DAY 5: KAGI TO MENARI

Wednesday 27 August

Today started with a short trek past the church out of the village, to the airfield before the steepest descent of the trek, for 60 minutes down to the creek crossing. They filled up with some water here and then had a 10-minute calf burner to the top followed by an easier hike for 30 minutes for a rest and then 15 minutes into Efogi on the hill. Here the trekkers rested and had morning tea, enjoying the views down to Efogi Village in the valley. They then hiked out and down to the village enjoying the beautiful views and stopped here to visit the museum and local market, before they began the slogging ascent of Brigade Hill via Mission Ridge. The trekkers experienced some really good but hot weather while climbing Mission Ridge, which allowed great dry track conditions. They stopped at Mission ridge to chat some about the campaign and trekked a short 15 minutes onto Brigade hill. Both groups met and had an emotional ceremony on the summit of Brigade Hill in honour of the soldiers and in remembrance of their bravery. The crew had lunch here and then followed the track, with a long descent into Menari waterfall, where they were rewarded at the bottom with a refreshing swim. This is the site where the brave 39th Battalion were withdrawn from the campaign before the battle at Brigade Hill.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 trekkers arrived at 4:00pm and are now enjoying a shower, buying up some fruit, twisties and soft drink before dinner.