Little Heroes Foundation: Track

12 days departing

1 October 2017

An adventure along the is an experience not just a holiday. The Kokoda Track is a journey into Australia's wartime history. It is as important a part of Australian history as Gallipoli. The trek itinerary combines the complete Kokoda wartime story along the exact wartime Kokoda Track, with a world class, challenging, jungle bushwalking experience and inspiring cultural interaction with trek crew and villagers you meet along the way.

$5,420.00* per person twin share departing Adelaide (flights included). Little Heroes Foundation raises funds towards essential equipment and services for seriously ill children and their families. We have raised close to $20 million dollars in 20 years for lifesaving facilities at Adelaide’s Women’s and Children’s Hospital, and to provide daily support to families through our Little Heroes Care program. Join us on this rewarding Kokoda trek and help raise money for Little Heroes Foundation!

What’s included in the price?

 Return Economy Class flights Adelaide to Port Moresby via  One night accommodation in Brisbane including breakfast  Return private airport transfers in Brisbane  One way flight between Port Moresby and Popondetta  Visa for Papua including courier service  International airport arrival and departure transfers in Port Moresby  All necessary land transport in PNG including private transport from Port Moresby to Owers Corner and from Kokoda Village to Popondetta.  2 nights Port Moresby twin share accommodation at the Holiday Inn.  9 day/8 night trekking itinerary  Professional Australian Trek Leader  Local Head Guide, management team and trek crew from villages along the Track  9 days/8 nights accommodation along the Track, in spacious, individual mosquito proof tents which are provided and will be carried, erected and taken down by the trek crew…or you can stay in a village guest house at each of the campsites  Fresh dinners on trek hygienically prepared by the cooks, plus breakfast & lunch each trek day. No army or similar style ration packs  All personal eating utensils  All camp fees  Trek permit costs  Comprehensive history briefings at all war sites  All meals and camp fees for trek crew plus travel allowance and wages for crew  All emergency equipment including ropes, bush knives and axe, plus VHF radios and satellite phone linked 24 hours to our Port Moresby base ( for emergency use only) Hand held radios are linked to the Kokoda Track village radio network and the Kokoda Track Authority office  Visit to Bomana War Cemetery, entrance fee to Japanese Forest Fort at Eora Creek, Con’s Rock, mortar and grenade dump above Templetons and Brigade Hill  Commemorative embroided trekking shirt  Certificate of Achievement suitable for framing  Commemorative ceremony conducted on the summit of Brigade Hill

HOW HARD is trekking the Kokoda Track?

There is no beating around the bush– trekking the Kokoda Track is tough.

For many trekkers, completing the Track is a significant physical and mental achievement.

Occasionally, trekkers finish the trek and state that it was easier than they were lead to believe. This means that they were adequately prepared, fit and healthy.

If you are physically and mentally prepared before you begin your Kokoda Track trek, everything usually falls into place and you will enjoy your Kokoda trekking experience! Day 1—Sunday 1 October It was at this point that the Japanese forces were ordered Adelaide to Brisbane to retreat and the second phase of the Kokoda campaign This afternoon depart Adelaide at 2.05pm for your flight to commenced which involved the Aussies pushing the Brisbane arriving at 4.55pm. Upon arrival in Brisbane, you will apanese back onto the northern beaches where they had be transferred to your hotel for the evening. Hotel TBC. landed 6 months earlier.

This is also the site of what was known as the ‘Golden Day 2 - Monday 2 October Staircase’. There are 3 paths from the Goldie River to the Brisbane to Port Moresby summit of Imita Ridge. Each were used by the Australian This morning after breakfast you will be transferred back to forces. The steeper sections were improved by cutting the airport for your flight to Port Moresby. The flight leaves Brisbane at 10.40am to arrive Port Moresby at 1.50pm. steps and reinforcing them with timbers cut from the Upon arrival in Port Moresby you will be met by a forest. Today the timber reinforcing has long since rotted representative of Backtrack and transferred to your away. There are those who believe (and diary records to accommodation at the Holiday Inn Express. The hotel support the view) that there were several staircases complex features a swimming pool, restaurants, comfortable constructed on steeper sections of these early ridges bar areas and fully air-conditioned rooms with all facilities. A encountered on the trek towards Kokoda. Team briefing is held this afternoon to discuss final Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner preparations for the trek. In the early evening you will have a

