2008 Experience - Gathering Troops for Kokoda Track

Gathering Troops for the Kokoda Track - back for more and recruiting others!
Shortly after successfully completing the Kokoda Track in August 2007, I attended dear old Griff Weatherly’s funeral, and after the service we were having the mandatory cup of tea and copious cream cakes, courtesy of the local Red Cross, when I was told in no uncertain terms by Bobby's wife that he was ropable that he hadn’t been given the chance to participate. So I decided that it would be good to put another group together, and mentioned this to Trina W., her instant reply was “Then you better not leave Bill out!” So I started formulating a group, which included those two, as well as Peter and his daughter Virginia, who was overseas but keen (Peter being a nephew of Bruce Kingsbury who won the VC at Isurava), Gary and his sons Andrew and Tim (Gary’s father Bevan French was the OC B Company 39th Battalion, who had replaced Sam Templeton after he was missing at Oivi), Murray who walked it last year with me, and had always indicated that his son Andrew and son-in-law Tim would be interested to go with him this year as well. My sister Janet walked Cradle Mountain with me in April, and said she wanted to have a crack this time, and her son Charles was in after his Himalayan walk in February. Hobba had indicated that he would have liked to do it in 2007, but little baby Eda put a stop to that, so he was keen to have a go this time, as was Mike. We attended Clair's wedding at Delamere in November, and on talking there to Bill he said he was a probable starter, and later on Cee indicated that she was feeling a bit left out, so she came on board. The three Beers (Michael, Shelley and Lachie) spoke early about their interest, and worked very hard to get to the line, along with several other of their friends who expressed their keenness, but dropped off with the passing of time. Peter met me in Macs Snacks one day not long after my return in 2007, and said he would like to join us, so I offered him a pair of boots that I had spare, and which seemed to fit him. Several people expressed interest in seeing the 2007 Kokoda dvd at Easter, we were still living in Margaret's house so I invited them around to view it one night, we had a most amusing night there, and I had just got rid of the last of the guests when the phone rang, it was Jim ringing from Walcha, NSW, totally out of the blue, to say he wanted to join us. Knox was the next, and he and Bobby proceeded to tramp the Grampians big time, along with Bill & Cee, and Bill W. on occasions. Speaking of Bill W., we went to his 60th birthday at Blythvale, and John was there, I was feeling a bit guilty that I hadn’t offered him a chance last year, so corrected that by offering him a berth this year, which he accepted without the slightest hesitation, and said his son Richie was also keen (John’s father was at Isurava, and was one of those who were separated there, amongst them Captain Ben Buckler and Lt ‘Mocca’ Treacy, who eventually made their way back to Australian lines after some weeks, unfortunately along the way having to leave John Metson, Tom Fletcher and other wounded, who were massacred by the Japanese). The last one on was Richard, from Young in NSW, who attended Bruce's 50th about two months ago, and rang me on his return to see if he could get a berth, which I said he could.