Cobar locals walk in the footsteps of fallen Aussie soldiers
Wednesday May 26, 2010
Cobar’s Daniel Howard and Dale McLeod recently completed the Kokoda Trail.
▪ Photo contributed
Trekking almost 100km through dense jungle from sun up until sun down in hot, humid weather or pouring rain may not be many people’s idea of a holiday but locals Dale McLeod and Daniel Howard reckon their recent Kokoda trip was one of the best things they have ever done.
The pair, who have been friends since school, have travelled overseas on a number of trips to destinations in Europe and Great Britain but say the Kokoda trip tops them all.
“It was one of the things that we both said we wanted to do; like ticking it off the ‘bucket” list,” Dale said.
Dale and Daniel joined an organised nine day Kokoda Spirit tour which concluded with an ANZAC Day memorial service at the Bomana War Cemetery.
Dale said he started training for the trek five months before he set off.
“I also did a lot of reading and research and visited the Australian War Museum.”
In particular he was trying to find out information about one of his family members who had served in New Guinea during World War II.
Dale and Daniel said the trip was “a real eye opener” and gave them a bit more of an appreciation of what Australian soldiers had to endure on the Kokoda trail.
“We followed in their footsteps but it would be an insult to say that we experienced what they did,” Dale said.
“We had $400 hiking boots—they had cheap ones or none; our backpacks were about 4-5kg—theirs were 15kg plus their rifles and we didn’t have people trying to shoot us along the way.”
They said the trip had been a reality check and had given them a new found respect for those who served in WWII.
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