I did not know of such a difficult trail that exists in my own country until I tried it with the group of enthusiastic trekkers from USA and Australia. I'm proud to have conquered the challenging and difficult track as a first Public Servant from PNG to complete the whole length of the 2000km.
It was on April 20018, I was requested by my boss (Heni Dembis) to accompany Peter Gamgee of Get Away Trekking and author of Ghost Mountain, James Campbell on the trip proposed for August to September.
I was having confidence to myself as a native PNG, thinking I have the strength and stamina to complete the track. Little did I knew later was, walking 4-9km each day for 20days of the track that was described by Peter Gamgee as; ''what was, One Green Hell on the jungles on 1942 is today merely a Tough Walk in Paradise''.
While having the combination of youngest being the girl, Rachel Campbell at 15 and Kevin Wainwright at 67, we had a broad combination of trekking experts. It was second time for James Campbell and couple of times for Peter Gamgee. In total there were eight (8) of the trekkers who are from overseas and I was among them with our PNG guides and carriers ranging from eldest to youngest. The youngest ones have accompanied their elders or father who were our porters and guides. One of those notable ones was the singing little James from Loronu village and he was 7years of age.
We had boys from Central side and Northern side as porters and guides. The Central sides were led by Burdy Walbino a local from Loronu and who have been working closely with James Campbell and Peter Gamegee for the past few years to scope and revamp the Kapakapa Trail. The Northern side boys were led by Peter Bonga who is a regular trekking guide with Buna Trek and Tours. He has done guiding work on Kapakapa Track couple of times with trekkers and does routinely trekking business on Kokoda Track. He has trekking experiences with Mt. Wilhelm which is also on his list of trekking experiences in PNG's difficult terrains and rough mountains.
The first day trip was not that really difficult with aluminum dinghy rides up the Kemp Welsh River. Since it was a dry season and water levels at some areas were shallow, we had more pushing upstream and arrived late at Sirimu village and overnight camps were setup. There we had a first game of Frisbee in the afternoon with village kids. Thanks to Rachael for introducing the Frisbee to the village children which also attracted few more elders and some began to be the expert on Frisbee. Each Frisbee was donated to the respective villages along with few other stationary and gifts for the school and village from the trekkers.
Rachel has a special kind of attention from the kids whenever we arrived into a village. There were at times, every village kid who could yell and call for Rachel to go and play with them. Our local trekking team have names for her too for local synonymous reasons and at times we have to make her a crown-like headband from ferns and made her look like a jungle queen. Some guides even called her ''stongpela meri' (strong lady) or whenever we introduced her in the village welcome gatherings as one of the youngest among the trekkers, they will refer her as 'strongpela meri'.
Among the ladies we have were two elders and one of them was the grand-daughter of Corporal Carl Stenberg, Donna Wilson. Corporal Stenberg, fought alongside the 2nd Battalion of the US 126th Infantry Division of the 32nd 'Red Arrows' and battled their way through to what ended in Buna as the Bloody Buna. The other one is; Julie Ardoin who is married to Joe Deutsch whom we trekked together. The couple are from USA and keen trekkers who have enjoyed trekking the rough terrains of Kapakapa without any issues despite its their first time to PNG.
Not forgetting Stephen from Australia who have been enjoying the local dishes and fruits at every villages that we passed through or stayed overnight. On the track, he has been the cameraman and the photographer for all kinds of mouse-rooms found along the track. He loves nature and keeps looking for things that always awes him and takes photos of them. He surely made alot of memories on the track with the nature, people, local dishes and fresh fruits.
If I could remembered one of his remarks during the lunch stop at Ghost Mountain while he was lying down with face up watching the fog covered sky, he said; 'Oh it feels great to be closer to god'. I could imagine the atmosphere and the attitude at 2000 meters above sea level. It was a fine weather but clouds could never allow us to see through to Buna's seafront from there.
It is believed that Major General Harding or Lt Gen Eichelberger led the 126th Infantry Division purposely over to Ghost Mountain for the soldiers to see Buna seafront from there.
Not forgetting Stephen from Australia who have been enjoying the local dishes and fruits at every villages that we passed through or stayed overnight. On the track, he has been the cameraman and the photographer for all kinds of mouse-rooms found along the track. He loves nature and keeps looking for things that always awes him and takes photos of them. He surely made alot of memories on the track with the nature, people, local dishes and fresh fruits.
If I could remembered one of his remarks during the lunch stop at Ghost Mountain while he was lying down with face up watching the fog covered sky, he said; 'Oh it feels great to be closer to god'. I could imagine the atmosphere and the attitude at 2000 meters above sea level. It was a fine weather but clouds could never allow us to see through to Buna's seafront from there.
It is believed that Major General Harding or Lt Gen Eichelberger led the 126th Infantry Division purposely over to Ghost Mountain for the soldiers to see Buna seafront from there.
In reference to Rachael, she has a lot more experiences of the grueling Kapakapa Trail which are her memories of endurance and self determination she will never forget in her lifetime. While reading through here gritty bliss before writing up this, she has a love for PNG like his dad James Campbell used to say; ''there's nowhere in the world I could ever find a place like PNG.''
More will be posted once we will collaborate to write few more stories of Kapakapa Trail.
The nightmares are not yet over for some of us after the 20days of continuous trekking from Gabagaba in Central Province to Buna in the Oro Province in 2018.
The nightmares are not yet over for some of us after the 20days of continuous trekking from Gabagaba in Central Province to Buna in the Oro Province in 2018.
Follow Rachel's gritty bliss on this link; https://grittybliss.com/2019/01/23/triage-on-the-trail/
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| Group Photo at New Suwari Village after the welcome. Rachel is second in the front row from Left. *New Suwari is the first village on the Northern side of the Kapakapa track |
