We are giving away a free porter to carry your pack over the Kokoda Track! The next 3 customers to book a tour with us in 2009 will recieve a porter for no extra charge! This is a saving of $569 for more information on our porters click here!

We have some exciting tours coming up in the months of August and September along with a great Kokoda to Ower's Corner tour in November. To check our tour dates click here. All you need to know on how to make a booking can be found here.

Don’t forget we have an information session coming up and stay watching this page for details about other information sessions. If you are unable to make an information session and would like to talk to us about our upcoming treks please feel free to call us direct on 044 9692401. We love to talk about Kokoda!

Remember all our customers receive free of charge our great new quick dry Kokoda Historical Trekking T Shirt!

The Australian goverment  have announced the spending of twelve thousand dollars on refurbishing part of the Kokoda Track and the building of two Australian memorials. Veterans' Affairs Minister Alan Griffin said in a statement

"This funding will help restore and repaint the Memorial Archway, a nearby 25-pounder gun at Owers' Corner and the 39th Infantry Battalion Memorial.

"Thousands of trekkers retrace the steps of Australian soldiers each year; passing through the archway as they begin their journey on the Kokoda Track.

"The 39th Battalion was the first Australian battalion to face the Japanese on the Track, and the memorial at McDonald's Corner honours their service."

The announcement comes one month before Papua New Guinea's annual Remembrance Day, which commemorates the first engagement on the Kokoda Track between the Australian military forces (39th Battalion and the Papuan Infantry Battalions) and the Japanese.

Source- AAP

          German Gun at Maisy Battery

Our head guide and founder David Howell has just returned from an interesting trip to the Australian WW1 Battlefields in France and the 65 Anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy. David who is a keen military history enthusiast based himself in Grandcamp Maisy. Villages along the Normandy coast putting on a great show for the 6th of June. There were many WWII re-enactors and hundreds of well preserved WWII vehicles driving through the Normandy countryside. David said that the highlights for him were meeting and talking with many D-Day veterans as well as visiting  Pegasus Bridge, Sainte-Mere-Eglise, the D-Day landing beaches and in particular the Maisy Gun Battery. 

David with US Rangers D-Day Veteran Jim Gabaree

The Maisey Gun Battery that was recently opened in 2006 by Gary Sterne who found the hidden German gun position four years ago by studying WWII German maps. The Maisy Gun position was kept secret after the war. During the D-Day landings US Rangers scaled the 80 ft high cliffs at Pointe du Hoc near Omaha Beach to put out of action the gun battery there but found no guns, only telegraph polls that were placed as a decoy. Since then the question has been asked by historians – where were the guns from Pointe du Hoc? The Germans kept the Battery going for 3 days after the landings and continued firing on Utah and Omaha beaches until finally been captured by the Rangers after a five hour battle on the  9^th of June. More information about the Maisy Gun Battery can be found here.

 Cobbers Memorial Fromelles

After leaving Normandy David toured the Somme taking in all the major Australian Battlefields and has aspirations of running a very special once off guided tour there in 2010 along with a Gallipoli tour that is also in the works. The highlights for David were the hospitality shown  by the people in Villers Bretonneux and visiting Fromelles and VC Corner. As many of our readers will know there is a major project is underway to identify and bury around 400 British and Australian soldiers that were recently found in a mass grave. The discovery of the missing soldiers is due largely to Victorian resident Mr Lambis Englezos AM. More information about the project can be found here.

Kokoda Historical has just appeared in the latest edition of Contact magazine. Our story is well worth a read, entitled 'Walking the real Kokoda Track' it details our March trek that followed as close as possible along the wartime route. The article about one of our recent treks can be found on page 56.

Contact magazine is the premier Australian Military Magazine it's out now at all leading Newsagencies!

Trekking in the Jungles of the Owen Stanley Ranges can be a dangerous venture especially if one is not properly prepared. Safety starts before you even land in Port Moresby. Every tourist that walks the Kokoda Track should seek medical advice prior to commencing their travel to Papua New Guinea. Your Doctor will not only ensure you have the proper inoculations and a prescription for anti-malarial medication but they will also be able to check your blood pressure and over all physical fitness.

Even if you feel fit and have been training and even if you have youth on your side, a simple medical examination by your doctor will better inform you of the condition your body is in.

Kokoda Historical is extremely safety conscious and we have a proven track record of safety along the Kokoda Track we have never had a serious injury. Here are a few measures we have in place to help maintain trekkers comfort and safety:

• All our Head Guides both Australian and Papuan are trained in First Aid.
• It is mandatory that our customers have personal travel insurance.


• We have Public Liability Insurance to the value of 10 Million.


• We carry radios, mobile phones and satellite phones and each group is closely monitored not only from our office in Port Moresby but also from our office in Australia.


• All our customers are required to fill out a personal particulars form including next of kin so in the event there is an emergency we can contact your family.


• We always purchase a trek permit from the Kokoda Track Authority (KTA) this ensures that there is an independent body that has the names and estimated time of arrival of each of our groups.


• We provide pre-trek training and information session so all of our clients are informed and prepared before they even start trekking in Papua New Guinea. This is a free service that we run regularly, see below for details.


• We have many procedures in place that if an emergency such as a medical evacuation is required we can act fast and get an injured trekker to safety and medical attention in the shortest possible time. Most of our emergency response internal procedures are modelled on the same procedures that the Australian Defence Force and Police Force use, as all of our Australian Guides have service in these organisations.


• All our groups carry emergency first aid kits.
• 
  Because we keep our groups small (limit of 12 people per trek) we are able to give a high level of personal care. Our dedicated team monitor each and every trekker so if a problem starts to develop we can deal with it early before the problem becomes serious.


• Last but not least we are continuing to develop our team and our procedures along with practicing the ones we already have in place.