Preparing For An Expedition To New Guinea
Our intrepid roving reporter ( 🙂 always wanted to write that) Ange Recchia will soon be off to trek the famous Kokoda Trail in New Guinea!
Over the next little while, Ange and I will be featuring stories about New Guinea, its history, geography, wildlife, and most importantly, the people who live in this wild land.
We will be mainly concerned with the eastern half of the world’s second largest island, which forms the modern nation of Papua New Guinea.
We will be sharing how this humble track became a vital part of modern world history!
The western half of the island is known as Irian Jaya, and is now a part of Indonesia.
The Kokoda trail is a single file footpath that stretches for 96 kilometres (about 60 miles) in a north/south direction, straight across the Owen Stanley ranges in Papua New Guinea.
The track crosses very rugged terrain, reaching an altitude of 2,190 metres (7,190 feet).
Temperatures range from vary hot, and humid during the day, to intensely cold of a night.
Apart from the temperature variations and terrain, endemic diseases such as malaria are also a hazard in the area.
The Kokoda trail was the scene of a series of battles between Australian and Japanese troops during World War 2.
A view of the Owen Stanley ranges from Ower’s Corner Colin Freeman
Ange’s Expedition May Be One Of The Last
Due to the need to protect the fragile ecology of the area, treks through the wilderness may soon be limited or canceled altogether.
Recent disputes between local landowners, government and mining companies are also threatening what has become a rite of passage for many thousands of Australians.
Ange is at present at a secret training ground in the Dandenong ranges in Victoria, getting ready for her trek.
The trek, from just east of Port Moresby in the south, to the village of Kokoda, usually takes between 5 and 12 days.
Locals have been known to do the trip in as little as three days? How will Ange fare?
Will she emulate the locals, or will she take her time and take lots of photographs for us all to enjoy?
Stay tuned…
Reference: Wikipedia Kokoda
Dear sweet Allan!! Nice write up 🙂 Yes, this little gal is going to trek the mountainous terrain that is the Kokoda Trail and I will be posting about my experience with the training (lots of walking and lots of steps to climb!) as I approach D-Day… June 20th which is the scheduled departure day. A great personal challenge lies ahead for me and it’s way out there as I am not usually this adventurous.
I will keep you posted of my progress and there is so much history there as well.
Cheers, Ange
Ange Recchia’s last blog post..Education for Life Seminar
Whoa there! Dear SWEET Allan?
Them there’s fighting words Lassie… 🙂
Training’s vital for this one Ange, by the look of the terrain, nothing much has changed since WW2!
I hope to post some video clips from previous treks here soon…
Cheers