Team Dinner before an early night to bed for a good sleep to Day 4 - Wednesday 4 October be prepared for an early morning departure on Day 2. Meals included: Breakfast Nauro Village You start early today so you can walk at a slow and relaxed Day 3 - Tuesday 3 October pace. Ascend the north slope and then descend the south Ua Ule Creek slope of Imita ridge where you have lunch and swim in Ofi This morning depart Port Moresby for Owers Corner, Creek. stopping at the Bomana War cemetery enroute. Trek over Today as you explore the Japanese positions, recall that it Imita ridge to your jungle camp at Ua Ule Creek. It was on was here that the Japanese soldiers were pounded for the Imita Ridge that the Australians dug in for what they thought first time by Australian artillery located at Owers Corner. was to be their last stand against the advancing Japanese The Australian forces till now had no counter to the forces. Having been blasted out of their hurriedly dug Japanese mountain guns so skillfully used against them defences above Ofi Creek on Irobaiwa Ridge, by a well since Isurava. The Japanese offensive/defensive positions located Japanese mountain gun, the Australians retreated to are located on a number of trails over Irobaiwa Ridge. Imita Ridge and were now not prepared to give another inch.

Your Trek Leader will show you the rarely visited Kunai Day 6 - Friday 6 October grass clearing which marks the furthest point of contact Naduri Village made by Australian troops with General Hori’s South Sea This morning you climb Brigade Hill and conduct a brief, Forces. In this clearing a large heavily armed Japanese dignified ceremony on the summit in honour of the advance patrol was wiped out in a hastily planned ambush soldiers and in remembrance of their bravery. by an opposing Australian patrol, who luckily heard the A steep descent follows into the Village of Efogi and then Japanese officer talking as he moved his men down the a short sharp ascent to your home village of Naduri. trail. It was also on Irobaiwa Ridge, with Port Moresby Your trek leader will point out the paths taken by the nearly in sight, that General Hori received orders directly Japanese forces on their famous’ ‘night time lantern from the Emperor, to withdraw. With major shortages of procession’. This now legendary procession, lit by munitions, food and reinforcements and being pounded by burning lengths of cable stripped from Australian field Australian artillery and harassed by well-equipped wireless lines, was undertaken on the eve of the battle of Australian patrols, the Japanese army retreated with the Brigade Hill in an attempt to put fear into the hearts of Australians in hot pursuit. the 2/27 Battalion dug in on Mission Ridge. Time is taken After lunch, a steep ascent of the Maguli ranges to your to explain and show how and where the Japanese campsite in Nauro Village, located on the slopes below the managed to cut the Australian defences which summit on the descending trail into the Brown River valley. eventually led to the Australian defenders having to Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner withdraw. Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Day 5 - Thursday 5 October Menari Village Day 7 - Saturday 7 October After breakfast, you commence a long descent of the Naduri Village Maguli Range. As the Australians retreated, ascending the Today is the Sabbath and therefore a non-trekking rest long never ending slopes of the Maguli Range broke the day. In respect for the wishes of the local people you do heart of many an exhausted soldier. On the northern side not trek on the Sabbath. You have an opportunity to of the range you now enter the sometimes swampy flood catch up on your washing and enjoy mixing with the trek plains of the Brown River. Cross the Brown River and crew and the village people. continue over a steep spur into your campsite in the You will be guided around Naduri Village to inspect some beautiful village of Menari. of Back Track’s current Trekker Assistance Programmes. Meals Included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner BackTrack hopes to be able to provide trekkers with an

insight into village life during your stay.

Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Day 8 - Sunday 8 October Day 9 - Monday 9 October Templetons Crossing 2 Alolo Village Today cross the Kokoda saddle the highest point of your From your campsite deep in the bottom of this narrow trek at 2190 metres. steep sided valley, trek on to inspect the Japanese Once on the summit of the Kokoda Saddle, depending on positions in the Eora Creek Forest Fort. weather and Track conditions and available time, you may The Japanese Forest Fort which incorporates The Lost select the option to take a rarely used jungle track that was Battlefield, covers part of a high ridge with a commanding cut during the campaign by the Australians which will take position overlooking Eora Creek. you down to the Myola lakes. These dry lake beds were, at Your trek leader will explain the forts defensive various times during both phases of the Kokoda campaign, significance and how the battle to capture the fort the site of one of the ’s major supply unfurled. You will explore the Japanese mountain gun and depots. It was initially hoped that wounded would be able heavy machine gun positions. Still clearly visible are large to be airlifted from the lake sites especially during the quantities of munitions and artefacts. Many Australian Australian withdrawal and that supplies would be able to soldiers lost their lives fighting here, before the Japanese be flown here to avoid the long haul by native bearers. retreated further back towards Kokoda. Until the Lost Myola is most remembered as the site for low level Battlefield section of the Japanese Forest Fort has been dropping of provisions by the Australian Air Force. Live properly surveyed, documented and any human remains munitions, never recovered after misplaced air drops, can identified and respectfully removed for proper burial, no still be discovered embedded in the exposed banks of the trekking companies will visit the higher section. creeks flowing across the lakes. After you explore the lower areas of the fort it is a long Once you cross the Kokoda Gap, descend into Eora Creek but relatively easy trek through thick forest and a short valley on the northern side of the Owen Stanley ranges. steep ascent to Alolo Village your camp site for Your campsite is beautifully located on the side of this fast tonight. running creek. Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner

Day 10 - Tuesday 10 October Your Trek Leader will detail the sequence of events of the 53rd Kokoda Station Battalion’s withdrawal and by pointing out the geography and Wake up early for your last full days trekking. It is a long detailing the trail networks, explain the significance of this continuous descent all day. You stop and inspect the withdrawal to the ultimate outcome of the battle at Isurava. memorial at the Isurava Battlefield. The 2/16 Infantry Battalion despatched to bolster the 53rd Inspect Kingsbury’s Rock, the site of the action which Battalions defences were unable to make a significant impact earned Private Bruce Kingsbury his on 29 on slowing the Japanese advance from that flank. The 2/16th August 1942. During the height of the Battle of Isurava, and 53rd Battalion now found themselves having to regroup which featured full frontal Japanese mass assaults and with the withdrawing forces from Isurava to commence a brutal hand to hand combat. Kingsbury, who was one of series of rear-guard, strategic defensive actions now part of the few survivors of a platoon which had been overrun by Australian military folklore. the Japanese, immediately volunteered to join a different Once you arrive on the valley floor, a short walk brings you to platoon which had been ordered to counterattack. He the end of your trek at Kokoda. A farewell party with your crew rushed forward firing his bren gun from his hip, clearing a is held tonight. path through the enemy and inflicting a number of Meals included: Breakfast, Lunch & Dinner casualties. Kingsbury was then seen to fall, shot by a Japanese sniper (near Kingsbury’s Rock) and instantly Day 11 - Wednesday 11 October killed. His actions, in delaying the Japanese to give Port Moresby sufficient time for the Australians to fortify their positions, You depart early by truck for Popondetta airfield , have been identified as what undoubtedly saved the Battal- approximately 4 hours drive towards the coast. Here you ion Headquarters, and He was awarded the Victoria Cross board your scheduled Air Niugini flight and on arrival at Port as a result. Moresby head to your hotel to clean up and A full briefing is given on the now legendary 4-day battle of prepare for your last night’s celebrations. Your certificate of Isurava. It was here that the 2/14th Infantry Battalion completion will be awarded to you at dinner tonight. arrived to support the 39th Militia Battalion and the legend Meals included: Breakfast & Lunch of ‘The Ragged Bloody Heroes’ was born. Within clear sight, and only a short distance on the other side of the valley, a Day 12 – Thursday 12 October parallel trail marks the locations of the 53rd Militia Port Moresby to Adelaide Battalion’s defensive actions. This track was abandoned This morning after breakfast you will be transferred to the before the onslaught of an overwhelming Japanese push up airport for your flight home to Australia. Your flight is back via that side of the valley while the Battle at Isurava, opposite, Brisbane to arrive into Adelaide this evening. Welcome Home! was raging. Meals included: Breakfast

** This itinerary follows the Track South to North  9 day/8 night trekking itinerary however may be changed to the North to South  Professional Australian Trek Leader Direction depending on participant numbers. Flight  Local Head Guide, management team and trek times are subject to change. crew from villages along the Track  9 days/8 nights accommodation along the Track, in PACKAGE COST spacious, individual mosquito proof tents which $5,420.00 twin share are provided and will be carried, erected and taken $435.00 single supplement down by the trek crew…or you can stay in a village guest house at each of the campsites As part of trekking the Kokoda for Little Heroes  Fresh dinners on trek hygienically prepared by the Foundation a fundraising component of $2,500.00 cooks, plus breakfast & lunch each trek day. No army or similar style ration packs must be raised. Please contact Little Heroes in regards  All personal eating utensils to this fundraising component.  All camp fees

