glorious, crystal-clear stream. White is not a good colour to wear on the track. My hiking shirt was looking a brownie, smudged grey after two days playing around in these muddy hills. Do bring some warm clothes for the evenings.

You do adapt to washing yourself in a stream or under a bamboo pipe with water continuously running through it. If you are looking to have hot water, a soap holder or privacy during your shower maybe the Kokoda track is not the place for you.

Myola is named after one of the wives of a Lieutenant that served in Kokoda.

Spectacular views towards Brigade Hill