Conquering Kokoda
Yvette Adams
 
New Guinea1942. Australia is at war with Japan. A small platoon of Australian soldiers from the 39th battalion have been set as a forward patrol far outside the perimeter of Isurava, a village on the Kokoda track in Papua New Guinea.

After sustained bombardment and initial attacks from the Japanese, the men are cut off from their supply lines and all communications, and must make their way back through the most unforgiving terrain on earth to get to safety and the main body of Australian troops. After three days with no food or sleep, carrying their wounded, and suffering the effects of dysentery and malaria, they emerge from the jungle exhausted to the point of collapse. But on learning that Isurava is about to fall they pick themselves up and rejoin the battle…

It's hard to imagine just how tough a gig this must have been back in 1942 and the terrain is no different today. That's not to mention the high temperatures, humidity and frequent rain. Despite all this, more and more Australians are making the pilgrimage to trace the heroic steps of the diggers for one reason or another.

For 40-year-old Active Living member Mike Knights, it was a desire to appreciate the contribution his grandfather had made to the war effort that saw him train hard in preparation for the grueling 10 day trek.

“Although he wasn't in Papua New Guinea (he was in Germany), I thought it would be good to go to a war site and put myself through the paces to try and imagine what life at war must have been like. It was also a good goal to work towards. I had intended to do it the year before last, and then last year but we had our second baby, and it wasn't until she was a bit older that I found some space to get away and do it,” he says.

With a background as a champion judo competitor and having represented Queensland and Australia many times and into his early 20s, Knights admits that he has always liked “difficult physical and mental challenges” but had to put in a fair amount of effort to get to a point where he was ready to take on the challenging trek.
 
Having exchanged any sort of regular fitness regime for focusing on his career and family during his 30s, upon moving up to the Coast from Redcliffe 12 months ago, Knights joined colleagues from REMAX Mooloolaba who engage in regular group sessions with Dan Sullivan three days a week mainly focusing on cardio and weight circuit work outs.
“On days I wasn't doing gym work I would try and hike and run around the local beaches, headlands and hills all with a 25kg back pack full of bricks on to emulate similar conditions to what I knew I would encounter doing the Kokoda trek myself,” he adds.

“In the last few weeks I'd also do three laps of going up and down Mount Coolum with a weighted backpack on.”
Knights says the strenuous preparation certainly paid off and despite encountering three days of rain which required the 60 strong tour group to navigate exposed tree branches, slippery mud, and steep ledges, he completed the trek with no worries.

“I was surprisingly much fitter than I expected,” he says.
“There was some physically demanding days but overall it wasn't too bad. I found I was actually fairing a lot better than some of the younger ones.”

Apart from the sense of achievement attained from conquering Kokoda, Knights says he also came back with an outcome he didn't expect – lower stress levels and a state of total calm.

“You don't know what you're going to get out of it when you go. But what I discovered as I did it is that it was a good time to think about family values and what I'm doing in the future. I expected to come back really stuffed but in actual fact I'd come back feeling really de-stressed, to the point where when I returned and the baby was crying it was easier to pick her up and cuddle her up rather than feeling tired and cranky about it.
“Having seen the way the villagers live there too, I also came back totally satisfied with where we [the family] are in life and feeling how lucky we are compared to how they live.”

Knights fully intends to keep fit with the guys from the office post the trek.
“We all enjoy group training,” he says. “It kills a few birds with the one stone: it's good fun to catch up with all the boys, it's a chance for a bit of networking, you get comradeship, and it increases your commitment to get down and do it.”

“Wherever their bones may lie, the courage of heroes is consecrated in the hearts and engraved in the history of the free.” - Lt Col Honner DSO MC, who commanded the gallant 39th in the campaign.