Surviving Kokoda

We received a brief from John Walters at Ingram Micro which announced the competition, and we won one of the tickets based on our sales targets.

It was a very exciting prize to go for. Ingram were releasing figures on how we were going throughout the time and we knew we were in with a chance for most of the competition.

"When we found out we had won there was lots of excitement around the office. There were two people that had hoped to go and they were very excited about going, but they couldn't make it so I took up the offer instead.

Maureen Henderson, Downs MicroSystems

Some of the downs were just as hard as the ups. One of the toughest bits was when we were walking down the hill and I said to one of the guys mate there's no way we are going to get there before dark, then the next minute it was stop guys, put your head torches on.

You finish the last hour and a half in the dark down this treacherously steep hill in mud in the dark with head torches on. We got to the bottom and had to walk up the side of a river which was a pretty sheer hill with a path a footstep wide and then cross the river. But all the river crossings were just a felled log.

So, pitch black, fast running river, wet muddy feet, a head torch on, and you had to go across the river with a backpack on. Mate if anyone had fallen in they would have been gone. God knows how no-one did.

When I passed the gates at Ower's corner I said there's no way I'd ever go back on that godforsaken track, and two weeks later I'm planning to take my boys out there. As an experience it's really hard to put in words how much you got from it, it was just mentally, physically and emotionally very challenging and rewarding. You learnt a lot about people and teamwork and how you worked together.

The jungle - it's very rainforest, ferny undergrowth and straggling trees. Most of the time you're down in the forest itself and the next minute you pop out and  you're on top of this hill with a majestic view across the mountains. Until you pop out you could have been down in middle of the valley - you have no idea because the jungle is so complete around you.

The Anzac ceremony was very special. When we flew up to Efogi village this guy Malcolm turned up [with the tour organisers] and he was a bit quiet and shady about who he was and why he was there.

He disappeared on Anzac morning really early and no-one noticed. We took off early and had a battle briefing on Mission Ridge, one of the other battle sites on our way up there, and as we came up on Brigade Hill the bagpipes started. [Malcolm was standing in full kilt uniform on top of the hill, playing the bagpipes.] That was pretty amazing.

There was a little bamboo stick with a red ribbon in it for every guy that died there. All the porters and the team stood around this plaque looking out over the valley, and we did the ceremony up there which was very, very moving.

They did a prayer, a poem that was written about [the fuzzy wuzzy angels]. The porters sang the national anthem of Papua New Guinea - those guys can seriously sing.

I mean these are a bunch of male porters but mate when they sang the national anthem it was just unbelievable. Then we croaked away the Aussie one. Afterwards we went down and had morning tea and then kept walking.

Craig Somerville, Somerville IT

Group One did it fast, Group Two were slower. I jumped into Group Two on the second day to say g'day and socialise with everybody. Some people were in a bit of trouble because it is a very physically and mentally challenging time.

You had to watch out for heat exhaustion. Some who admitted they hadn't trained properly. Others gave up mentally and couldn't move forward. You just had to pep them up, keep them positive, get the right liquids and sugar in them and just talking them up a hill or through a stretch of the track that was difficult.

We were doing 600-900 metre ascents, there were stretches that go straight up. Some were not hills they were frigging mountains. One of the areas was called nine false peaks, and I think we invented nine swear words going up there. It literally keeps going up.

We always regrouped at checkpoints. The guys that were doing well would give them a hand or a pat on the back or applaud them coming through, and just inspire them.

Otherwise you just throw a couple of jokes around. You learn the Australian term "mate": we were competitors in one way shape or form, vendors and resellers, but there wasn't a foul word spoken, nobody got upset with anybody, we knew what we wanted to get of every day and we just worked to get that together.

The porters were unbelievable. You got a sense for the fuzzy wuzzy angels and what they did. Always happy, always singing, at night they would sing and they would talk. You would slip and someone would be grabbing the back of your pack, and you would think it would be your buddy but it was the porter.

