Blog 326 – Falling Off the Mountain in Papua New Guinea, Part 2 – 31 August 2025
This is the village of Kokoda as seen from the memorial and museum located slightly above the village. John Hankin photo taken Sunday the 3rd of August 2025.
This is a photo of the group of people with whom I trekked the Kokoda track from Sunday 3 August up to and including Sunday 10 August 2023. I have done hundreds (perhaps thousands) of kilometres of walking in my life. The Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea was the hardest and most dangerous walking that I have ever done. I am surprised and grateful that somehow, I am still alive. I am wearing the yellow cap in the front row.
A view of the mountains surrounding Kokoda; photo taken from the Kokoda memorial. John Hankin photo taken 3 August 2025.
The start of my trek on the Kokoda track on 3 August 2025. John Hankin photo taken Sunday, 3rd of August 2025.
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I arrived in Port Moresby, capital of Papua New Guinea in the afternoon of Saturday 2 August 2025. My trek had been organised by a company called Australian Kokoda Tours. The company did an excellent job in making sure that everything went as planned. From Port Moresby airport, I was taken by mini bus to a hotel. At dinner that evening, we trekkers were given a full briefing on what lay ahead of us. Although the briefing was thorough, no briefing could have forewarned us of the astonishingly difficult nature of what lay ahead of us.
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On Sunday 3 August, we flew from Port Moresby to Popondetta on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. In Popondetta we boarded the back of a truck fitted with wooden benches down the sides of the truck tray. We then had a very bumpy ride from Popondetta to the town of Kokoda. Kokoda is the beginning of the Kokoda Track. While in Kokoda, we visited a museum for the soldiers who fought on the Kokoda Track in 1942 and we also visited the memorial of the war against the Japanese in 1942.
Once we had finally overcome the emotions that came spontaneously from visiting the museum and memorial at Kokoda, it was time to walk from Kokoda to Deniki. On its website, Australian Kokoda Tours says that the walk from Kokoda to Deniki is “approx. 3 hours trekking”.
I have no doubt that most native born residents of Papua New Guinea probably can walk from Kokoda to Deniki in about 3 hours”. Because I had regularly walked about 50 kilometres for at least the last 4 years, I was confident that my physical fitness was easily good enough for me to walk all stages of the Kokoda track without too much difficulty. In particular, I thought I would easily be able to walk the various stages of the trek without too much difficulty because I had asked Australian Kokoda Tours to ensure I had a local porter to carry my backpack for me.
For perhaps the first two hours of the trek, I did indeed have no difficulty in keeping up with my porter Tony. The track was wet and muddy, but it was flat.
The nature of the Track changed abruptly just as night was falling.
The website for Australian Kokoda tours says this about Deniki.
I saw the spectacular views as soon as I arrived because it was not yet dark when I finally reached Deniki. That very first day of trekking, I established the pattern for every day that I walked the Kokoda Track. I was always the last trekker to reach camp.
The mountain that enables Deniki to provide such a spectacular view, is part of the chain of mountains dividing northern Papua New Guinea from southern Papua New Guinea. The mountain chain is called the Owen Stanley Ranges. With great abruptness, the track leading from Kokoda ran into the mountain that gave Deniki its spectacular views. Only a goat would have the ability to easily climb the mountain to Deniki. When I finally reached Deniki, night was not far away, but the views really were spectacular.
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I did not realise it on that first day of trekking, but the mountain climb to Deniki was not particularly difficult by the standards of the Kokoda Track.
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The camp at Deniki just before sunset on Sunday 3rd of August 2025. Deniki is located on a “shoulder” of relatively flat land jutting out from the side of the mountain.
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