To help celebrate his 60th birthday and to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Gallipoli, Kel and his daughter Adelle, 31, of Eden, set forth from Owers’ Corner on May 12 and finished at Kokoda on May 19. 

Many locals have seen Kel and Adelle walking along the numerous fire trails around Wonboyn and up and down Mt Imlay in preparation for the trek.  

The trek was made all the more harder after walking in mud after three days of heavy rain, numerous creek crossings, and the ever menacing uphill climbs and steeper descents.  

"It was terribly difficult," Mr Henry said.

"It made the experience of my father and the other Diggers during the war all the more real," he said.

Mr Henry said the trek was made all the more special by having Adelle share it with him. 

His father Reg, who lived in Beneroop, northern Victoria, and passed away in 1974, served in New Guinea between August 1942 and September 1943.

"In all those years he never spoke about the war itself, other than to mention the Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels who helped the injured Australian troops along the Kokoda trail," he said. 

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to Brigade Hill, where for three days in September 1942 besieged Australians troops fought desperately to hold the advancing Japanese as far north of Port Moresby as possible.

Both Kel and Adelle want to do the trek again as both believe it was the experience of a lifetime.