EVEN a badly injured ankle and knee couldn’t stop Sasha Kent from being one of 16 Orange men and women who successfully trekked the famed Kokoda Track.
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Like her fellow trekkers, Ms Kent was determined to walk the 12-day long gruelling journey through the thick jungle and ankle-deep mud in order to complete what the party referred to as a trip of a lifetime.
On the days following her injury, Ms Kent often started walking some hours before her party in order to allow for her slower pace.
According to one of her fellow trekkers Sandro Rossetto, “she battled on like a beauty”.
“All of the women (Ms Kent, Carrie Gentles and Kasey Hopwood) roughed it with the best of us,” said Mr Rossetto.
However according to Mr Rossetto the “fantastic experience” proved a lot tougher than many of them had anticipated.
The group, which comprises primarily fathers and their children, travelled across the Owen Stanley Ranges, renowned as the location of the 1942 battle between Australian and Japanese soldiers.
The heavy rains during the evening and the hot and humid days made the going tough.
The meals were also very basic; most days they consisted of Weetbix and cornflakes for breakfast, two minute noodles and tuna for lunch and a rice mixture of vegetables and chilli sauce for dinner. Many of the travellers reported weight losses of between three to four kilograms.
“I’d recommend it to anyone but there were some very steep hills and it was definitely dangerous in places,” said Mr Rossetto.
“On some days we walked for 10 hours and our shortest days were six to seven hours of walking. It really was hard going.
“There were also plenty of sad times when we arrived at the battle grounds; it was terrible moving.”
As planned, the party departed from Port Moresby and travelled via bus to Owers Corner where they began their trek, ending it 12 days later at the small village of Kokoda.
Those travelling to Kokoda included father and daughter teams Wayne and Carrie Gentles, Steve and Kasey Hopwood, father and son teams Ed and Scott Roweth, Artie and Patrick Treweek, David and Marcus Chapman, brother and sister Sasha and Brendan Kent, and Bugsy Fuller, Sandro Rossetto, Chris Hutchinson and Doug Pigot.
The World Expeditions’ trip was arranged via Travelscene.
Mr Rossetto admitted that the highlight of the journey was the party’s arrival in Kokoda where he “got into the quickest beer I could”.
