Day 6 - Naduri Village to Templeton’s Crossing

We're up early in the dark getting prepared for another day trekking on the track and we're trying to get away a little earlier, with little fuss. Naduri, like most villages along the track is quite religious and as part of their Seventh-day Adventists religion, today is the Sabbath Day (the day of the week for rest and worship), so we don't want to disturb everyone after such a wonderful welcome yesterday.

This meant that we didn't even get our usual dead rooster call in the morning, not that it mattered though, everyone was already up. There were several actual roosters living in the village and they didn't get the same memo and had been up crowing their heads off since at least 3am in the morning.  Just what you don't need when you have to get as much rest as possible to recover in between trekking days.

All packed up, you can see how wet my tent still is and that there was rain over night. Now however, it looked to be the start of a beautiful morning.



The day wakes just as we're about to set off out of the village and I manage to get another couple of quick shots. There were a couple more things of interest in the village that I couldn't get to yesterday.

The first was a shrine to the late Ovoru Indiki, one of the last Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels who sadly passed away at the end of last year.



Read more on Ovoru Indiki

Read more on Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels

The second was this little hut up a tree. Historically, it would have been used as a lookout as well as for protection against attacking enemies, but I'm not sure if it gets much use these days. Personally I think it would be the most awesome cubby house.



We set off from Naduri, our destination at the end of the day was going to be Templeton's crossing. With Mount Bellamy, the highest point on the track before us, we were hoping to make good time so that we were able to take a detour off the track to visit Myola. (a dry lake which was used for supply drops during the fighting)

Off we set, just a leisurely walk up that little hill in the distance - yeah right! :)



Here's a nice view not long after leaving Naduri, just before we start our ascent up Mount Bellamy.



The beautiful view didn't last long though, and with a very steep ascent ahead of us it wasn't long before we working hard to keep on track for our planned detour.



Almost to the top of Mount Bellamy and we got a great team picture, but the highest point in the track would have to wait for us, as we made our detour off to Myola.



Our detour took us back through more of the jungle terrain that we were used to, however there were a surprising amount of fallen trees and I couldn't remember a part of the trek so far that consisted of so much climbing over and under the big fallen tree trunks across our path. A novel new experience for the first couple of times, but with a heavy back pack the novelty soon wore off.

Myola was quite unexpected, considering all of the terrain that we were used to. It was really kind of weird to walk out of the bush into the vast open sea of grasslands the two dry lakes of Big Myola and Little Myola formed.

Here is everyone just after we popped out at Myola, packs were pretty quick to come off as we were keen for a look around.



Before we set off for our little adventure to investigate Myola, Gareth gives us a bit of a talk about the history of the area - as both a forward supply depot and a medical post. What I find interesting is that there may still be munitions and supplies somewhere out there in the vast sea of grasslands.. good luck finding it though, unless you had a spare few weeks and a meticulous attention to detail in your searching.

Also of interest was how the supplies used to be dropped, with the planes flying in from one side to the other. Over the mountain range, throttle off to get as low as possible to the ground before dropping their supply packages and then throttle back on with the hope of getting enough speed to clear the mountain range on the other side. There would be a few plane wreckages along those ranges where planes didn't make it.

Read more on Myola and Myola Ridge

Everyone sets off for a look around the grasslands. There's one or two little paths leading different directions, but the majority of the area is covered in thick clumps of kunai grass which is very tall and strong. Look at how massive this area is.



Still on a tight schedule we don't have too much time to look around and after a few altercations with the kunai grass I decide to head back to the rest of the group where we have setup for lunch. With my poncho drying in the sun, I quickly tuck into some lunch before it's time to head off.

Lunch over, the weather turned pretty quickly. So the covers go on our backpacks and off we set back into the bush. This part of the trek was really cool because the ground was really amazing. After years and years of falling leaves and debris, rather than walking on a hard surface we were walking on a spongy, cushiony surface. I have no idea how far the actual solid ground was underneath us, but I was thankful I didn't find out, especially as though in some places my trekking pole did go through the surface and disappear for a bit.

It's hard to see, but here's a video I took to try and capture some of the spongy, cushiony surface.



Here's some more of the terrain in this area of the track, lots of mud and roots.. as well as.. you guessed it, steep inclines.



As the rain settles in here's some video of me trekking.



Gareth was a bit of a prankster again today. After one of our breaks he sent the girls up to the head of the group. I just thought he was trying to mix the line up a bit, but we were to find out later that wasn't the case at all, rather a bit further up the track he'd setup an ambush by the porters. I wish he had told me because I would have loved to get it on camera :) The poor girls were walking along and all of a sudden there were porters jumping out of the ground, from behind trees and swinging from vines! :) How easy an ambush can be in this sort of environment.

Having reached the top of Mount Bellamy there's some pretty steep declines as we make our way on the last leg of our journey to Templeton's Crossing where we will be camping on someone's private land for the night. Here's a couple of pictures and a video as we set off down some steep declines.




It's still light when we get to camp, but it's been raining most of the afternoon and the temperature has dipped. Tonight is going to be one of the coldest nights on the track, so it's important to get cleaned up, dry and warm. A fire has been lit in our little hut, but I don't feel like it's doing as much as it should be to keep me warm.

With the weather still being rubbish Larry and I set off trying to find some sticks of bamboo that we can use to tie our ponchos off on and for the first time on the trip I encounter a little friend. I felt a leech wriggling on my hand as we were cutting some bamboo and quick smart I pull it off and flick it away. Luckily for me he hadn't started to suck on me yet, if that were the case it's either best to let him finish, or to get him off with fire or salt.

Here's a few pictures of the little setup we had on the private property. There's the hut where we got to have a fire and dinner, the area we had to setup our tents (right next to the bamboo and leeches) and finally the toilet (which I was a bit worried about being perched right next to a ledge).

Remember Sam Templeton from Day 4 on the track? He was the original commander of the 39th Militia Battalion lost in early fighting near Kokoda. Templeton's Crossing was named after him.

Read more on Templeton's Crossing

All rugged up for the cold night and ensuring that my tent was completely sealed (I don't want any visitors), I turned in for the night. The routine is definitely starting to wear me down mentally and I need to ensure that I get my rest. There's only a couple of days left trekking, but none of them is going to be easy.

Here's the trekking we did for the day