Well, I’m back from Kokoda. What a journey!
It was such an incredible experience, easily the best adventure trip I’ve done and the most amazing country to visit.
23 of us took on the rough terrain, trekking for 9 days, and I’ve gotta say, it was so much more challenging than I expected! I thought that training for Ironman would probably be enough for Kokoda, and I still found it physically exhausting. Hats off to everyone who trekked with me – a mammoth effort made easy in the knowledge that we raised a massive amount of money for Interplast. Go team!
I’ve been asked a few times now what the standout experience was, and you know I think it was the rest day. Funny that! Haha! But it really was an amazing day. We were in a village called Nudiri and spent the whole day immersed in their village life, going to church with the locals and having running races with the kids. It was pretty awesome.
I’ve also gotta say that, being an Aussie, walking through those mountains felt really significant. I still can’t comprehend how battles were fought in that terrain. It was a special and powerful place to visit, that’s for sure.
Challenges? Yeah, there were a few! The biggest challenge for me personally was physical.
Because 65% of my body surface has been burnt, it’s difficult for my body to regulate my temperature. So I really feel the heat and the cold. The days were so hot trekking and the nights were really cold so I had to make sure I looked after myself while trekking – lots of jumping into waterholes and taking extra precautions to make sure my night time clothing stayed dry and warm.
But that’s the thing about challenges – when you prepare for them, they’re easy to overcome!
I learnt so much on this trek. Most importantly, I learnt that we are capable of so much more than we think. Some of the trekkers I met had overcome so many of their own mental and physical battles to be on that trek with me.
We’re all using excuses to keep ourselves back, but we can all choose to let go of these things too.
That challenge you’re facing? I’m not saying it’s easy, I’m saying it is possible – tweet it!
Anything really is possible.
Turia xx
ps want more insights from me? Subscribe to my newsletter to stay in the loop!
