Kokoda trail thefts (1 Viewer)

[Rob]

Trekkers are pinching relics from the trail, this is a real shame as they should be left for all to see.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/trekkers-steal-kokoda-track-war-relics-20120120-1qa7n.html

 

[lancer]

Trekkers are pinching relics from the trail, this is a real shame as they should be left for all to see.

http://www.smh.com.au/national/trekkers-steal-kokoda-track-war-relics-20120120-1qa7n.html

That's just great.:rolleyes2: Wait until one of these lightfingered genuis' picks up a grenade or mortar shell and blows himself and his tour group into a million pieces. You would think a 'hands off' approach to a battlefield and it's detritus would be common sense. -- Al

 

[Jack]

That's just great.:rolleyes2: Wait until one of these lightfingered genuis' picks up a grenade or mortar shell and blows himself and his tour group into a million pieces. You would think a 'hands off' approach to a battlefield and it's detritus would be common sense. -- Al

I walked Kokoda some years ago and we found a grenade in the campfire debris from an earlier group!

 

[larso]

"I walked Kokoda some years ago"

He did indeed! He also lost two kilos and had to be flown out in a plane held together with chicken wire, using a cliff as a runway!

 

[Jack]

"I walked Kokoda some years ago"

He did indeed! He also lost two kilos and had to be flown out in a plane held together with chicken wire, using a cliff as a runway!

I still have flashbacks!

 

[Rob]

That's just great.:rolleyes2: Wait until one of these lightfingered genuis' picks up a grenade or mortar shell and blows himself and his tour group into a million pieces. You would think a 'hands off' approach to a battlefield and it's detritus would be common sense. -- Al

I myself have picked up shrapnel and shell fragments I've spotted on the fields of France and Belgium, but its not dangerous of course . However these thefts on the Kokoda trail are also from a museum I understand? Stealing from a museum is outrageous and almost as bad as the cases of WW1 graves being robbed for buttons and uniforms etc. Some people have no moral compass at all.

Jack's story of finding a grenade in the ashes of a fire is incredible, what goes through these peoples minds (a piece of grenade very nearly!). It reminds me of the very sad incident in France in which a farmer lit a bonfire unaware it was on top of unexploded shells just under the surface, he was killed in the explosion that followed. I also understand that every year children are still killed or maimed around Alamein as the minefields put down by both sides shift in the ever moving sands of the desert. Its truly sad that every year the two worst conflicts the world has seen are still taking the lives of children, tourists and bomb disposal experts decades after they finished.

Rob