 Trek permit costs Personal porter  Comprehensive history briefings at all war sites $640 additional payment for the services of  All meals and camp fees for trek crew plus travel a Personal Porter who will carry all your gear on the allowance and wages for crew Track in a provided backpack. This is strongly  All emergency equipment including ropes, bush recommended if you are unsure of your ability to knives and axe, plus VHF radios and satellite phone carry at least 15kgs over uneven terrain and in linked 24 hours to our Port Moresby base ( for uncertain weather conditions. You will still need to emergency use only) Hand held radios are linked carry your day pack which will only weigh about to the Kokoda Track village radio network and the 3-5kgs. Kokoda Track Authority office  Visit to Bomana War Cemetery, entrance fee to Cost Inclusions Japanese Forest Fort at Eora Creek, Con’s Rock,  Return Economy Class flights Adelaide to Port mortar and grenade dump above Templetons and Moresby via Brisbane Brigade Hill  One night accommodation in Brisbane  Commemorative embroided trekking shirt including breakfast  Certificate of Achievement suitable for framing  Return private airport transfers in Brisbane  Commemorative ceremony conducted on the  One way flight between Popondetta and Port summit of Brigade Hill Moresby  Visa for Papua New Guinea including courier service  International airport arrival and departure transfers in Port Moresby Little Heroes Foundation: Kokoda Track

$5,420.00 per person including flights

Though every effort will be made to fulfil commitments as per the brochure and itineraries Peregrine Travel Centre undertakes no liability should circum- stances beyond its control prevent such undertaking being possible. Peregrine Travel Centre reserves the right to change the itinerary, dates, prices, inclu- sions, in whole or in part, at any time without prior notice. It will not be liable to refund passengers for any reason whatsoever including failure to reach expectations, inability to participate in other activities or inclusions. By booking a tour the passenger acknowledges and agrees that though every effort will be made to ensure your personal well-being , Peregrine Travel Centre accepts no liability for any additional charges, including transport, meals or accommo- dation costs, incurred as a result of fault, misdemeanour or third party failures, the non-provision of services, strikes, cancellations, delays, illness or accident. Peregrine Travel Centre expressly renounces all claims should you incur additional expense as a direct or indirect consequence of the tours, foods or beverag- es or transport or any ancillary service provided throughout the tour. Though all practical assistance will be given, no responsibility is assumed or undertaken by Peregrine Travel Centre for loss of money, credit cards, traveller’s cheques, baggage or personal belongings.

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*Tour price is per person, twin share and based on minimum 2 people travelling. Price subject to availability, exchange rate and currency surcharges. Not included in the price: Items of a personal nature – personal porter, meals & drinks not listed in itinerary, gratuities, souvenirs, insurance and local taxes. Single supplement is $350.00. Please contact Peregrine Travel Centre for help with booking alternative airfares. Further conditions apply.

PAYMENT

A non-refundable deposit of $1,350.00 per person is payable on booking. The final balance of the monies will be due by Thursday 20 July. Peregrine Travel Centre reserves the right to amend the tour cost if the exchange rate alters significantly.

- Cash, personal or bank cheque, direct deposit or electronic funds transfer to our bank account

Bank: Westpac Bank

BSB: 035006

Account No: 150990

Account Name: Peregrine Travel Trust Account

REF: “SURNAME— Little Heroes Oct”

- Credit card; (service fees apply as follows: 1% Visa/Mastercard, 3% Diners/Amex)

PLEASE NOTE: Electronic Funds Transfer Payments usually take 24 to 48 hours to appear in our bank account. Please allow for this when timing your pay- ments for a due date or airline ticketing deadline. We cannot pay tour operators or airlines until funds have appeared in our account. This may affect your quoted price if payment deadlines are missed. Receipts will be sent to you on the day when funds appear in our account.

TOUR CANCELLATION

Cancellations must be in writing. The following scale will apply:

Deposit - non-refundable

After final payment, 100% cancellation fee applies.

These cancellation fees are not negotiable, therefore we strongly recommend that you purchase travel insurance.

Peregrine Travel Centre Adelaide P: 08 8223 5905 E: [email protected] 1/192 Rundle Street , Adelaide SA 5000 www.peregrinetraveladelaide.com.au