One thing about PNG, every afternoon around 4pm, the low clouds set in and it rains.  Today was no different.  The boys went down to shower under a natural waterfall as they were ready first and then us girls went down to the creek… it was freezing and we couldn’t use soap so we refreshed ourselves and headed back to camp.  This was our first experience of washing in a natural habitat and once back at camp, we warmed ourselves and waited for dinner and sent to bed around 7pm, lol!

No-one slept well being the first night out and we were woken up at 5:30am ready to head off at 7am.  All our packs had to be ready for the porters and off we went as soon as breakfast was over.

Day 2

Day 2 saw us trekking for an arduous 8 hours.  I was generally in a content mood and concentration of where to put my feet was imperative.  My porter, Armstrong, is an angel.  A young man not much taller than me, 24 years of age and very, very strong.

There were times when we were climbing that he would carry my daypack as well as my other pack, and also pull me up those big steps.  I kept thinking… “What on earth was the Creator thinking when she designed this unrelenting terrain and why didn’t she make my legs longer!”

There were many places today where I had to literally climb up with hands as well as feet and places where I had to slide down on my backside.  Also, many trees had fallen over the track which were difficult to get over and having the camera out for these places just wasn’t an option.  I was already the slowest on the team although I did lead the first climb of the day at a pretty steady pace.  After that, I let everyone in front of me.  I was spent and didn’t want the pressure of having them behind me for the rest of the time.

More steep climbs up and down and whenever we get down to a river crossing, there is always a very hard climb up to camp.  We were always happy to get to the end of the day and clean up a little.

Day 3

Day 3 was an even longer day.  About 9 hours.  None of us carried a mirror so no one had any idea what they looked like and probably just as well.  Judging from the photos, I’m glad I couldn’t see myself.

Up and down 45 degree sides of mountains is difficult and especially when there is mud involved.  Did I mention the mud already?  I had no idea how much mud would be on the track.  OMG!! Enough for 100 years or more worth of beauty treatments… it was like walking through slops… squelch, squelch, squelch… I can still hear it.

Another thing… I had no idea we would be walking on the side of a mountain where in some spots, there was no room for wrong footing whatsoever!  A body width and rocks jutting out to step on… not even a path!  Excuse me for saying so but I definitely grew balls that day!  A girl like me trekking in that place… and I have two beautiful young girls at home to think of!  What was I thinking and what was my partner thinking letting me take this on??  This is what went through my head at the end of the day.  If I thought of home I would get emotional and have to quickly distract myself to keep my head straight.  Not being able to call home was also difficult however, I’m glad I wasn’t in touch.  It would only have made me want to go home.  Knowing that my emotional intelligence would be challenged, I could change my mindset so that I would be back on the track and concentrating on the task at hand.

Before we reached camp on this day at Templeton’s 1 campsite, there was a river crossing I couldn’t have imagned at Eora Creek.  Lots of boulders and a zig zag mashup of logs and more boulders that seemed to go on forever.  I had two porters escort me across this one and once over the other side, our guide Dave was waiting so I politely asked him “Was there no other way?” He laughed and took off up the mountain to camp.

Having shared my feelings and parts of the track here is in no way to put you off doing the trek for yourself if you are so inclined.  Rather, it is to demonstrate that it is possible for any of you to do it.  It’s not for an exclusive few and every year, there are more and more trekkers heading to Kokoda to experience it for themselves.  I know there are other equally challenging treks out there.  This is the only one I have taken on so far. The beauty and awesomeness of the landscape is truly worth it along with the experience to grow and face this challenge head on.

More to come……

Firstly, let me say what a very humbling experience this was. I’ve had a few days now to process what I have just been through and you know something, we are as soft as Brie cheese that’s been left out in the sun for a few hours. I’m the first to admit that I love all my home comforts and am very fortunate and grateful to have all the mod cons for cooking and cleaning. We live in such a fast paced world and no wonder my head spins with each new day trying to work out what’s hot and where it’s cool to be seen… and that’s just online!!

This is not my first trip overseas to a place where the minimum monthly wage is way below the poverty line at $30.00, but it has been quite some time since I have experienced such a lovely race of people who will never have all the conveniences that we do and not even a fraction at that!

This is taken in the Kokoda Village.

Port Moresby itself is very dirty and all hotels, shops and restaurants are locked up and have razor wire around the boundaries. You DO NOT venture into the streets on your own no matter what! You see, there are many desperate people who wait for such an opportunity and then bring out a knife to take the contents of your bag. Apparently, it is the murder capital of the world and not somewhere you would want to be without security guards by your side.

Once in the villages, it is quite safe to mingle with the natives of the land. After all, their ancestors are the original Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels who helped our Aussie diggers when wounded by the Japanese during WWII.

So upon our arrival, we were briefed and enjoyed a couple of quiet drinks at the hotel in anticipation of what we were to face for the next 8 days!

The next morning we had to have our packs and ourselves down at reception at 6am. Kind of early I thought and in hindsight, we could have slept another 2 hours. Everything moves very slowly in PNG. We were all anxious to get going. That nervous energy filled the space we were in. Pacing, catching a few more winks if we could… eating our snacks out of boredom… and finally at 10:30am we received the news that the fog had cleared and we were ordered to the airport to catch our late flight to Kokoda Village for the start of our trek.

Our tour guide Dave from www.noroads.com.au pointing out some terrain we would cover on the trek.

Once there, we were introduced to our personal porters and others who would join us and off we went with courage and enthusiasm in our steps to discover what is the Kokoda Track and to take in the beauty and history as we went.

