Charlie Lynn has guided walkers along PNG’s Kokoda Trail 100 times. In part two of a two-part story Charlie talks about the very first time he did the walk. (Click here for part 1)
" We continued our trek up to Alola village where we were warmly welcomed once again. I later learned that Alex was telling the villagers that I would be bringing many trekkers across later on.
A day out of Kokoda and I was in a lot of pain. My skin was pulpy from the constant wet – my shoulders had welts in them from the backpack and my toes were stuck together. I didn’t have much left in the tank.
During the final few hours I started to fantasise about a hot bath in Kokoda – I had been told it was the biggest village across the trail and was the catchment area for a couple of thousand Orokaiva. I assumed it would have at least one hotel. My vision of a big steak and hot bath were soon shattered – the only luxury was an old building with a septic tank and a wash basin on the Kokoda Plateau.
I discussed the concept of a race across the trail with Patrick and the Chouloi brothers before leaving Port Moresby. Back in Sydney we developed a sponsorship proposal and I began marketing the idea. My association with the Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon opened doors for discussion but the eyes of the young corporate marketing gurus soon glazed over when I mentioned the words Papua New Guinea or Kokoda.
This was my first realisation that they were distant concepts to the current generation 50 years on from the war and Kokoda did not have any resonance with them.
I was shocked and disappointed to find that there was not a single official memorial along the trail to commemorate the Kokoda campaign over the previous 50 years since the war – the trail was indeed a neglected shrine.
I also found that I was unable to explain the experience. It was akin to explaining life as a soldier – if you have never worn the uniform you will never understand it.
I therefore resolved to organise a commemorative trek across the trail. At the time Australia was experiencing ‘the recession we had to have’ and times were tough.
I wrote to most of the CEOs of our major corporations and asked them to send a representative across the trail so they could walk in the footsteps of our troops, experience the conditions under which they fought and died for our freedom, interpret the spirit of Anzac and bring it back to their colleagues to put the challenges we faced during the current recession and the Kokoda campaign into perspective.
The Bulletin with Newsweek published a story on the trek, and this led to more inquiries. After a few more treks Channel 9 asked if I could lead a group of celebrities across the trail for the Angry Anderson show on A Current Affair. The program reached an audience of more than 3 million which led to more inquiries.
Kokoda was starting to re-emerge in the Australian consciousness as a result of the publicity we had generated and was almost sharing equal billing with Anzac. According to one commentator “at Gallipoli, we fought for Britain and lost – at Kokoda, we fought for Australia and won!”
I therefore decided that we would need to become more professional if we were to achieve our objectives of ensuring our wartime Kokoda heritage was not forgotten. Soon after, I established Adventure Kokoda as a specialist Kokoda trekking company which would focus on the wartime history of the Kokoda campaign."
More info: kokodatreks.com