Finally, we are back! You may have noticed that I have changed the title of this blog for now to the "Not-So-Daily-Lukey" (however, the URL still remains the same) until I get back on track with these posts. It has been a while but as this is the second-last post in this series that I will resume regular posting soon. Anyway, on to Day 7 of our trek on Kokoda (day 8 in Papua New Guinea) which was our second-last day. Waking up and having to put on wet boots (they did not dry) was far from the best way to start the day but the knowledge that we were almost done, while sad, also provided us with the motivation to trek onwards and, literally, upwards. Today was a day of a lot of ups and then a very long down. There were also a lot of river crossings (around 12 to 17) today and we did not take our boots off this time. Although, they were nothing like the river we crossed the day before (click here for pictures) they were above our ankles which meant the water was always getting into our boots.
It was still a beautiful day though with a lot of amazing scenery all around us. When we woke up in the morning we could see our surroundings fully where we appeared to be in a valley of sorts surrounded by mountains covered in trees. It was an amazing sight, especially as the sun was rising. Our day began with an immediate uphill which was but a mere beacon of what was to come that day as we climbed Imita Ridge and then descended to our last camp site. Before I continue, I would like to apologise for the lack of photos in this post. I do remove the photos that clearly show a person's face but even with those photos there was only eleven in total (excluding the top picture above).
After we had reached the top of our first climbing for the day, we managed a bit of a descent before we reached this area (see above picture) after our morning break. It was a few hours of this where we were winding our way around (and through) several rivers and navigating dense forests. Then we came to our lunch break in a village just outside of this area. It was a sunny day and so everyone had taken off their shoes and socks in the false hope that they would dry just a little bit. It did help however in ridding ourselves of the excess water that was sloshing around our boots but aside from that, it did not do much. It did let our feet breath though which was something. It felt relaxing, it was nice. Before long it was over and we found ourselves continuing with an upward hike which, after about an hour, led us to the bottom of Imita Ridge. It was a further hour and a half to two hours before we finally reached the top of Imita Ridge having climbed some of the steepest and hardest terrains of the Kokoda track. It was kind of fun though to pull yourself up some parts as it made it feel more rough.
At the top of the ridge we were greeted by these plaques to commemorate what was a very important place on the Kokoda track for Australian troops. It was a key defensive position in the Kokoda campaign and it could have been an entirely different outcome without it. We had a break of about fifteen minutes up here where our guide talked to us about Imita Ridge and where we also heard a poem read by one of our sponsors. It was a moving experience to hear these stories and learn about the struggles of the soldiers who had come before us and had trekked, and died, on the very land that we were standing on. It was a humbling experience to say the least.
It was another two-hour long hike all the way down Imita Ridge to our final campsite. The best part was that we arrived before dark and so we had some time in the light to go down to the river and just sit there and chat as we did the best we could to clean ourselves. It was relaxing to just sit back with your feet in the water and talk to other people. It felt like a nice holiday (we obviously were not trekking at that exact moment in time) and personally I felt grateful to be there (as incredibly corny as that sounds).
That night there was a more festive mood around the camp as people were excited to finish the track with only two to three hours of trekking left to go in the morning. We had another sing-a-long with the porters and everyone was really getting into it and so when we went to sleep that night there were still a few tents abuzz with people chatting excitedly.
I hope to get the next day out to you very soon! Hope you are well, see you soon.
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