Susan Wallis talks about her Kokoda experience at the latest Illawarra Women In Business lunch. Photo: Natalie Rachlewicz.
Before setting out to tackle the 96 km Kokoda Trail, Susan Wallis admits she was terrified – “scared of everything”.
The Woonona mum has been through more challenges in her life than most people, yet she decided to tackle the gruelling eight-day trek in honour of her late daughter Gracie.
In the weeks and months before 13-year-old Gracie passed away after a lifetime of illness, Susan promised her that she would take care of herself and be OK without her beloved daughter.
“So the whole point was I promised Gracie that I would be OK, and this was a really intense way of following through for a whole list of reasons.”
In an often emotional though honest and inspirational talk to the latest meeting of the Illawarra Women in Business (IWIB), Susan revealed her fears before the walk.
“I had fitness concerns; I was worried I hadn’t trained enough – would I be able to keep up with the group?
“I was worried that no-one would like me; I was worried I would have no friends – I was going with a group of strangers.
“How was I going to cope without contact with my family at home? And how was I going to cope with being disconnected and not having access to the internet?
“I’m also terrified of heights. I didn’t want to go in a small plane. I get motion sick. Mozzies love me – mozzies carry malaria.
“And as for tents and toilets? Well, my idea of camping is a three-star hotel. I haven’t camped in a tent for 30 years.
“There were 19 in the group, 17 serving military or veterans. There was one other woman; there was one other civilian. So I was maybe a little bit concerned about toxic masculinity. I was definitely outnumbered and intimidated.”
Yet what Susan found at the end of that gruelling adventure was a whole new family to cherish.
“Walk with Us Kokoda very carefully curated the most exceptional group of humans who became friends and then became family,” she said.
“Nobody had any fights, nobody got sick, nobody broke anything, no-one was evacuated, but we all loved each other, which was really special.”
Susan admits the first day walking 5 km was tough.
“We did 1 km down and 2 km up. And when I say 2 km up, it’s like 2 km of Sublime Point – if there’s river crossings, if it’s muddy, if there’s no steps, if it’s raining and you’ve got a pack on your back.
“By day three, when my legs stopped aching, it started to become easy. My legs stopped aching and my success tool – I started wearing compression tights.
“I went to bed in compression tights on the second night and then the following morning, I thought, why don’t I walk in this? And it worked. It worked really well. So they were my secret weapon.”
Susan has so far raised almost $6500 for Walk With Us Kokoda, which organises Kokoda Trail trips for veterans and civilians. In partnership with RSL NSW, the company also sponsors veterans from across NSW.
Next year Susan plans to sponsor a female vet on the walk and is in early planning for a scholarship.
Susan made special mention of her porter Peter – “Petey was either holding my hand or hanging onto my backpack or picking me up out of the mud or pulling me up over the big, high stairs” – and paid tribute to the group’s leaders, Lachlan Stevens from Walk With Us Kokoda and Cameron (Cam) James from World Wide Adventures.
“Between Lachie and Cam, they created the most extraordinary experience and environment for us all to be vulnerable and to get the most of our time together on the track.
“After my panic on the first day – I could barely eat dinner that night – I was in a world of pain and I mean a world of emotional pain. Physically, I guess I was OK.
“Cam really quietly came up to me and said, and I quote, ‘Follow my feet and I’ll walk at the speed that you need to get to Kokoda’. And that’s exactly what I did for the next eight days. I walked in Cam’s footsteps. Cam believed in me enough for the two of us until I caught up.”
Susan felt Gracie’s presence most when she visited the Bomana cemetery at the end of the trail. It contains the war graves of almost 4000 Australian and allied soldiers, sailors and airmen.
“I walked down a couple of lines of graves and I found the grave of a young private, Private Grace who had died at 20 and that was the same age Gracie would have been this year.
“It felt like a sign. It felt like I was supposed to be there and that she was proud of me. So I dropped to my knees and I had a cry.
“I’m not the same person that went to Kokoda. I’m a better version of me.”
Click here for information on Walk with Us Kokoda and to donate.
