and the 'up' begins

and the 'up' begins
Originally uploaded by Asia Trip2007.

The scenery along the Kokoda track is something that is unique to this part of the world. Mosses, plants, ferns, palms, vines all intertwine to produce a dense, humid, bright green wonderland. The hills are extremely steep and long and these photos don't accurately represent the grade of difficulty that is consistant on this track, but the vistas and forested jungle land never lets you think about the 40% grade you are stepping up like a ladder for an hour(at least for me, the splendor worked as a distraction from the lactic acid my body seemed to consist mostly of).

This is a photo of our group of 15 clients making the first big ascent of the day.

One other thing. While hiking this trail, you discover wonderful little mirages called 'false peaks'. This is when you've been climbing a steep ascent for an hour and then the trees thin out at the top of the ascent and you believe you are at the top as the ground levels out and the trees have huge gaps in them. But as you come to the next up hill climb, you realise that you are not actually at any plateau, you've just reached a mini or false peak and the real peak is miles away.
The bush is so dense, that it's really difficult to determine the points where the plateaus are as you can not see that far ahead. This photo is actually one of the clearings that we would reach from time to time, which made for enough light for a good shot.