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Kokoda Day 3

2009-10-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

It's now Day 3 and its time to see if Kokoda will make us or break us. It's a beautiful sunny day and the worries of rain have been left behind. The sky is clear but we rarely see it as we are mostly under canopy. We started to get into the hard walking today where the repetition of the steps begin to play on your kneess. Writing this some 6 weeks later, I can still feel my Kokoda knees every time I get up and am wondering have I screwed them up!

The hills are steep and they are long, you do get short rests along the way and are constantly sipping on our water. 'Water Up' becomes the common chant along the track as fellow porters support each other ensuring we continuously remember to stay hydrated. The porters call it 'kissing water' which is a nice contrast to constantly hearing 'water up'.

Today we had a rather difficult water fall climb. It was not hard because of the water as the stream was more of a trickle, it was more that it was steep, rocky, mossy and therefore slippery. Add to that your lactic acid system screaming at you the way through. It was the kind of climb where you were screaming on the inside and stopping regularily for water and to wait for the crew to catch up - thank god.

In contrast to this was the climbing of hills that were covered in roots and opposing muddy foot holes. You learned quickly that you were either a pot hole man or a root man. Or you could be both which insured injury. I was a root man enjoying the focus of balancing on each root. It became a bit of a game as the walking is so repetitive that you entertain yourself in these ways.

Just watching the repetitive roots under your feet for most of the day can get quite tedious but this is what you have to do as one slip and your destined for injury stuffing up the rest of the trek. Day 3 and you begin to become aware of why the Kokoda Track is famous for being one of the toughest treks in the world.

Although it was a physically hard day, I realsied that I could do this and that our extensive training had definatley paid off. In contrast to this and what I was not expecting was adjusting to a new group. Obviously we were thrown in with a bunch of people that we had not met before but I was not expecting or had not considered the bonding process with a new team who did not no you from a bar of soap... and there was no escape as it was pretty much 14 hours or so a day with these new people.

At home you rely on your past, your job, your status, your merits of achievement etc to boost your confindence and help you relate to people. You have a myriad of tools at hand to help someone get to know you or at least make you feel confident and thus help to express yourself in a particular way. On the track there is none of that, no modern cruches to help you prove yourself and thus all of this has to be done on discussion alone and forming trust and bonds through what you say and do only on the track. No history or past to back you up, only the track... how you help people, being careful to keep your ego in check, being the funny one or the quiet one, being careful not to offend... so many social issues come up in your mind which proves to be a test mentally along with the struggles of the track.

On top of this, I am with my beautiful wife Adele, so we need to be careful to engage with the group probably more than each other to ensure that we all bond to help the the track become as memorable as it can be. This is somthing we learn quickly as we buddy up with strangers and get to know them whilst we scuraging up the track.

Over the next few days it does not take long for these guys to become our friends as we learn who the characters are. At a slower pace the porters are also starting to reveal themselves, although at night we are in 2 seperate camps, you can slowly get the vibe that it will not be too long before we start sharing laughs also. On this night, the porters start singing from there compound, we are not with them but you get a sense that this is an invitation to join in which is bound to happen over the next 4 nights.

Today we also met the oldest Fuzzy Wuzzy still alive on the track which was quite emotional as you begin to understand what went on. This guy is in his late 80s and is quite frail but he has a super smile on his face and you can feel that he wants to meet with you. We all get to shake his hand and get a photo... this was somthing I though would be quite cliche before getting on the track as I had seen a lot of it in the media. But being there and having a better understanding of how everything fits it does bring a tear to your eye as it was quite moving, and am glad that I did it.

Kokoda Day 2

2009-09-19T16:45:00.000-07:00

Now the serious walking begins, day 2 and we are up at 5am and it's still dark. It rained all night and we were beside a stream so I did not sleep to well as the sound of the water rushing past was quite deafening. And after sleeping on a centimetre of foam it felt like I had slept arched over a rock. Head torch on and it's time to get organised for the day ahead, which is something you have to get used too, scrummaging around in the dark through your gear, cramming things back into your dry bags, making sure you have your necessary rations for the day, don't forget your anti malaria tablet which I had forgot, I'll make sure I get it for lunch.

