The Harold Bould Memorial Tour are making great progress and have reached their campsite at Menari this evening. All are doing very well and the track conditions are nice and dry.

Menari, is a prosperous native community cultivating fertile gardens on the hilly slopes that lie at the junction of two creeks.

The campsite at Menari is a beautiful peaceful rest place for trekkers today but a photo from the September 1942 reminds us that it was not always so.

Menari is the location where Lt Ralph Honner gave his now famous speech to his men, the 39th Militia Battalion.

"Now I don't know a lot of you by name, but I know you.

We met at Isurava. We fought there together and every step of the way here.

Now we are relieved and we will leave the battle.

And every day the enemy supply line stretches further. He suffers now as you have suffered.

The battle we fought for the track may have just saved your nation. At Imita we will stop him.

Brigadier wants you to know...your gallantry, your courage, your fortitude are an inspiration.

And I want you to know that you are some of the finest soldiers that I have ever seen.

You have seen things in this place that no man should witness.

Some of these things you must forget. But history will remember you, and in the years to come others will wish that they had your conviction.

And remember...remember the glory is not the exhortation of war, but the exhortation of man.

Mans nobility, made transcendent in the fiery crucible of war.

Faithfulness and fortitude.

Gentleness and compassion.

I am honored to be your brother." — Lt Col Ralph Honner DSO MC

The group are all travelling well and have made it to the campsite in good time and in good health.