VILLAGES: None.
SITES: Imita Ridge, Goldie Campsite, Ower's Corner
DISTANCE: 9.6km
UPS & DOWNS: 854m + 550m = 1404m
ELEVATION GAIN: 352m to 629m
TREKKING TIME: 3hrs 44min
ELAPSED TIME: 5hrs 30min
AVERAGE SPEED: 2.6km/h
We woke up to wet clothes and wet shoes and socks but did not care. The end was near. We could hear Ower’s calling us !!! Our departure was slightly delayed due to the darkness of being in a densely tree covered valley – the sun took a little longer to cut through and show us the way down to 11 more river crossings in our shoes and socks since they would end up wet anyway due to the huge mud piles waiting for us after these crossings. Today was uphill but not the gradients of previous days. The ascent to Imita was steep but short. Gibson gave us the wartime briefing on Imita Ridge, which is quite small and has direct line of sight to Ioribaiwa Ridge where the Japanese were hold-up and firing mortars with range enough to hit the ozzies. The Imita-Ioribaiwa Ridges arrangement was the final stand of the Kokoda Campaign – it was either win or loose here. The ozzie commander literally gave the order – win here or loose here. Without a single denial of ozzie or Japanese fortitude, the American victory at Guadalcanal was the catalyst for the Japanese withdrawal from Ioribaiwa Ridge on 23 September 1942 and the subsequent saving of Port Moresby, PNG and Australia !!! Despite Guadalcanal it is the ozzies and local Papuans who pushed and shoved and did not allow the Japanese to advance at a pace that would have seen them in Port Moresby BEFORE the recall of the Japanese at Kokoda were recalled to Guadalcanal to reinforce the decimated Japanese forces there. This Ozzie-Papuan victory was the result of incredible Ozzie-Papuan heroism with a well timed Guadalcanal American defeat of the Japanese. The descent to Goldie Creek was short but the river there was gushing. Our bags were carried across high above the heads of the porters. I skipped lunch so that I could trek ahead of the others and get to the end at Ower’s Corner to set up the drone and film the expressions of relief and gladness as the team walked across the finish line. I was up to my neck in the Goldie River and then simply decided to freestyle swim to the other side much to the shock of my porter who did not realise how strong a swimmer we ozzies are !!! As I trekked from the Goldie River to Ower’s Corner I tried to imagine those ravaged, tired, injured, weary ozzies returning with the taste of victory on their tongues to justify the misery of this campaign. The final climb up to Ower’s was under sunshine. Thank goodness after a rainy muddy daily slog. The sight of the Kokoda Arches emerged from the grassy hilltop and marked the finishing line just like the last bend in Central Park gave way to the finish line for the New York Marathon. I had the same pain and the same fantastic feeling of achievement. There is no doubt in my mind that The Kokoda is the Marathon of all Treks !!! I took the photos you will see below with no one else and shot plenty of lone footage on that glorious finish line that took 7 days and 6 nights of pain to reach. Ower was an engineer that built the road from Port Moresby to this point so they named it in his honour. 30min later the porters came across the line followed by James, Cristan, Sam, Nick and Jacob with smiles across their faces like I have never seen. Relief, joy and a sense of enormous accomplishment. After several photos, hand-shaking, screams of relief we concluded with a huge drone filming of a tribe of Papuans and Ozzies dag dancing their way into history !!!
We all climbed into a 20-seater van and cracked opened several cold can of local SP Lager – wow – our first real drink after 7 days !!! The drink of victory and accomplishment. Boy did that van stink. 20 wet smelly sweaty people but happy as Larry – whoever that was or is. Out final commitment was to visit the fallen at Bomana Cemetery. It is 67min 38km drive from Owers to Bomana with terrific lush green hills, escarpments, waterfalls along the way. Walking into Bomana War Cemetery was very moving for all of us. This place is set on land owned by the Australian Government and cared for by them. It is immaculate. 625 whit marble tombstones grace this place and reminded me so much of the US War Cemetery at Normandy near the D-Day landing beach of Omaha. It was not hard to shed tears for these souls. This was the right place and the best place to finish our epic trek – next to those heroic bodies that felt pain and misery well beyond what we had experienced. To walk in their footsteps was an honour well undeserved. We never could come close to what they experienced but at the very least we could appreciate the scale of their sacrifice because of the personal anguish of walking this mighty track under rain and mud. This is why I am glad it rained. This is why I am glad I lost it on the morning of Day 6. This is why I came. To honour those young souls who gave everything to keep us free and the best way I can thank them is to live my life to the fullest…
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