Over the next fortnight Hawks defender, Stephen Gilham, will share his thoughts from the Kokoda Track. Day 1 sees the players arrive by light aircraft at the small grass air strip of Kokoda, making a visit to the Kokoda War Museum before making camp at the village of Hoi.
We flew into Kokoda Airstrip on a 20 seater plane. Some of the boys were a little nervous but the flight was pretty smooth although at times you could almost touch the tops of the trees. Throughout the flight I was looking out the front window as you could see straight into the cockpit. The terrain looked amazing from the air – so dense. It took 25 minutes to fly to the start of the track and it would take eight days to walk back. I wonder what is ahead?
We were greeted at the Airstrip by hundreds of villagers. It was a hot day – as soon as you stepped out of the plane you noticed the sun just beating down on you. We then walked along the grass runway in search of the Kokoda township and shade of the Jungle canopy – which you could see in the distance.
As we rose onto the Kokoda plateau you could see up the valley to the north were the Japanese had advanced from – and where the Aussies where first outflanked as they retreated back along the Kokoda Track towards Port Moresby.
After stopping in the little settlement of Kokoda and walking through the war museum and taking a moment to start thinking about why we were here. We weren’t long into the walk when Al – the tour leader from Executive Excellence gave us 15kg sandbags to accompany us through the remainder of the days walking.
We are now in the little village of Hoi which has a great creek running through it which we all used to soak in at the end of the day. Dinner was okay – pasta for 40! Now it’s off to bed after a bit of cards. 5am rise in the morning – 6am start. I’m sure we are going to need our rest over the next few days.
Tune in tomorrow for Day 2 of Stephen Gilham’s Kokoda diary and check out HawksTV’s daily Kokoda video diary – Day 1 online now!
WATCH Kokoda Video Diary: Day 1
We flew into Kokoda Airstrip on a 20 seater plane. Some of the boys were a little nervous but the flight was pretty smooth although at times you could almost touch the tops of the trees. Throughout the flight I was looking out the front window as you could see straight into the cockpit. The terrain looked amazing from the air – so dense. It took 25 minutes to fly to the start of the track and it would take eight days to walk back. I wonder what is ahead?
We were greeted at the Airstrip by hundreds of villagers. It was a hot day – as soon as you stepped out of the plane you noticed the sun just beating down on you. We then walked along the grass runway in search of the Kokoda township and shade of the Jungle canopy – which you could see in the distance.
As we rose onto the Kokoda plateau you could see up the valley to the north were the Japanese had advanced from – and where the Aussies where first outflanked as they retreated back along the Kokoda Track towards Port Moresby.
After stopping in the little settlement of Kokoda and walking through the war museum and taking a moment to start thinking about why we were here. We weren’t long into the walk when Al – the tour leader from Executive Excellence gave us 15kg sandbags to accompany us through the remainder of the days walking.
We are now in the little village of Hoi which has a great creek running through it which we all used to soak in at the end of the day. Dinner was okay – pasta for 40! Now it’s off to bed after a bit of cards. 5am rise in the morning – 6am start. I’m sure we are going to need our rest over the next few days.
Tune in tomorrow for Day 2 of Stephen Gilham’s Kokoda diary and check out HawksTV’s daily Kokoda video diary – Day 1 online now!
WATCH Kokoda Video Diary: Day 1
