Tuesday 28 March 2017

Kokoda 2017 - Alzheimer's Australia NSW

After the success of their first overseas challenge fundraiser – Kilimanjaro 2017 - the Alzheimer’s Australia fundraising team are thrilled to announce that this year’s challenge will take their supporters to the Kokoda track in Papa New Guinea! 

Emma from Alzheimer’s Australia says “The Kokoda track is so rich in a history that is close to the hearts of many Australians and so we thought we would give people the opportunity to combine the challenge with raising funds to help people affected by dementia in Australia. This will be an experience that participants will be proud of and reminisce about for a very long time.”

Each participant has a fundraising target of $2,500, making this trip extremely worthwhile for the charity but also very achievable for the trekkers. The Alzheimer’s Australia fundraising team will be there for participants every step of the way, providing support, advice and materials to help each person smash their target!

For over 70 years the story of the Battle of Kokoda has been told by survivors, memoirs and war records. No matter the interpretation the poignant narratives tell a very human story of comradeship and true grit that took place along the formidable Kokoda Trail, single file trail that links New Guinea’s interior to the coast near Port Moresby. The Kokoda Track is simply a prevailing journey of endurance and indomitable spirit.

When you begin the 96km trek you will feel the same level of physical exhaustion in the same way the Diggers and their Papuan brothers once experienced when they fought the Japanese. You will also quickly gain a sense of Diggers’ camaraderie and share a similar bond with your own group as you meet the environmental challenges that awaits in New Guinea’s interior; the deep ravines and precipices of the Owen Stanley Ranges, the raging waters only accessed by a log bridge and miles of inhospitable terrain though dense rainforests. And in a quiet moment of reflection, you may even think about the men who lived with the constant threat of another enemy ambush.

Wonder how they persevered when they fell sick with malaria or were shot. Or even imagine how they walked day after day in the searing heat with their with feet covered in festering blisters, but as you look across the remarkably beautiful and untamed panoramas from atop Papua New Guinea’s highest peak, you will feel a sense of exhilaration at having experienced one of the world’s most extraordinary treks that is steeped in history and valour.

At the heart of your journey is Oro Province, one of the most beautiful landscapes in Papua New Guinea. Located between the Solomon Sea and the foothills of the Owen Stanley range is the sleepy village of Kokoda where the northern end of the Kokoda Track ends. Established as an outpost for miners travelling to the Yodda Kokoda gold fields in the 1890s, Kokoda’s airfield became the central focus of Allied and Japanese interests during the 1942 Kokoda Trail Campaign.

Starting at Owers' Corner near Port Moresby (or v/v from Kokoda) your expert Australian led trekking experience will include camp stays (in tents) near the villages and battlefields at the forefront of the campaign while enjoying the warmth of Kokoda Spirit’s Papuan hosts.

At the end of your journey you will walk away with a sense of personal triumph at having trekked one of the most challenging tracks in the world. 

And your spiritual bond with the heroic men who left their footsteps along the Kokoda Track will forever stay with you.

To find out more about this opportunity, please visit www.fightdementia.org.au/nsw/kokoda2017 

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