They would trek way ahead of us and you would get to the next check point and your ration pack would be laid out for you. We were carrying 15 kilo packs and these guys would carry 30 or 40 kg packs and they would literally run right past you.

The villagers in Efogi were very touched by us coming there. We had a welcoming party come out that sang us all the way up to their village. We were the first Anzacs to celebrate Anzac Day on Brigade Hill since 2002. The village chief from Efogi was absolutely touched. He thanked us all. They celebrate Anzac day; rightly or wrongly I had a perception that they were not interested in it. They lost several thousand people too.

The fuzzy wuzzy angels carried the sick and the wounded, the really got behind Australia and hid the Australian soldiers. So they celebrate as much as we do. They were part of our service that we had on the hill, there must have been about 25 from the village. The chief proudly looks after that hill and makes sure that it's well preserved.

David Bowden summarised it; what we learnt is that we are competitors, we are not enemies. You couldn't develop that degree of understanding and friendship in five years. That's what Kokoda does to you.

We are very proud of our IT industry; everyone worked as a team, and that doesn't come overnight. That's how we are as an industry, we like to help each other and share experiences, and that came out so strongly in the walk with everybody.

We think we will compete more effectively with each other in the market, or at least with a greater degree of respect. A lot of us are in the mid-tier market, and that's a big tier market, and I think we can share experiences and help everyone deliver a better experience.

What we are doing for people's businesses, we are not just throwing some gadget at them and it doesn't matter if it goes wrong. Everyone was very proud of their business relationships and the deals that they've done and how well they've done them.

I've got to take my hat off to Ingram. I think we are all pretty tired of all these junkets. If I want to go on a holiday I want to do it with my family. This challenged us on all levels. It taught us leadership principles, it taught us motivation, it taught us to be mates, and it challenged us on a different level.

Everyone is so motivated and inspired again, and it brought us back down to earth. Living in mud, living in basic huts and living in the same clothes for five days and eating ration packs. But it got us back to reality.

Roy Pater, Computer Corp

The rainforest itself is one of the most pristine and naturally beautiful place I've ever been to. I don't think that was lost on any of us.

The actual track was to link the villages together. The people made us genuinely feel welcome; these are subsistence farmers, devout Christians and avid supporters of ARL. The kids up there couldn't get enough of rugby league. We were told that it's not uncommon for the men of the village to walk to Port Moresby for the State of Origin.

There was certainly a presence of the war there at all times, it just exists. The evidence is in the weapons pits, as you get closer to the end of the track there are some of the remains of concrete constructions by the soldiers and when you get to Ower's Corner there's these 25 pound guns that sit up on top which we used to repel the Japanese. It's amazing how little we do know about what happened up there.

In the evenings we'd sit around and everyone would speak about their life experiences. We talked about where we grew up, how many children we had, married, how we got into our job in IT, who we work for, our job an responsibilities there, and what did we think of Kokoda. I think it was a great sense of fulfilment.

There were friendships made on the track that will last forever. That's because everything that you have today in your office is stripped away, and it comes down to a team of people who rely on each other for their well being while they're on the track.

At some time everyone was challenged beyond their comfort zone. Blisters on their feet, rashes in groins, headaches, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, aching legs, overheating, sweating. It's as hard as they say. There were some standout people. There were a whole stack of people out there who did things that I didn't think they could do. The sense of co-operation and teamwork incredibly high.

I think what John Walters did in organising this event was unprecedented in our industry. To take a group of 36 people, the bulk of whom were competitors, and put them in a survival situation. I've been in the industry for 25 years but I don't remember ever anyone doing that before.

Everyone who was there relied on each other for their wellbeing for five days. I think that's a very innovative and risky thing to do.

We've all sat down at a bar and had cocktails, and that's lovely to do but this was an investment that John and Ingram made in the individual.

David Bowden, Harbour IT