Charlie's Premium Kokoda Campaign Trek

Each village has a designated area for trekkers to camp.  They also have dedicated toilets for trekkers. Your guides will identify these areas for you.

There are also separate bathing areas for males and females.  To avoid embarrassment you should ask your guides to show you where they are.  Ladies should wear a sarong to their bathing area. 

1. Adventure Kokoda is the only specialist trekking company operating on the Kokoda Trail - we do not trek to any other location - Kokoda is all we do.
    
2. We have the most professional and experienced trek leaders - our team has 130 years combined military experience - we have led more than 560 expeditions safely across the trail over the past 28 years.
    
3. We specialise in the wartime history of the Kokoda campaign.
    
4. We are the only trek operator to have established a philanthropic Not-for-Profit company - Network Kokoda - to provide assistance to local villagers in the fields of health, education and local agriculture.
    
5. We pioneered the Kokoda trekking industry - we had been operating on the trail for more than a decade before it was 'discovered'' by eco-tour operators.
    
6. We operate from a secure lodge at Sogeri which has 24/7 back-up communications and our own helipad for emergencies. The owner of our lodge is a former PNG Patrol Officer who has lived in PNG for 52 years.
    
7. We are the only trekking company to provide for the welfare of our PNG guides and carriers by issuing them with sleeping bags, sleeping mats and a full trek uniform to our guides and carriers.
    
8. We are the only trekking company that limits the maximum backpack weight for our guides and carriers to 18 kg which was the maximum weight allowed during the Kokoda campaign in 1942.

Adventure Kokoda has a strict policy of carrying our rubbish off the track.  All rubbish is collected by our PNG guides and carriers from our campsites and carried off the track for disposal. 

Yes he does. 

The VHF radio net along the Kokoda Trail has improved however there is only one channel and it is sometimes difficult to break into the chatter.  The system does not have a base station with a 24/7 listening watch which could be critical in an emergency.

Professional operators are equipped with satellite phones for use in emergencies.

Trek Operators who do not have a satellite phone with an active account fall into the 'dodgy' category - unfortunately they exist and the only protection trekkers have is the old caveat emptor of 'Let the buyer beware'.

No - we are not.

We declined the invitation to join the Kokoda Tour Operators Association (KTOA) which was established to protect the interests of Australian companies operating in PNG and does not provide for the welfare of the PNG guides and carriers they engage.

We believe the reasons for establishing the KTOA were well-intentioned however whilst they tolerate practices that allow some of their members to exploit local PNG guides, carriers and subsistence villagers we will not join.

The failure of the KTA to provide proper welfare support to local villagers they engage is evident in their reluctance to require all KTOA members to provide such basics as a sleeping bag and mat for each guide and carrier they employ.  We do not believe that PNG guides and carriers should have to sleep on wet ground because they are not provided with such essential items of comfort.

One KTOA tour operator has a record of failing to meet their legal and moral obligations in regard to the payment of trek fees which are meant to benefit local subsistence villages along the trail. 

Recently a local carrier employed by KTOA tour operator tragically died on the trail.  A local Kokoda Track Authority (KTA) Ranger has alleged that the load he was carrying was far in excess of the 20 kg recommended in the KTA Code of Conduct for tour operators.  According to other KTA Rangers the overloading of local carriers is a common practice by many Australian tour operators as a means of keeping their costs down.

Adventure Kokoda will not join to the KTOA until they weed out those who don't provide for the proper welfare of their local guides and who deprive subsistence villagers of their rightful share of benefits from the Kokoda trekking industry.

The difference between Adventure Kokoda and KTOA members is that we provide the following for each of our PNG guides and carriers:

• Maximum allowable weight of 18 kg (which means we have to engage more carriers);
• Full trek uniform - cap, shirt, shorts
• Sleeping bag;
• Sleeping mat;
• Wholesome meals - equivalent to what we provide for our trekkers;
• Gratuity equivalent to one day's pay at the end of each trek; and
• A 'Walk-Home Allowance' of PNGK250 to allow our guides and carriers to walk back to their villages after each trek.

In addition to this we engage a PNG medic with a full medical kit to look after their specific medical needs across the trail.

If our guides or carriers suffer serious illness or injury during their trek we arrange for them to be evacuated by helicopter and treated at the Port Moresby Private Hospital - they receive the same care, attention and treatment as our trekkers.