How long does the Kokoda Track take?

Most organised treks spend seven to ten days on the track, walking the full 96 kilometres in daily stages from one village campsite to the next. Faster schedules exist for very fit groups, and a slower pace leaves more time at the memorials and in the villages. Travel days at both ends come on top, and a spare day before the flight home is wise, because domestic flights in Papua New Guinea are often delayed or cancelled.

How fit do I need to be for the Kokoda Track?

Fit enough to walk uphill and downhill for most of a day, several days in a row, in heat and humidity. The steep descents are hard on knees and ankles, and the constant ups and downs tire even regular hikers. A medical check and several months of training before the trek — long hill walks and stair climbs with a loaded daypack, in the boots that will be worn on the track — are the usual preparation.

Do I need to carry my own pack on the Kokoda Track?

No. Many trekkers hire a personal porter through the trekking company, who carries the main pack while the trekker walks with a daypack for water, rain gear and snacks. Those who prefer to carry their own full pack can, and they still walk with the company's guides and porters. A personal porter is paid for the work, and the arrangement is made with the company before the trek starts.

When is the best time to walk the Kokoda Track?

Most treks are walked in the drier months in the middle of the year. Across Papua New Guinea the wet season runs from November to May, and on the track it brings more mud, higher creeks and slippery descents. Even in the drier months rain falls in the mountains on many days, and every trek is planned for wet days on the path.

Travel deep dive

The Kokoda Track: A Mountain Range Crossed on Foot

The Kokoda Track is a 96-kilometre foot trail over the Owen Stanley Range, the mountain spine of south-eastern Papua New Guinea, between Owers' Corner near Port Moresby and the village of Kokoda on the northern side. No road crosses the range here, and the track is still the path between the villages along it, so trekkers share it with the people who live there. In a country whose regions are linked by air rather than by road, it is a journey made entirely on foot.

Updated 2026-10-05

Owers' Corner and Kokoda: the two ends

The southern end is Owers' Corner, where the road from Port Moresby over the Sogeri plateau stops at the edge of the range. The northern end is Kokoda, a village in Oro Province, reached from Port Moresby by a domestic flight to Popondetta and then by road. Treks run in both directions — north from Owers' Corner, or south from Kokoda to finish near the capital — and the trekking company arranges the transfers at both ends. The climbs, the creeks and the villages are the same either way.

Ridges, creeks and mud

The track needs no climbing skill, but it is rarely level: it climbs and drops over one ridge after another on steep paths laced with roots. Creeks and rivers are crossed on log bridges or waded, and after rain the path turns to deep, slippery mud. The lower sections at both ends run through hot, humid forest; near the crest of the range the forest turns mossy and cool, and nights at the higher campsites are cold enough for a warm layer and a proper sleeping bag.

Villages and nights on the track

Villages stand along the length of the track — Naoro, Menari, Efogi and Kagi among them — and the nights are spent at campsites in or beside them, in tents or in simple shelters the villagers have built. The land the track crosses belongs to these communities, and the campsites are paid for; along the way villagers often sell fruit to passing groups.

Memorials and wartime relics

The track is known for the fighting along it in the Second World War, which is why memorials stand on its route. Most groups stop at the memorial at Isurava in the northern part of the track, four granite pillars in a clearing above the Eora Creek valley, and many visit Bomana War Cemetery, rows of headstones on mown lawns on the road between Port Moresby and Owers' Corner, before or after the trek.

Old wartime ordnance still lies in the forest along the track, some of it unexploded. Whatever a walker comes across is left where it lies and pointed out to the guide.

Guides, porters and the permit

The track is walked only with the guides of an established trekking company, never independently; travelling with a local operator is the core of staying safe in Papua New Guinea beyond the towns. The company arranges the trek permit, which every trekker needs and for which a fee is charged, along with the campsites, the food and the transfers. Its guides set the daily pace and know the landowners along the way, and its porters, most of them from the villages of the range, carry the group's food, tents and cooking gear. Guides and porters are paid for their work, and the terms of the trek are agreed with the company before setting off.

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