Waking to the smell of REAL coffee.
(...everything to this point had been instant...)
I had heard about the coffee beans...single source...grown, hand-picked and roasted here.
But the genuine article to start your morning.
Soooooooo Good!
Don't just take my word for it...try some yourself!
PNG Coffee
https://www.etsy.com/listing/729065949/papua-new-guinea-arokara-co-op-coffee?gpla=1&gao=1&&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=shopping_us_e-home_and_living-food_and_drink-coffee_and_tea-coffee&utm_custom1=0af108a7-6f85-4a49-a1dd-deb0d5a06ccf&utm_content=go_1844702805_70809537838_346429646870_pla-305800332373_c__729065949&gclid=Cj0KCQiAz53vBRCpARIsAPPsz8X3okZ3IpBtpKTjs2TdJ49FOkIH3RvHQZsVOLpcvgxaBrBliuVFa-gaAlXGEALw_wcB
Fully caffeinated, and a hearty breakfast...exercises (mostly stretches) and we are on our way.
Six hour hike today, Tooh explains to me...
Our stopping point Naduri Village.
Just beyond Brigade Hill.
On the valley floor the river spilled over requiring logs to balance on to avoid the mud and water.
Not long into today's journey we come across another munitions dump. This one seems to be Japanese.
Completely different from our Pineapple Grenades...this one would have had a fuse that would require lighting.
So much less efficient that just pulling a pin...or releasing a lever.
Just below Brigade Hill we reach a Memorial Site known as The Saddle.
Where the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels are finally recognized for their war efforts, too.
The Saddle actually commemorates an Australian Defeat at this site and is tended by the locals.
A short flat area..and we headed upward again. We had reached Brigade Hill.
Brigade Hill was known by another name "Butcher's Hill" and was the site of one of the bloodiest battles on The Track.
"They say the creek below us ran red with blood", explained Woody.
And up we climbed...in the 88 degree heat...plagued by gnats and mosquitoes...up Brigade Hill.
We were silently reflecting how bad this must have been with the gnats, mosquitoes, not enough food, 50 pound packs, and Japanese soldiers with guns and bayonets charging toward you to kill you.
At the top was another Memorial for the Battle of Brigade Hill
The Battle raged on over 3 days and casualties were heavy on both sides.
The Japanese received reinforcement troops and won on the third day.
The battle is remembered as one of the most costly ever to be fought by Austrailian Troops here.
Many of the trekkers whose family had fought and died here said several words for their dead .
Monk...whose father did not make it back, stood teary eyed.
"Maybe my old man stood here." he remarked quietly.
I have come to realize that this is a journey of the heart...for closure and forgiveness, for Monk.
He was a small child when his dad left never to return...and somehow he had held the anger, pain and abandonment all of his adult life.
Now he was seeing what his father had died doing.
Assuring the rest of us freedom and liberty.
Down from Brigade Hill we descended into the Efogi Valley.
As it was known The Valley of Death.
Most of the rest of the day's hike was spent in quiet reflection.
Soon the Naduri Village appeared
cooking fires.
Nobody complained about the mashed taro root and fried Spam tonight.
We were lost in our own thoughts when Woody began...before we leave tomorrow, I will tell you the story of a great warrior who fought and lived to return here.
The Bone Man.
And with that cliff-hanger he bid us goodnight.