Just one day into her Kokoda Trail experience and Rutherford’s Meg Connelly was ready to bail.
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She went into the trek with an open mind but never in her wildest dreams did she think the nine-day adventure would be as tough as it was.
“The terrain was slippery, sticky and rough, the hills never ending, some we scaled for four hours and many had me in tears when I reached the top,” she said.
“There was one stage during the first day when I wondered if my travel insurance covered helicopter evacuation.”
Meg took on the trail with her dad Scott who was behind her every step of the way. “I couldn’t have done it without him. He picked me up every time I fell down and dusted me off.”
Scott and Meg made the journey to raise money for Legacy and to honour the late Arthur Quintrell, Meg’s grandfather who was decorated with 16 medals for his war service.
Meg said she and her father were in a small group of four. They caught a small plane into Kokoda and landed on a grass strip, Meg shaking through the entire trip.
“Our group felt more like a family and without their encouragement it would have been a whole lot harder than it was,” she said.
She said the trip was an emotional roller coaster. “I was continually upset, nervous, excited but through that I learned a lot and realised there is a whole different world out there. You don’t realise how lucky you are until you see families living along the track who have nothing compared to what we have.
“They had no running hot water or cold drinks and yet they are the happiest people you could ever met. It’s incredible.
“I haven’t slept a night in 12 days, our tents leaked, the toilets were a hole in the ground and most of the time it poured rain so you were up hoping there wouldn’t be a landslide.
“It really hasn’t sunk in yet what an achievement this has been,” Meg said.
“Soldiers like my grandad did their work for us, so honouring them by walking in their footsteps is the least we could do. I’m sure he was with me.”
“My grandad would have been very proud of us. It was the hardest thing I have ever done in my life and I definitely believe I made it through because of him,” Meg said.
