Day 2 - Kokoda Trek - daily journal

Day 2 - a long walking day.
Isurava Village to Templeton's Two - 10 hours (7:00AM - 5.00PM)
Pain factor 8 (1 to 10 where 10 is the worst)

Woke up to light rain. All (walking) clothes are wet. So into wet skins, wet shorts, wet shirt, and after much indecision wet sox. In hindsight a good decision, as soon as I had put them on I could feel the water still in the boots squishing around my feet.

First stop was Isurava Battlefield which is about an hour from Isurava Village. This was a longer stop as Kit set the scene and gave us the background and history to the battle that took place here. This is an impressive memorial and site. If it was a clear day we would have been able to see down the valley to Kokoda. The get some perspective of the importance of the battle check this out The vital delaying battle at Isurava.

Ever onward thru a small village where we bought some bananas and passionfruit - beautiful and so tasty.

Then onto Eora Creek. This was a solid hitout with many creek crossings on the way, which of course meant lots of uphill and downhill (down to a creek, and then up after the creek). We arrived at Eora Creek at about 1PM and left about 2. It was very cold at Eora Creek with a strong wind and light rain. We all stood around in our wet gear in the cooking hut, our eating shelter was so cold and windy.

The first hour after lunch was all uphill and this was tough. My right knee started to complain about 2 hours after we had started again from Eora Creek.

The afternoon was rugged all the way with continual rain and mud sticking to our boots which made for very heavy going. Thank goodness for my porter who helped me up and down the really rough areas. Henry is a top bloke!

The falls at Templetons Two are magnificent, no photos of it as it was raining too heavily. It was a great relief to see the campsite, which was about 5 minutes away when we spotted it, whilst crossing another stream.

For the last hour I didn't really care if I stepped in mud to the top of my boots, puddles or whatever.

The long john skins work a treat whether this is psychological or physical I don't really care. The knees are feeling it. Lets see what Day 3 brings