Ninety-six kilometres over the Owen Stanley Range, from Owers’ Corner near Port Moresby to Kokoda village, topping out at 2,490 metres on Mount Bellamy. It is passable on foot and no other way. Between July and November 1942 Australian and Japanese forces fought a running campaign along it, and the track has meant something to Australia ever since; the documentary Kokoda Front Line! won the country its first Academy Award. People walk it now in four to twelve days: hot wet days, cold nights, hard rain, malaria country. Be clear about the risk. Numbers went from 76 trekkers in 2001 to over 5,600 by 2008 and six people have died of hyponatremia on it, four of them in 2009, which is what happens when you drink hard and replace no salt. Operators are licensed by the Kokoda Track Authority now. The record crossing is 16 hours 34 minutes, set by Brendan Buka in 2008.
Owen Stanley Range, Papua New Guinea
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