All in all, we were that excited to get going that the first day went quite quickly. A steady fairly easy climb until we were just outside our first camp site at Deniki where we experienced the first of many steep climbs. I think shock set in and I remember thinking that I hoped that there weren’t any others as steep as this! Did I say that? Already the psychology and mindset are prevalent.

Stay tuned for the next installment… !

The Deniki Camp site. Day 1

With all this talk about LOVE recently here at Buzzing with Ange, I wanted to bring something to your attention. If you love inspirational books, best selling author Kurek Ashley has just released his long awaited How Would Love Respond on Amazon. My copy is on order and I can’t wait for it to arrive.

I met Kurek a little over 18 months ago and listened as he told his story of how he went from acting the bad guy in Hollywood movies to becoming one of the most sort after speakers around the globe in his role as a Peak Performance Life Success Coach.

My good friend and mentor Sean Rasmussen met with Kurek for an interview where they discuss some very valid points in how to manage your thoughts and change some habits that could be holding you back from achieving your goals.

Here is part 1 of that interview.

Peak Perfomance Motivational Legend

Kurek also holds the record for the longest fire walk which took 4 minutes walking over 81 metres of hot coals! This is not to impress you, but to impress upon you that anything is achievable and I am taking Kurek’s words with me over the next 10 days while I trek the Kokoda Trail. Mindset is what will get me through each day. It’s about Personal Development and where I want to go with my life.

Where do you want to go with your life? Kurek Ashley’s book may be just the thing that helps you decide.

Yes, that’s right! 16 more sleeps until I am on a plane flying out to Papua New Guinea to trek the Kokoda Trail. Yikes!! The training has almost taken over as I prepare for this grueling trek. By the time I have packed to go out for a hike and then get to where there are mountains to climb, most of the day is over when I get back home. There have also been gym sessions and other walking and aerobic exercises as part of keeping my fitness up. The training has been difficult, however, I have just sat through a series of videos on YouTube which I had mixed emotions about and at times, had tears streaming down my face which I will show you shortly.

A few months back when I was looking into the history of the track, I found that there were many video’s and sites with information regarding Kokoda. It is not something that I had specifically wanted to do although I knew that a personal challenge such as this was on the cards in so far as my own personal development went and when my friend and personal trainer Marc Stafford was organising a team to go and asked me, I said “yes.” To continue to grow in mind and spirit, challenges or goals which seem out of reach must be set in order to step up to the next level.

photo credit-pomfotos

Now I am not saying that you all have to go and trek Kokoda to step up to the next level. You yourself know what might be out of your reach and going for it may be the ticket that opens your mind and helps you along your own journey of personal development.

One of my goals for this year is to Coach, as in a Life Coach so this trek is fitting to help me discover parts about me which I need to develop and also to increase my mental toughness. My mental toughness (or lack of) will surely show while on the trek and it will be around 60 - 70 percent of that which gets me to the end of the 8 days. I have affirmations which I repeat out loud to myself to get into the right headspace for now. I’m sure once I am on the track, they will come in very handy to get me from one village to another. One foot in front of the other… one step at a time.

This trek, along with my NLP training and my own personal coaching with a very tough coach is what will bring me closer to this goal of being in a position to empower others to achieve the goals and dreams they set for themselves.

So this is part 1 of 8 of the video’s which I watched embedded here with the links to the rest of the series. It is worth the 30 minutes to sit through them all and see this band of Australian personalities to get an all round vision of what the trek is like and how they cope along the way. As well as getting a look at some of the most pristine rain forest in the world. Share your thoughts with me on this once you have been through them.

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Part 7

Part 8

Thank You for watching.

It seems only fitting that my 100th post on Buzzing with Ange is to share with you my greatest personal challenge to date. Seeing as this blog is about personal development, it is important that I let you in on how my journey is progressing and some of the challenges that I take on. I am involved with a fitness group who have organised to trek the Kokoda Trail in Papua New Guinea in June of this year.

For Australians, this is the setting of an extremely difficult time during World War II where we lost the most number of diggers - 6000, in the shortest space of time - 7 months. The Aussie soldiers held the Japanese back from taking Port Moresby by land, retreating many times and firing back to exhaust the Japanese soldiers into re-thinking their strategy which saw them file back to the Northern part of the Island.

The Kokada Trail is a single file footpath that stretches for 96 kilometres (about 60 miles) in a north/south direction, straight across the Owen Stanley ranges in Papua New Guinea. My good Aussie mate Allan and I will be combining our efforts to bring you some history of the Kokoda Trail, along with the training I am undertaking and most importantly, the mindset behind taking on such a feat.

This is not a decision I made lightly and for those that know me on a personal level would know that I am not the kind of girl to get my hands dirty, camping and hiking in the outback is not something I do on a regular basis as I am a creature of comforts and I really, really like hot showers, clean toilets, meals cooked in a clean kitchen and a comfy bed with a cozy doona/comforter to snuggle into. So, do you think I am going to have to have a paradigm shift in order to get through this challenge and change my mindset around creature comforts? I think it will open up new possibilities for me in the way I perceive things, and I will definitely be in need of a Fuzzy Wuzzy Angel on this trip.


Kokoda Memorial 1000 Steps

Saturday just gone was our first official training day as a group and I was whisked off to the Dandenong Ranges here in Melbourne to climb the 1000 steps which are part of the Kokoda memorial. I didn’t count them as I was too busy trying to catch my breath. I have plenty of work to do on my fitness level in preparation for this adventure so stick with me and I will give updates on my progress.

I will leave you with a sample of what I am to expect once we land in Port Moresby… tell me your thoughts and if someone here has already taken this challenge on, please share your experience. There are many expeditions organised on regular basis through various companies.