A group of Australian livestock and wool buyers have made the trek of a lifetime this Anzac Day by walking the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea, where hundreds of soldiers died during World War II.
The 96-kilometre, nine-day journey started at Owers' Corner and finished at Kokoda and was described by two of the men as a top-five lifetime experience.
Australian Food & Agriculture feedlot manager James Sage, Conargo, NSW, commission buyer Hamish Mackenzie, Echuca, Fletcher International Exports wool and skins sales manager Gerald Webster, Dubbo, NSW, and G & K O'Connor livestock buyer Wayne Reid, Pakenham, were among the 22 people in the group.
Mr Mackenzie said he was motivated to walk the track to pay homage to Diggers like his grandfather, Leo Joseph Tyndall, who served in Tobruk, Palestine and PNG 80 years ago.
"He was at the forefront of my mind when I was doing the trip and remained in PNG 13 months after the war doing the clean up," he said.
"He was killed in a road accident in 1971 when mum was pregnant with me, so while I never met him, his legacy lives on."
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Mr Sage said he wanted to gauge the difficulty of the terrain to get a "small insight" into what soldiers experienced in the early 1940s.
About 625 Australians were killed fighting and more than 1600 were wounded in the five-month battle between Australian and Japanese soldiers.
"The track was certainly difficult and personally challenging for me at times, but it gave me a great sense of achievement," he said.
The group was required to be vaccinated against various illnesses including malaria, typhoid fever and hepatitis prior to the trip, while the men had varied training regimes.
Mr Webster said it was in the top five most memorable experiences of his lifetime.
"I would recommend to anyone who is up for the challenge to get themselves in reasonable shape," he said.
The experience came less than a week after 48-year-old Australian man Paul Miller from Adelaide died on the trail at the 18.5-kilometre marker from a suspected cardiac arrest while raising money for charity.
The group of 22 was made up of farmers, business owners, concreters, electricians, builders, as well as an accountant, an explosives expert and social and healthcare workers.
"We went past where he died and that was a little bit daunting given all four of us were around the same age," Mr Reid said.
"We did varying amounts of preparation in the lead up to the trek, particularly hill climbing.
"It was certainly more challenging than what we expected, but more so from a mental perspective because you were constantly wet and would get rained on at night and most times the track was wet and muddy.
Mr Reid said the humidity and nighttime fog meant his clothes were constantly wet throughout the nine days.
He said the largest day by distance spanned 23 kilometres, while daytime meals consisted of spam, noodles, baked beans and dry biscuits, with bully beef and rice for dinner.
"It was pretty special to be there on Anzac Day because after walking the terrain, you had a good understanding of the conditions our soldiers fought in," he said.
"It was also quite unreal to find somewhere that was only a three-hour flight from Australia and as primitive and untouched within such a close proximity to Australia with very little western influence."