Kokoda Track

The Kokoda Track
The Kokoda Track
Length	96 km (60 mi)
Location	Papua New Guinea
Trailheads	Kokoda / Owers' Corner
Use	Walking
Highest point	Mount Bellamy, 2,490 m (8,170 ft)
Lowest point	Ua'Ule Creek, 300 m (980 ft)
Difficulty	Hard
Season	All
Sights	WWII History, Jungle, Mountains

Map of the Kokoda Track as it was in 1942. The map is rotated to have NE bearing at the top of the page. — Map of the **Kokoda Track** as it was in 1942. The map is rotated to have NE bearing at the top of the page.

The Kokoda Track or Trail is a single-file foot thoroughfare that runs 96 kilometres (60 mi) overland – 60 kilometres (37 mi) in a straight line – through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea (PNG). The track was the location of the 1942 World War II battle between Japanese and Allied – primarily Australian – forces in what was then the Australian territory of Papua.

The track runs from Owers' Corner in Central Province, 50 kilometres (31 mi) east of Port Moresby, across rugged and isolated terrain which is only passable on foot, to the village of Kokoda in Oro Province. It reaches a height of 2,490 metres (8,169 ft) as it passes around the peak of Mount Bellamy.^[1] The track travels primarily through the land of the Mountain Koiari people.

Hot, humid days with intensely cold nights, torrential rainfall and the risk of endemic tropical diseases such as malaria make it a challenging trek. Hiking the trail normally takes between four and twelve days; the fastest recorded time is 16 hours 34 minutes.

^ Pérusse, Yvon (July 1993). Bushwalking in Papua New Guinea (2 ed.). Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, Berkeley, Calif: Lonely Planet. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-86442-052-7.

[LPPNG7-1] Pérusse, Yvon (July 1993). Bushwalking in Papua New Guinea (2 ed.). Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia, Berkeley, Calif: Lonely Planet. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-86442-052-7.

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