DAY 5 - KAGI TO MENARI

Friday 07 November

The trekkers enjoyed emerging themselves into a little cultural village life last night as they listened to beautiful voices of the local children singing. However, it was another 5am wakeup call as they made the short trek past the church out of the village to the airfield for the steepest descent of the trek down to the creek crossing. Here they filled up with some water and then it was a 10-minute calf burner to the top followed by a relatively easy hike for 30 minutes. The sun was out at it was a hot day as they trekked into Efogi on the hill for a break. The trekkers rested and had morning tea, enjoying the views down to Efogi Village in the valley. Then they trekked 30 minutes down to the village and inspected the museum and local market. They then hiked out of the village enjoying the beautiful views and began the slogging ascent of Brigade Hill via Mission Ridge made even harder by the hot sun. They stopped briefly at Mission Ridge to chat some more about the campaign and then headed onto Brigade Hill for an emotional ceremony on the summit in honour of the soldiers and in remembrance of their bravery. The crew had lunch at Brigade Hill and the a light rain came down as they followed the track, with a long descent for 2.5 hours into Menari. (This is the site where the brave 39th Battalion were withdrawn from the campaign before the battle at Brigade Hill. Exhausted and on the brink of total collapse the remaining ‘Ragged Bloody Heroes’ struggled back to Port Moresby. They would return to fight at Buna and Gona. ) The Kokoda gods were on their side as the rain stopped and the sun came out just as they reached the river. They had a swim here then trekked 40 minutes up into camp, arriving at 5:20pm and are now having a well learnt rest and waiting for dinner. There are a few sore legs and feet so, the crew are looking forward to a half day tomorrow.