Seeking a decent map for the Black Cat
25 July 2024
IVAN BIRYUKOV
BERLIN - I found this map on PNG Attitude and I’m really interested about the tracks it shows.
Some colleagues and I want to test our skills and embark on an extreme hiking adventure in Papua New Guinea.
We’ve chosen what we feel is one of the most interesting routes — the Black Cat Track.
We are currently in the preparation stage and were surprised to find that it's impossible to locate a .gpx file of this trek online for loading into a Garmin navigator.
I would be extremely grateful if you could help us find someone who might have the track (not a travel agency) so that we can plan the route ourselves.
Any recommendations and advice from those who have completed this trek are also welcome.
The wartime records for this track can be found on the Australian War Memorial website. Descriptions of the various actions along the track can be found in the relevant War Diaries of the 2/5th Independent Company and 2/7th Independent Company. The relevant diaries contain descriptions of the actions and sketch maps of the Track as noted by these Commando Units of the Australian Army that fought the Japanese along the Track to the coast.
There is also a description of the actions in Volume Five of the Australian Army Official Histories of World War Two at Chapter 18 with a sketch map of the Track at page 535.
However, a word of warning. PNG villagers are subsistence farmers in the rural areas and move village and garden locations about every five years. In some cases, this has affected the actual wartime route of these walking tracks as against their current locations.
Posted by: Ross Wilkinson | 03 August 2024 at 01:19 AM
Get! or buy an ordinance survey map of PNG and buy yourselves a Sextant.
Posted by: William Dunlop | 28 July 2024 at 12:50 PM