I find my plastic bowl, spoon and mug and off to breakfast in the communal hut... we are on a tight army like schedule so you have to make sure you get your water for the day, get your gear packed, get your mozzie repellent on, get your food eaten (need the energy), ensure you have not left anything behind, and before you know it your porter has taken your pack and you are questioning that all your gear will be in the next camp. I was particularly worried about by head torch as I am thinking what will I do for the next 7 days in the dark if it is gone. Luckily Adele had it in her bag, it was somehow exchanged over breakfast and I had forgot she had even used it.

Grr... its these little stresses that can get you undone as the journey's mental side become more evident. Any way we are off, sticks in hand as we begin to slowly gradually climb. The day reveals itself to be quite nice and sunny as we steadily walk in and out of the canopy climbing to Isurava war memorial for lunch. When you are under the canopy the temperature is quite bearable but when out the sun is bearing down and although you are climbing you hope for canopy again. It is humid and after about 20 minutes of walking the sweat and water exchange begins.

Walking in a group can become a little bit of an adjustment as the group slowly works its way out on who wants to be fast & up the front of the pack and who would prefer to walk slow. This can cause some social adjustment but over the next few days it naturally works its way out. On the flip side this is the best way to get to know people... although you are always looking down, conversations between trekkers are continuously evolving, fluttering along a singular line, skipping up and down the track as we all get to know one another.

In contrast to this the porters continuously shuffle up and down the group assisting in difficult situations, they have seemed to carve a parallel 'porters' track which helps them to get up front or drop back fast when they need to. Our porters have done this 13 or 14 times so they know the track like the back of their hand.

After a few catch your breath stops along the way, we reach our lunch stop at Isurava where a war memorial is positioned ahead of an amazing view of the Owen Stanley Ranges. It's an iconic place where the 4 black marble pillars of Courage, Endurance, Mateship and Sacrifice are positioned. Our guide, Sergeant Razor runs us through the Battle of Isurava where we learn how Private Bruce Kingsbury sacrificed his life for the good of his battalion so that they could make way through a force of Japanese. Being there and listening to the battle stories starts to put things into perspective as we realise that we are walking through ghostly battle zone.

After lunch we head off and continue our 6 hour climb into camp. Overall I am still feeling quite fit and able as Adele and I begin to realise that our fitness preparation is paying off.

Our camp site for the night is perched high on a cliff and the night drifts in as the porters begin to sing village songs. We go to bet about 8pm, it is pitch black and we are wanting to get a good night sleep for day 3 ahead.

Kokoda Day 1

2009-09-07T21:37:00.001-07:00

After a feast (or our last supper) at the Crown Plaza Port Moresby and getting acquainted with our new trekking team - it was time for bed as an early wake up was imminent and our adventure was about to begin.

We arrived at Tropic Air, a small flight operator that was to fly us from Port Moresby into Kokoda. We were scheduled to leave at 10:30am but due to poor weather in the Kokoda ranges and possibly due to the recent tragedy our flight was delayed. Normally planes do not leave after 12am as this is when the weather settles in on the ranges so at 11:45, our pilot was given a small window for us to leave, and I was starting to get nervous.

Adele and I were separated onto 2 small planes... I am told that this is standard army practice to keep a member of the family alive in case of an incident... this added to the nerves but we were determined to get this over with... at least we were in professional hands. So we were off, climbing 10,000 feet in a spiral into very thick cloud. The pilot is now arching over the dashboard looking for a gap in the clouds to embark on our descent. My nerves now getting to me, I woke up our trek guide, the Mountain of a man, Glenn, or Razor, behind me... "Is this normal?" as I am looking at the other trekkers trying to gage if they were also feeling the same. After a few minutes of flying through a blanket of white, Razor calmly replied, "Yep, he's just looking for a way in and is fly out towards the ocean where some wind may open up the way for us!"

It seems our pilot found a gap and then sharply rolled into a fast decent into the Owen Stanley Ranges. What a thrill, the blanket of white suddenly turned an iridescent green and we were now zooming through the valley & quickly landing on the pot holed Kokoda airstrip with stray dogs almost being blended up. We made it, my anguish was over and I felt like I had just been re born. I now await Adele's landing and hope that she'll be fine. She was and now we both are ready to tackle this track.

