Day 5 - ANZAC DAY Brigade Hill to Naduri Village

The dying rooster call roused us from our tents, although most people had been up earlier than that. The day that we all had come for was finally here. In the dark we moved up to Brigade Hill and assembled with the fallen soldiers (the stakes set the ground in the memory of each person that lost their life) in front of the flagpoles to begin our dawn service.

In the dark of a morning yet to be born, the service started to the sound of the bagpipes played by one of the trekkers in the first two groups. He had a relative fight at Brigade Hill and he had carried his pipes all the way from Kokoda especially for the service. Which is currently one of, if not the most remote ANZAC day service there is. There was so much raw emotion and feeling from everyone there, in a spot that saw so much fighting and lives lost. The very reason why we show our respects at ANZAC day and honour our fallen heroes for their ultimate sacrifice.

 

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.

The flags of both Papua New Guinea and Australia are raised to the singing of the porters.



Thus began the service, and to be honest, sometime, I do not know when - dawn broke. I was so captivated in the ceremony, caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't even realise it. There were several speeches by Trek leaders as well as some by other trekkers, all were heart felt and several not completed without the support of others. A lady from one of the other teams giving a speech had a son about to go overseas for duty - now for me this is such a moving and emotional experience, but how it was for her I could only imagine.

The most memorable part for me though was, one of the trek leaders, Martin McIver singing "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" (adapted for Kokoda). I don't know whether it was him, the way he sang the song, or the words in the song, but I could really just imagine him being one of our boys there at the time. One of our boys in the middle of the fighting, writing a few verses, singing a few songs - to keep up spirits up or pass the time. His singing was so moving.



Wreaths were placed to the accompaniment of the porters once again singing and to end the service the bagpipes played once again



It was a short and very meaningful service and then it was all over, but no matter the length, it is something that will always stay with me forever. Here's a picture of the team and also of me a top Brigade Hill. Below them are a couple of pictures of the fallen soldiers.




It was time now to depart for our next destination, so off to breakfast I rushed - Next stop Naduri Village. Before breaking camp, here was my wonderful poncho in action.



Today was going to be nothing different than a normal day on the track, by that I mean there was going to be lots of steep inclines and steep declines. Off we set over Brigade Hill, past where our history lesson on the Bone Man of Kokoda took place yesterday and on our way down to Mission Ridge.

What was really interesting about this little part of the track was that there was only one steep narrow path down from the summit of  Brigade Hill to Mission Ridge and you could guarantee that the commanders of both of the armies at the time; Brigadier Potts (Australia) and General Horii (Japan) had walked on exactly the same path and on the same ground that we were walking today.

Read more on Brigadier Potts	Read more on General Horii

Down from the summit and back into the jungle the steepness did not seem to stop.



There was a lot of varying terrain on the way down to Mission Ridge, it even seemed a little flat in a few places, but there was always, always the steep descent.



When we hit the bottom of Mission Ridge we crossed a nice little water crossing before having to ascend again to Efogi.



It's not long before we make it to Efogi 1 (South) village, where they have a little war museum with old munitions that we are going to stop and look at. Whilst we do this, our crew are going to replenish all of our food supplies for the rest of the trip.

During the advance Efogi 1 was a staging post for troops whilst they advanced over the track, whilst during the withdrawal Brigadier Potts hoped to delay the enemy at Efogi 2 (North). Unfortunately there was no suitable ground for defence and we withdrew to the main village (South)  and then to Mission Ridge and Brigade Hill were defences were setup.

Read more on Efogi

As we wait to gain entrance to the museum we enjoy watching the local village kids playing and spend a little bit of time relaxing and throwing a ball with them. They are so cute and are having so much fun.





We were able to finally find some one that could let us into the museum - well the small hut that was setup to display a bunch of old wartime munitions. It wasn't big, but it had a bunch of different artefacts and it was really interesting.

Here's some old guns, helmets and bullets. You can see the difference between the Australian (left) and Japanese (right) hard helmets.

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Here's a picture of some grenades and me holding one of the old guns. The gun was really heavy and that's without any of the stock, with all but the metal decayed away. I couldn't imagine carrying this as part of your normal pack - let alone with all your other supplies.



Below are some random bits and pieces as well as some machine gun bullet casings, the casings are huge and I'd imagine you'd be cut in half if a few of these hit you. To the right is a mortar placement missing the barrel.



Team photo in front of the museum (yep, that's the little hut behind us)



When we were leaving the porters were still organising our supplies, I think it was taking quite a bit of time as there was a Ranger there itemising their stock and ensuring that each pack was under a certain weight.

