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The Lerderderg River, which rises on the Great Dividing Range, has cut a rugged 300 metre deep gorge through sandstone and slate in its course southwards to the plains near Bacchus Marsh (60km from Melbourne).
A combination of easy hiking through to steep climbs up spurs will provide you with excellent training for your expedition. Wear your backpack to really test yourself and if you plan to use walking poles on your trek, practice with them on this track. Established unsealed walking tracks will be used.
The duration of this hike is around 5-6 hours and it will loop back to the starting point at Mackenzies Flat picnic area. It is not recommend for beginners as it involves some long and quite steep climbs.
Sunday 27th May 2012 - 9:30am to mid afternoon - Info Flyer (pdf)Expedition Guides attending: George Buchhorn and Justin Kibell
RSVP by 25th May required please - click here.
Photo: Ness Kerton @ madNESS Photography.com
When I first gained the ANZAC Day trip, my thoughts went to other guides comments on how busy, frustrating, noisy, crowded etc. etc. it could be. Was it? Sure.
With our own group of sixteen plus our ever brilliants porters, we made up a good sized group, far larger than the average six or seven I’ve usually taken. Throw in Haydn’s group of ten who walked concurrently with us and we were batting an average of sixty just for NoRoads. But the big advantage with this is so many people to share the trip with, and to share the load.
Photo above: Meeting the PNG Prime Minister Peter O'Neill and Australian High Commissioner, Mr. Ian Kemish.
With so many other trekkers also on the track, we were worried about securing campsites but each afternoon as we staggered into camp, the porters had the site, the water boiling for a tea and the soap ready in the shower. On the odd occasion we (Haydn’s group & ours) crammed into one site but this made for some more chats and generally there was room for all.
6am training walk for No Roads Expeditions. We know you are doing the same and we wanted to share our little experience with you. Enjoy!
The following checklist provides you with a list of all equipment required on our Kokoda expeditions. Use this checklist to help ensure you have acquired all the necessary equipment and use it later as a final packing checklist before heading off for your trek.
 | nre-kokoda-checklist-v1.2.pdf | | File Size: | 121 kb | | File Type: | pdf |
Download File
More gear selection information and hints and tips about packing and what to bring can be found at this location: Gear Selection | |
They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old;
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.
L to R: Robin, Matt, Allan, Les, Brendon, Malcom.
Our expedition along the Kokoda Track began on the 6th of April 2012 when we flew into Popondetta on a very efficient and on time early morning flight form Port Moresby.
We arrived in Kokoda at lunch time after a three hour truck ride from Popondetta. It was evident the wet season had been a big one with the road in a pretty rough state, the creeks and river crossings showed great change since Aug 2011.
This eluded that a large water flow and big monsoon had been and gone. Luckily we were greeted with the rains gone and a forecast of blue sunny skies.
On arrival we conducted a meet and greet of our porter crew, sorted our gear then enjoyed tea and coffee in a tropical garden that is Kokoda.
Whilst the PNG Porter crew prepared an Aussie snag and sauce BBQ for our lunch we walked down to the museum and monuments at Kokoda, then trekked down to the Kokoda Airstrip. To the group this marked a definite start point for our endeavours and as the first steps back for lunch were taken from the edge of the strip --- the realisation sunk in that we were on the move.
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