LeagueNews - Cerebral Palsy League

Adventure Challenge
on the Kokoda Track
WHEN Rob Needham saw mountain
ranges looming above the single
engine Cessna Caravan flying over
cloud covered trees at 9000ft, he
knew he was in for the Adventure
Challenge of a lifetime.
Three hours behind schedule to reach
the village of Kokoda from Port
Morseby, the pilot of Rob’s flight
received a report that clouds were
touching treetops over their
destination.
Rob was on an Adventure Challenge
for Charity and had spent months
selling mountains of chocolate bars
and preparing himself for what he
expected would be a gruelling nine
day trek on the Kokoda Track carrying
a 20kg pack – a lifelong dream.
He looked at several of the eight
passengers on the flight; among the
locals were four members of Rob’s
group. Their faces said it all.
The pilot looked for a hole in the
clouds while his Global Positioning
System (GPS) signalled their location
over Kokoda.
Courage: Rob Needham saw mountain
ranges looming above the single engine
Cessna Caravan at 9000ft on his flight to
Kokoda in Papua New Guinea and knew
he was in for the Adventure Challenge of
a lifetime.
Green terrain flickered (See beneath reverse thefor details) from their families.
cloud cover below as the pilot banked
hard left and pushed the plane into a
spiralling descent.
More green whizzed past the
windows, the altimeter needle
plunged, the GPS terrain warning horn
was sounding and Rob could feel the
fingernails of the passengers seated
behind him, digging into his shoulders.
The adventure had only just begun but
the cloud cover would continue for
days to come and Rob would soon
feel more than physical pain.
Courage, Sacrifice, Mateship
and Endurance
These words would stay with Rob for
the rest of his life.
Four stone monuments to the sacred
area where many lives were lost,
surrounded him at the Isurava
Memorial. Each depicted the durability
of the Australian soldiers and their
commitment to repelling the Japanese
Army with a single word: Courage,
Sacrifice, Mateship and Endurance.
Prior to leaving Australia, Rob had read
books about the Kokoda and the lives
of young men lost in a country so far
The monuments impacted his
emotions and tears formed in his
eyes as he circled the stones and
realised the extreme conditions and
circumstances the soldiers faced
and contended with.
The words stayed with him as his
legs ached along the trek, when he
slipped in the mud or on the endless
amount of tree roots covering the
track, and when he suffered
gastroenteritis for almost two days.
He wanted to sleep: How on earth did
those guys do it in some of the
fiercest fighting campaigns during
the war
Rob still wondered how the soldiers
did it, and questioned each day,
especially when he was really
hurting, how he would have coped if
he was one of them.
After nine days of walking up and
down ridges, mountains, crossing
creeks and rivers, eating ration
packs, enduring the rain and heat,
feeling and hearing mosquitoes
trying to find flesh, experiencing
illness, listening to guides sing in
beautiful harmony and passing other
groups and saying g’day, the Kokoda
Track had changed Rob’s life.
As he crossed it from his list of goals
he knew his Adventure Challenge
was everything and more than he
expected it to be and couldn’t wait to
start on the next.
Adventure Challenge for Charity
allows travellers to choose a
destination, fundraise the cost of the
fare and itinerary activities, and
nominate an Australian charity as a
beneficiary of the proceeds.
Proceeds from Rob’s Adventure
Challenge for Charity to the Kokoda
Track benefit the Cerebral Palsy
League.
Further information:
Adventure Challenge
1800 819 086
adventurechallenge.com.au
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