One final team shot on the way out of Efogi 1 (South) to Efogi 2 (North), the nice little sign that we are all standing around reads <- Kokoda 48.1kms and Owers Corner 45.5kms ->



It was another steep climb ascending to Efogi 2 (North), but we made good time and this is where we set up for an early lunch. This is also where one of the local dogs decided to start peeing on the waist strap of my backpack, but luckily someone saw and we were able to scoot him away before too much damage was done. A quick rinse down with some water and I no longer had to start smelling like dog pee, well worse than I already smelt...

Do you remember the Bone Man of Kokoda from the previous days blog? When he returned to Paupua New Guinea to spend some 20+ years toiling for the remains of his fallen comrades, he also built a shrine that is situated in Efogi 2. I've purchased the book about him on kindle and look forward to reading it, even though war is a terrible thing, each side have their own perspective, orders even, and both sides have stories that I would like to hear.



Like most of the villages that we pass through the locals have set up theirs stalls and are selling crafts as well as food and drink. After the steep climb up I grab a bunch of bananas and hand them around. It's generally safe to eat something that has a skin you can peel off or shell you can crack open. I also have a look at the hats and purchase a nice blue one, with winter on it's way back home I'm sure that it will come in handy.



With a lot of trekking still to do, we were not here very long before setting off. We descended down to the Efogi River where we crossed our second log crossing for the day and then up the steep ascent to Naduri Village. This was one of the larger villages along the track and we were hoping to get there early for a tour around the village. Naduri was the home of one of the last Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels - Ovoru Indiki, who sadly passed away at the end of last year.

We make good time to the village and there is still plenty of time in the day for a tour around the village. It was really cool, there were so many things happening - we visited the local health clinic, church, school and got to have a general look around.

The first place we visited was the Naduri Community Health Post which was created as part of the Papua New Guinea Government's National Health Plan 2011-2020 - to transform the countries health system and improve heath care. Work commenced on the Health Post in 2012 and it was commissioned in 2013. It contains a lot of health education material as well as facilities for birthing and minor surgery.

Read more on the PNG Government Health Plan here - (search for Naduri and Kokoda)

The facilities were pretty basic, but at least there were facilities that were available to the locals.

This is a look at what the Health Post was like from the outside.



Inside it was pretty simple, but essential. Below there are a couple of beds in the recovery room with one bed in the labour ward.



In the labour ward (room) here was their supplies and their sterile / contaminated facilities.



Finally, there were a lot of posters about health care, children's health and malaria, which were just basic information on what was good or bad, with what signs to look for in illnesses and when to consult a doctor.



From the Health Post we head to the church. The religion of Papua New Guinea is predominately Christianity and a lot of the villages / village people on the track are Seventh-day Adventists. Here are a couple of pictures of the local church in Naduri.



From the local church we headed off through some more of the village. On the way we stopped at this little miniature hut on stilts, which to me looked about the size that would fit a midget. I was right about the size, but completely wrong about it's true purpose. This was a little rations hut and each person from the village garnished a portion of their farming to be stored in this little hut. The idea was to be able to provide food for passing travellers in need.



We then continued on to the school which was another simple little set up with one main school room and one office / storage space. The rooms walls were plastered in basic teachings as well as drawings and paintings. It didn't look much different to one of our classrooms in Australia.



 It was great to have a little look inside and see what was there. I thought that the storage room was great, firstly because of all the sports equipment (they are Rugby League MAD here), but then we found a massive calculator that must have been years old and it was as big as John's head!! Jokes aside about it's age and size, I was glad it found a home of use, rather be obsolete in our world.



That wound up quite an interesting tour of Naduri and insight into the village. As we walked back to our tents it started to rain, but that was okay, it was nothing different than what we were used to. We made our way back to camp and to some cover in the local huts, where we based ourselves for dinner and more importantly where there was a fire and we could get some warmth.

Had to laugh at this little guy, he was the cutest little puppy and he was definitely more after warmth than he was scared about the fire. As the fire grew he just seemed to curl up closer and closer to it, so much so I thought that he was almost in it.. However, after he got singed a few times from embers he moved and resettled, but even then he was still pretty close.



At the end of the night we got to enjoy the same treatment from the Naduri Villagers that we received in Menari. They too were looking to raise money, not only for their 100 years as a village celebration later in the year, but also for solar panels for both the school and the church. We were happy to listen to their beautiful voices and contribute.

The lighting is not good again (as it was dark), but the singing is great!













After the sing songs were completed most people went to bed, but I was up a bit chatting to a couple of other team mates, just relaxing and enjoying the company. We all came from different places, different lives, but it's amazing how well we got on. Maybe it's the situation we are in that bonds us, a common cause or belief, I don't know, but I'm glad to have such a wonderful group to trek with.

It gets late and I head off to my tent, it has been a really long day, but a really memorable day. There has been so much to take in it's absolutely ridiculous.. We're half way now and I'm starting to feel my endurance starting to feign so best get some rest. Tomorrow will bring on even more adventure.

Here's the trekking we did for the day