Amongst the travel party are the Hawks new draftees, second year players, new recruit Josh Gibson, senior player Brent Guerra, two Hawthorn board members and five administrative staff members. Former President Ian Dicker also joined the group on the arduous trek.
This will be the third time the Hawks have undertaken the journey to Papua New Guinea, which has become an important part of Hawthorn culture and is a right of passage for many Australians.
The travel party begins the trek on Saturday 1 December and will return to Melbourne on Sunday 9 December.
Day 1
Saturday 5 December
Kokoda to Deniki, 6km
The travel party spent Friday night at Crowne Plaza in Port Moresby where they had a final meeting and group packing session. It was then onto an early morning charter flight from the Papuan capital to Kokoda - the starting point of the trek.
The battle at Kokoda was one of the bloodiest campaigns of World War II. In 1942 Japanese troops landed in New Guinea and unexpectedly began to march over the Owen Stanley Ranges with the intent of capturing Port Moresby and putting the mainland of Australia under threat.
Many of the young Australian men who fought for Australia average age was 18 and 19 - the same age as many of the Hawthorn players.
The group visited Australian Memorials at Kokoda before trekking 6km through the villages of Hoi and Isurava to the camp at Deniki Village.
The travel party set up camp for the night where everyone was responsible for pitching their one man tent.
Stay posted to hawthornfc.com.au for daily updates from the track!
Kokoda tracking 2009
