AL Blog: DEATH MARCH TRAIL Part 1

DEATH MARCH track

We walked 5 hours on just part of the Sandakan to Ranau POW track which was known as the death march no one survived. If any POW was too sick, injured or just too exhausted they were killed on the track by the Japanese. I found out that the local Sabahans built the track under the orders of the Japanese. The locals did not support the Japanese and thought the track was for them, so they deliberately routed it away from any villages and across the most difficult, impossible terrain.

We saw the difficult route today. In fact there were different terrains we crossed or rather crashed through or up or over. The jungle was so thick that the guide had to use his machete to carve a path, cutting down the trees, bamboo, lianas and well, everything, to get us through parts of it. We walked through dark, humid, wet rainforests, over creeks and moss, slushed through damp humus, crushed the leaf litter and didn’t hold on to the rattan plant with its nail spikes.

We walked through temperate forests, grasses, along local tracks, across bridges and sometimes Mum couldn’t find me under the grassy ferns.

roots and lianas tried to capture us

Every time we came out of the rainforest we had to scan our boots for leeches because they tried to squirm their way in. It was actually quite scary seeing them move at such a rapid pace! Insect repellant fumes surrounded us a couple of times as Mum and I made sure it covered us . . . and our shoes! Then there were the wasps! Mum got bitten on the arm, and they apparently hurt a LOT. I won’t go into the details, we just went on. The bugs and spiders and flying creatures came on the walk with us. I kept imagining what it would have been like for the POWs who were so frail, weak, sick, injured and were wearing only loin clothes, some had no shoes, and water wasn’t available like we had.