Adventure Kokoda

22/11/2024

Major Charlie Lynn OAM OL, Founder and Director of Adventure Kokoda - his personal contribution to Kokoda tourism over the past 32 years, this can be viewed on the link below.

When Charlie first trekked Kokoda in 1991 the Trail itself was in parts non-existent - it was neither a trail nor a track, for the most part neglected since the end of the Second World War. The jungle had reclaimed the battlesites and no monuments or memorials had been erected by Government along the trail.

Charlie wrote his first paper on the need to protect the wartime integrity of the Kokoda Trail in 1994 and he has never wavered from those ideals.

Charlie Lynn - Kokoda - ADVENTURE KOKODA

20/11/2024

We recently updated Adventure Kokoda YouTube channel with our Trekking Kokoda Information Videos, Trekkers Videos and History Videos. Check them out on the following link:

Adventure Kokoda is a specialist Kokoda trekking company – Kokoda is all we do – that’s why we are rated No.1 on Trip Advisor. 30 Years Experience, Expert Trek Leaders, Battlefield Presentations, Dawn Service at Isurava, 24/7 safety backup. Our primary goal is to get you safely across the Koko...

06/11/2024

Tim James MP trekked with Adventure Kokoda. We are proud to have shared the experience.

04/11/2024

A wonderful Kokoda Day Service at the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway with a large attendance and many past and future Adventure Kokoda trekkers paying their respect.

Charlie Lynn OAM OL, a Director of the Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway delivered the prologue for the service.

Congratulations to Alice Kang OAM, Hon Secretary Kokoda Track Memorial Walkway for compiling the moving tribute to the New Guinea 'Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels' - a must watch!

2024 Kokoda Day Commemoration Service - PAPUA NEW GUINEA

02/11/2024

Today is the 82nd anniversary of the day our troops recaptured Kokoda after a bitter 3-month campaign against all the odds on the Kokoda Trail.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the day our troops raised the Australian flag on the Kokoda Plateau. We honour the occasion by acknowledging it as ‘Kokoda Day’.

Our flag would never have been raised if it had not been for the support and selfless sacrifice of the unsung heroes of the Kokoda campaign – the New Guinea wartime carriers who became known as ‘fuzzy-wuzzy angels’.

I had the honour to meet one of those, Mr. Ovoru Indiki, on many occasions during our treks.

Ovoru died on 13 November 2013 – following is the tribute I paid to him in the NSW Parliament.

https://blog.kokodatreks.com/2024/11/01/kokoda-day-tribute-to-mr-ovoru-indiki/

17/10/2024

Illegal Kokoda Blockade: Timeline & Consequences for Kokoda Tourism

Illegal Kokoda Blockade: Timeline & Consequences for Kokoda Tourism - OUR VIEWPOINT

09/10/2024

It's heartening to see the new PNG Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture take a stand to have responsibility for the Kokoda Trail transferred to his portfolio so it can be managed as a commercial tourism enterprise for the economic benefit of his people rather that as an 'environment park' by the Minister for Environment, Conservation and Climate Change through his aid-funded Conservation Environment Promotion Authority.

Nation Kokoda track still closed over responsibility confusion By The National October 9, 2024 Share FacebookWhatsAppEmail THE closure of the Kokoda Track to tourist traffic cannot be settled as there is confusion over which government agency is responsible for the track, it has been revealed. Touri...

08/10/2024

Call for the PNG Government to acquire the Kokoda Trail as a National Tourism Asset

Call for the PNG Government to acquire the Kokoda Trail as a National Tourism Asset - OUR MEDIA

30/09/2024

15 years ago it was not possible to book a campsite on the Kokoda Trail and there was not a single hygienic toilet anywhere along it.

Since then Canberra has engaged advisors, officials and consultants on eye-watering 6-figure salaries on their $60 million plus 'Kokoda Initiative'.

Today, it is still not possible to book a campsite; there not a single hygienic toilet anywhere along it, they haven't invested in a single battlesite; and trekker numbers have fallen by 46% under their watch!

Time for PNG to reclaim ownership and run it as a tourism enterprise for the benefit of trekkers and customary landowner communities rather than as an environmental park for the benefit of Australian advisors, officials and consultants!

From our Adventure Kokoda Files Circa 2009 - OUR VIEWPOINT

27/09/2024

ABC Radio James Valentine talks to Charlie Lynn about the issues that has led to the blockade on the Kokoda Trail.

27/09/2024

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/sep/27/kokoda-track-shut-to-walkers-png-landowners-protest-government-payments-marape

Mount Kodu landowners petition prime minister to pay outstanding commitment the government made to them to preserve the track

26/09/2024

25/09/2024

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/am/blockades-threaten-kokoda-businesses/104392482?utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared

Hiking the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea is usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But plans have been cut short for hikers due to start the trek this week… after local villagers set up a blockade.

25/09/2024

Nauro landowners have a genuine grievance and they have made their point. It’s now time for both the Australian and PNG governments to come clean with whatever commitments were made in 2008 and honour them.
It’s also time for the landowners to dismantle their blockade and return to Port Moresby to continue their negotiations through their elected representatives and allow their fellow ‘Wan Toks’ across the Trail to get jobs with tour companies and allow villagers to earn money through hiring out their campsites, performing ‘sing-sings, selling food and souvenirs, etc

https://www.facebook.com/abcnews.au/videos/1074061721014931

23/09/2024

https://www.postcourier.com.pg/illegal-kokoda-trail-closure-sends-an-ominous-message-to-the-nrl-re-supporting-a-png-team/

The sudden closure of the Kokoda Trail, PNGs most popular tourism destination, without any warning sends an ominous message to the NRL considering basing a team in PNG, according to Charlie Lynn.

21/09/2024

PNG is the only country in the world which allows its most popular tourism destination to be managed as an environmental bureaucracy for the benefit of aid-funded officials rather than as a tourism enterprise for the economic benefit of traditional owners of land sacred to our shared military heritage.

This has happened under Canberra’s watch.

The 46% fall in trekker numbers since they took control of its management 14 years ago has led to increasing tensions among village communities who have been denied the opportunity to earn a sustainable living from the growth of pilgrimage tourism.

This culminated in the illegal blockade and closure of the Trail last week.

Hopefully it was act as a catalyst for the management of the Kokoda Trail from the Conservation Environment Protection Authority (CEPA) to the Tourism Promotion Authority (TPA) under the auspices of the Minister for Tourism, Arts and Culture where is should always have been.

Our blogs relate to our involvement with the challenge of developing a viable pilgrimage tourism industry across the Kokoda Trail over the past 32-years,

Index: Major Charlie Lynn's Adventure Kokoda Blogs - OUR VIEWPOINT