ADVENTURE 13/2019 Spotlight 63Foto: Greg Newington/Getty Images
I
t was only a small step back-
wards, but it left me balancing
on the lip of a 50-metre ver-
tical drop to the jungle floor.
Chris Stevens, our guide,
caught my flailing hiking pole
and pulled me back to solid footing. We
both breathed a sigh of relief. Not for the
first time, I wondered what I was doing
here. Then I remembered that, despite the
humid days, cold nights, heavy rain, deep
mud and the risk of tropical disease, I was
having the time of my life.
We were four days into an eight-day
hike along the Kokoda Track, a single-file
footpath that runs 96 kilometres (60
miles) through the otherwise impassa-
ble Owen Stanley Range, which divides
Papua New Guinea (PNG) in two.
Few travellers make it to PNG, so the
country has a “lost world” feel. A land of
tropical forests, dark blue waters, coral
seas and active volcanoes, it is one of the
few places in the world where you can tru-
ly go off the beaten track.
Unlike in other Pacific nations, colonial
missions never penetrated far inland, so
the country has kept its rich tribal heri-
tage, as well as 840 different languages.
Most of its population still lives in iso-
lated communities, and cannibalism was
practised in some areas into the 1960s.
I first visited PNG in 1986. I was looking
forward to tackling Kokoda then, but
I was quite unprepared and promised to
return the following year.Now, 33 years later, I was finally deep in
the green mountains of the Kokoda. With
me was Peter, my university friend, my
17-year-old nephew Jarred, and nine oth-
er Australians wanting to test themselves
on a track that is regularly found on lists
of the world’s toughest.
It is not so much the height that is chal-
lenging — the trail rises to a maximum of
only 2,232 metres (7,217 feet) at Mount
Bellamy. Instead, as Peter said later over a
beer back in the capital of Port Moresby:
“It’s just so unrelenting.” The accordion-
like ridges and gullies mean that you
climb and descend more than 7,000
metres (23,000 feet) in total.The journey begins
On the first day, we flew into Kokoda, our
starting point for the Kokoda Track. The
arrival on the grass landing strip is such
an event that the locals gather to watch.
From there, the track rises gently through
several plantations.
Then we hit the first climb, and I dis-
covered what quadriceps are really for.
From then on, we were either going up
steep sections or walking down the other
side, picking our way between roots and
over rocks, searching for somewhere firm
to place our feet. The challenge of it takes
all your energy, and the continuous line of
false summits kills your enthusiasm.
When hiking in Germany, I never use
trekking poles, but I quickly got out a pair
I had borrowed from a neighbour. “UsingADVENTURE
Off the beaten track
Der Kokoda Track in Papua-Neuguinea erinnert an eine denkwürdige Schlacht,
die im Zweiten Weltkrieg zwischen Australien und Japan ausgetragen wurde.
GREG LANGLEY nimmt uns mit auf eine einmalige Reise durch den Regenwald.ADVANCEDaccordion-like
[E(kO:diEn laIk]
, Ziehharmonika ähnlich
descend [di(send]
, absteigen
flailing [(fleI&lIN]
, herumfuchtelnd
gully [(gVli]
, Schlucht
hiking pole
[(haIkIN pEUl]
, Wa n d e r s t o c k
impassable [Im(pA:sEb&l]
, unpassierbar, unbe-
gehbar
landing strip
[(lÄndIN strIp]
, Landebahn
lip [lIp]
, hier: Rand
mud [mVd]
, Schlamm, Morast
off the beaten track
[)Qf DE )bi:t&n (trÄk]
, abseits des ausge-
tretenen PfadesPapua New Guinea
[ˌpæpuə njuː ˈɡɪni]
, (wg. Aussprache)
relief: breathe a sigh of ~
[ri(li:f]
, einen Seufzer der
Erleichterung ausstoßen
ridge [rIdZ]
, Bergkamm
single-file footpath
[)sINg&l faI&l (fUtpA:T]
, sehr schmaler Fußweg,
auf dem man hintereinan-
der gehen muss
solid footing
[)sQlId (fUtIN]
, fester Untergrund
tackle [(tÄk&l]
, angehen, in Angriff
nehmen
tribal heritage
[)traIb&l (herItIdZ]
, indigenes Erbe
unrelenting
[)Vnri(lentIN]
, unerbittlich, erbar-
mungslos