First thoughts are... Wow, how green, fresh and natural is this place! We get a brief from Razor and now we have to select our porter for the rest of the journey. Our porters are lined up, I walk over to the only one with no shoes on, he must be the toughest or the dumbest... 'Kenith', is my porter, a smallish skinny fella with red teeth and fly hovering leg sores. He's pretty shy but takes my pack and a new relationship with a new culture begins.

We head off along the airstrip and stop at Kokoda Village for morning tea where we can see a small museum, some memorials and sign a guest book confirming that we are really here! This is the first time we are introduced to our ration packs which consist of 24 hours of eating, mainly dried and package food such as 2 minute noodles, powdered soup, pasta, some packaged salmon, a tin of baked beans and various sugary treats. We are also introduced to our Battle Breifs where we start to begin to acknoledge the reasons behind this track... WWII, the Aussies, the Japs and the battle. Razor gives us a good account of the troops landing here and some background of the war and its context as well as where the Japs were coming from.

We continue walking to our first guest house passing various groups on there last day and trying to look for signs of fatigue distressed but mostly they were high spirited probably glad & satisfied that they were completing the trek. We move through a small village, school and continue through relatively flat grounds for the next 2 hours to our first camp. A small set of huts built along a creek line and amongst lavish jungle gardens. I was surprised at how lush and green this place was, I felt like I was in the Garden of Eden especially with the amount of colourful butterflies roaming around.

Our porters already had our tents set up and we just unpacked and had our first tub in the narrow creek along side... I begin to feel quite relaxed like we have left one world far behind and are moving into something quite new.

Kokoda - An Introduction

2009-09-07T03:17:00.000-07:00

I have just returned to Aussie soil, after my 8 day trek through the Owen Stanley Ranges from Kokoda to Owens Corner. Over the next few days and weeks I aim to journal my recent travels through images and thoughts gained from this experience.

In summary this has been undoubtedly one of the best experience of my life. Some of the insights gained from this journey have been;

Gaining insight into the sacrifice the Australian soldiers & battles that went on, on the track, and learning about current & past army practices
The deepened respect for the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels and the local Papua New Guinean Porters that were side by side with us on the whole journey
The physical challenge of the trek... the repetitiveness, the ups, the downs and the steep steps taken 8-10 hours a day
The 'getting back to nature' aspect of primitive living and roughing it
Fitting in to a group of strangers and learning to adapt to this new team with mateship being the natural outcome
Learning about a new culture and engaging in it wholeheartedly

Preparations for Kokoda

2009-08-26T00:59:00.000-07:00

I am just about to leave for the longest walk ever... check out the gear that I have with me which will help me survive the 10 days in the jungle. Notably the bags of snakes, coffee and anti malaria tablets. I'm also taking along a Knights Singlet to give to my Porter at the end of the trip... or maybe I should give it to him at the beginning? Anyway, fingers crossed I will return home with some great stories to tell!

Singapore's OK

2008-10-28T06:27:00.000-07:00

After just arriving home from my 8 day stay in Singapore, I am starting to reflect on what a wonderful city it was.

Initial reactions were, efficient, organised, clean, polite and progressive. For a small island streaming with millions of people it seems that the Singapore government have managed to get a good balance of economic progress and lifestyle.

A good part of the cities efficiency was design related; excellent and clear signage, relevant communication campaigns, modernist principles and effective use of space.

Singapore is a place where East meets West and various Asian cultures are combined such as Malaysian, Indian and Chinese.

As I continue to digest my experience of Singapore I will try and post other design related themes should they come up.

The robots are here

2008-10-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/rodney_brooks_on_robots.html

Jack Black told Kyle Gas that we don't have the technology for robots yet... Well they are here and I think this video from one of my favourite site is a great interlude into the future of robots.

For more other inspirational videos of what the future holds be sure to check out http://www.ted.com/

Welcome

2008-10-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Psyborg Blog, known as Psyblog. I hope to post interesting news, viewpoints and perceptions in the world of multimedia, design, engineering, creativity, business and other fun stuff.