Day 7 - Menari to New Nauro Village

The guys and girls from Our Spirit having their morning meet at 6.30 am. Aidan gives a war medal to the star walker from the previous day to carry. Quite a good motivational tool.

Some of the group were doing it tough. We had quite a few of the girls from the group share our hut for the night. Most of them spent upwards of one hour in the am re-applying cremes and sports bandages to their knees.

I also had to chuckle at their pet names for their porters. They had special tasks for their porters to keep them motivated during the walk. One of the girls asked her porter to give her musk sticks when she was struggling ;-).

Was quite interesting to notice how little the trekkers in these groups 'hung out' with the villagers and their porters. Andrew and I basically spent each night with Tony and his relatives in each village/guest house. This turned out to be the most enjoyable part of our trip....meeting and learning about the villages/villagers, eating meals with them etc. I will never forget the sounds of the porters singing gospel songs at night around the camp/cooking fire.

An amazing shot through the clouds towards New Nauro Village in the distance.

Hitting Browns river in the swamp area. This was some tough walking through mud !

We spent about an hour sloshing through deep water and mud getting to the new crossing point on Browns river. The main log over the river had been washed away some days ago in a flood.

Is amazing how tiring it is walking through heavy mud for hours on end. Your boots treble in weight and you struggle with each step fighting the suction of the mud.

Finally made the tree bridge crossing Browns river. The mud however continued up to Nauro Village

We heard a heavy chopper just after crossing the bridge. The faithful Huey 091 dropping a water tank into the village of  Nauro via sling. Amazing sound this chopper makes !

The village of New Nauro. The original village of Nauro, now vacated, is down the hill from the current village.

Now, this was an interesting character. He wandered into Nauro at about 2pm. Was walking totally alone !
Said he was heading today towards Menari (about 6 hours away). He had already walked seven days to get to Nauro from Owen Corner. We would complete this part of the walk in two days. He had allowed 14 days in total to cover the trip.... will be tight based on his progress to date. He also mentioned that his boots had lost a sole and he managed to convince villagers to find him another pair !

Tony advised him that it was not a clever idea to walk the track alone. Our friend just laughed and walked on. Tony swore under his breath and stated that this guy would need to be rescued/evacuated in a few days at best...at worst, he would get lost!  I wonder how he went with his trip.

A couple of Aidan's guys also got lost today. One of the members of his group seemed to have trouble following the rules... ie never pass your lead guide/porter. This chap past another group and then past Andrew, Tony and myself. Tony warned him about the multiple tracks up ahead and that he should wait. He carried on regardless. Aidan had to send two of his porters out to find this guy and they returned very close to nightfall. I hope he learned a lesson !

The shower at Nauro. This is typical of showers along the trail. Log floors and a tap for a shower. Cold water, but a million dollar view while you clean up !

View from Nauro back to the gap. Aidan's guys having their huddle !