webqem blog

Charlie Lynn established Adventure Kokoda in 1991 and has led 37 expeditions across the Kokoda Trail since then. We asked Charlie why the trail holds such fascination for so many and about the impact his new web site is having - both to his trekking company, and the people of PNG.

When I first trekked Kokoda with a solitary guide in 1991 I was struck by the rugged nature and wild beauty of the terrain. I was also disappointed by the neglect of such an iconic Australian symbol as I often had to cut and slash my way across the track. It is difficult to imagine why the secrets of Kokoda have laid dormant for so long.

This 96-kilometre jungle track that traverses some of the most rugged and wildly beautiful terrain on planet earth is the only link between the north and south coast of Papua New Guinea. It is inhabited by the bush Koiari and Orokaiva people.

Papua New Guinea almost defies description because of its geographic and cultural diversity. It has been variously described as land of a thousand cultures, a Parliament of a thousand tribes and the land of the unexpected.

Over the previous two centuries, Australia went out into the South Pacific as biblebashers and blackbirders; as carpetbaggers, captains and canegrowers. We sailed and traded and built and searched for both gold and souls. And, of course, we sought security for our country.

This security was breached when Japan entered the Pacific War with the bombing of Pearl Harbour on 7 December then swept unchecked down through Asia and the Pacific. They defeated the Americans in the Philippines, the British and Australian forces in Malaya and Singapore, the Dutch in what is now Indonesia – and they were heading towards Australia.

The naval battles of Coral Sea and Midway checked their seaborne advance so they decided on an overland advance via a little known native track beginning at a small village called Kokoda – an Orokaiva word meaning a place of skulls.

Australia was ill-prepared at the time with most of our forces embroiled in the European conflict. All we had to check the Japanese advance initially was a small band of part-time soldiers soon to be immortalised as our ‘ragged bloody heroes’.

The Kokoda campaign was a bitter and desperate battle against overwhelming odds. The Australians were poorly trained, poorly equipped, outnumbered and outgunned - but somehow they prevailed.

Over the years the jungle has reclaimed the battlesites but there has been a recent awakening of Australians who want to explore this forgotten part of our history.

Soon after my first trek in 1991 I decided to establish my own trekking company (Adventure Kokoda) because I believe that the only way people will understand the significance and spirit of Kokoda is to trek it. Neither the written word nor the photographic image can capture this. Since then I have led 38 group expeditions across the track and never cease to be amazed at the response they have to the experience.

Business was traditionally by word of mouth, largely as a result of the television documentaries I was asked to lead for the major networks. With the increased awareness of Kokoda I decided to develop a web site and go online. Since then the numbers have exploded with an increase of more than 100% signing up for my treks this year. The site has allowed me to showcase the experience of Kokoda with video footage and an extensive photo gallery. The stories Diggers have sent me together with some of their poetry gives people a good feel for what they experienced – and for the debt we owe them.

If the spirit of Kokoda is strength in adversity, courage and mateship that spirit has been seeded in us all. We cross in a brief 20 minutes what has taken us eight gruelling days. And like all those who crossed it before us, who left their souls in the mud and the heat and the terrifying jungle, few will ever go back.

Charlie, of course, is the exception. He will continue to pluck other ordinary humans from their comfortable lives and help them blossom into indefatigables, drawing on the greatness that lies largely unchallenged within us all. For the rest of us though, Kokoda will become just one humbling week in our lifetimes: albeit our whole lifetimes lived in just one unforgettably humbling week.

Marion Frith
The Canberra Time

The most important feature of my web site is the flexibility it provides by allowing me to keep it up to date with my own humble PC from wherever I am. This is important because I am developing a pioneering product in ‘the land of the unexpected’ – flexibility and simplicity are the two most important features I require and I now have them both.

The success of the web site has had an unintended benefit for our guides and porters in PNG. They live in a subsistence economy with very little opportunity for employment. With increasing numbers of people wanting to trek Kokoda we have assisted them to establish their own trekking company, Kokoda Experience PNG, and we have developed budget ‘self-guided treks’ for them to lead. Our web site provides them with a marketing tool that will assist them in developing their own self-sustaining eco-trekking industry. As custodians of land so sacred to our heritage they deserve nothing less.

Charlie Lynn, Founder Adventure Kokoda