Diary of a hardcore trekker
An eight-day walk from Marawaka to Port Moresby.
Sindeni airstrip to Marawaka Station.
At about 6.15am, my 10-seater plane taxis out of Goroka Airport and heads south, towards a small airstrip called Sindeni. It’s a very foggy morning when we take off and we cannot see the ground.
It’s only 30 minutes’ flying time to the airstrip, where I am meant to meet up with my guide to Kerema.
I’m equipped with my normal camping gear, backpack, sleeping bag, a few warm clothes, a medical kit, plus a satellite navigation phone. And, of course, I have good trekking boots.
But things don’t go exactly to plan when we land, because the guide I have hired to show me the track to Kerema has not turned up.
So, instead, I quickly assemble seven young Marawakas.
Marawakas are members of the Highlands tribe sharing the borders between the Gulf, Morobe and Eastern Highlands provinces. In the early days they were known to be kukukukus (head hunters).
They are carrying their bush knives, bows and arrows when we take off, with the intention of them showing me the way to Menyamya and then back on to the main track heading for Kerema.
It’s a detour that will add an extra day or two to the trip, but I have no choice.
Finally, we start walking and in my mind I want to do at least 10 hours a day, or more.
The track is in open kunai grass all the way and it is very hot. We only clock nine hours on that first sector.
For accommodation, I carry my tent and intend to build shelters out of bush materials, or sleep in a village house. I carry light food, eat off the bush and buy a bit from villagers as I go along.
Menyamya to a Gulf Province village. Fail to make the village, so camp in bush hut.
It’s three days before Christmas and I crawl out of my sleeping bag and put my feet straight into my wet and muddy socks and boots.
A couple of hours along, we cross the Kapau River, which starts in the Eastern Highlands, flows through Morobe and joins up with the Tauri River and then on to Malalaua, east of Kerema.
Today is very hot and humid again, but after 11 hours of walking we fail to find a village and instead stumble across a bush hut where we can spend the night.
I get the blisters cleaned up with new dressing; swallow some paracetamol to ease pains in the old bones and muscles; and then dinner and my sleeping bag.
Bush hut to Weimawa Village, near Kanabea.
I get up before the guides; possibly 4am. It rained most of the night and is still raining now, making the track very difficult. It is a muddy and very slow day.
We also miss the main track and walk off into the bush along hunting tracks for a couple of hours before we run into two old men and one old woman and ask them for directions. They reply in their language, which we don’t understand; however they turn us around and lead us back to where we had taken the wrong turn.
After another good 11 hours of walking we arrive at Weimawa Village. It is still raining and we are hungry and tired, hoping to get some local food. The villagers oblige and we have some sweet potatoes and vegetables.
Weimawa to Titikama Village.
It is so painful this morning, just to get up! I have more blisters and two of my big toes are starting to get infected. I have sore muscles all over the body.
Physically, I have nothing much left in me, although, mentally I am very positive.
After the previous day’s rain, today is beautiful and clear.
It is a very gentle walk all day. There are no big mountains to climb, but it is steaming hot and humid.
We arrive at Titikama Village after 11 hours. I organise the guides to look for some vegetables for dinner, while I attend to my blisters. The vegetables are so tasty.
Journey’s end … George Anian (with boots on) at the hut where he stayed on the last night before canoeing to Kerema and then boarding a PMV to Port Moresby.
Titikama Village to bush camp.
It’s December 25. Happy Christmas, and have a good day!
We are well into the lowland jungle now. The vegetation is getting thicker and the sunlight is not penetrating through the canopy.
When we start walking there is more rain and by the time it is getting dark we have clocked only nine hours of trekking. For sure we have had a bad day but there is nothing much we can do except set up camp under a big tree for the night.
What are we having for Christmas dinner? One of the boys calls out “corned beef and biscuits”. The boys kindly build me a little shelter out of wild banana leaves. I’m too tired to celebrate Christmas, and slip into my sleeping bag straight after dinner.
Bush camp to an unnamed village.
It’s all downhill from here and I have a great sense of achievement when I am woken by the boys at 3.30am. They are singing and explain it is because they have done something good in almost completing the trek and they feel happy.
It is our last day of actual walking because tomorrow we will travel by canoe and PMV, all the way into Port Moresby.
We descend to sea level and clocked 10 hours on the trail.
Our dinner is a typical Kerema-style meal, sago and fish.
Village to Port Moresby.
We walk for only 20 minutes from the village house where we have stayed to a river to get a ride on a canoe to Kerema.
It is a very slow-moving river, about a kilometre wide, and there are not many villages along the way.
At Kerema, we board a PMV to Port Moresby along the Hiritano Highway. It is exciting sitting among the locals and
buai (betel nut) on the PMV. I’m stuck in one position for seven hours, but it is not as bad as walking for 10 hours.
At the end of it all, amazingly I have ended up with only nine blisters on my feet and lost two big-toe nails. But more importantly, I have achieved what I set out to do: walk from Marawaka to Port Moresby in eight days.