Menari to Efogi 2

Day 6

Pretty rough night sleep again.  When I am asleep I sleep well, but you have to move within an hour or your shoulder goes numb.  Lucky for me I can go back to sleep pretty quick.  But all that is forgotten once the morning packing of the bag is done and you open your door to another incredible view.  I am not sure what type of sleep i was expecting to have, but what ever I am getting it is plenty for what is needed.

Breakfast, bathroom and a little chat with Dave to tell us what was on today.  We were headed to Brigade Hill, which was some of the biggest engagements in the entire war..  At one stage Battalion HQ was cut off from the Battalion.  First radio call was "Fight your way back to us!". Next radio communication was "We are fighting our way to you!"  We heard stories about men who had accepted their fate and did what needed to be done.

After a quick creek crossing we headed up the hill that leads to Brigade Hill.  This took a long time and at parts I am sure it was steeper than "The Wall".  We smashed it out together and the stories and chatter kept up.  Dave commented again how impressed he was with us as a group.

After some hard work we arrived at Brigade Hill  and at the point where Battalion HQ would have been.  Dave told us the stories about the battle and even in some cases some diggers fought all the way to Isurava and back to Brigade Hill only to give their life at this point for the greater good.

While we were at Brigade Hill we had a short service and both Peter and Allan read as part of it.  It was very emotional to hear all the names of the diggers that had been lost at this battle.

After the ceremony we headed off down a steep section towards our lunch stop.  While we were here the Green Machine told us that rain was coming so that we should not try and push to the original night spot but stop short of it.  We stopped at Efogi 1 for lunch and then a short walk to Efogi 2 where we made camp.  The green machine knew what they were talking about, because within 2 mins it was raining and it was pretty heavy.  We all were happy that we were not trying to walk in it.

Spent the afternoon telling more stories about war and some more general conversation.  Late afternoon the rain stopped so we headed down to the village to have a look around.  Allan handed out some lollies and the kids really liked them.  I think Freddy would have liked some more as well.  We raced back up to my bag to grab the glow sticks to take back down.  When we got back to the camp, I got a beautiful message on the sat phone from home.  Felt so good to hear from everyone and that they were all thinking about me.  I choose to read it out to the group as I am sure other would like to hear contact from outside world.  I did choke up a bit while reading though.

Was pretty hard to stay awake tonight but we managed to hang in till 8:30.  Moral is very high still and there is zero tension between people.  It is more like we have know each other for 6 years  not 6 days.  Could not have hoped for it to go any better so far.

Just before bed we all stood outside looking up at the sky again.  Soaking in the world in all its glory.

Missing everyone a lot!