Your Chessell Adventures guides on Kokoda

Chessell Adventures’s panel of specialist leaders is one of the key ingredients to your successful and enjoyable adventure on Kokoda. They are professional in their approach, capable, level-headed, personable, qualified and experienced. All are knowledgeable about the history of the Kokoda Track. Your leader’s primary responsibility is for the group’s safety and well-being and they will also manage your local crew to sure things ‘work’ for the team as whole and each team member.

Duncan Chessell	Zac Zaharius	Dan Coletti	Billi Beirling
Frank Marchetti	Owen Richmond	Duncan Henderson	Sonam Bhote

Duncan Chessell

Duncan’s expertise in logistics and team management gained from years as a professional mountain guide and adventurer in remote country have been an excellent preparation for trekking in Papua New Guinea.

His interest in the history of Kokoda was crystallised when he led his first trek to the region in 2003. The participants were mostly interested in the famous physical challenge of Kokoda, but Duncan was able to convey the history and the lessons for teamwork and leadership that are there to be learned from Australia’s nation-forging experience. He’s read a stack of books about as tall as he is and has done his own investigations by talking to diggers and finding obscure secondary sources. Best of all he’s able to convey the complex history in a straightforward way so that trekkers with differing levels of interest can learn as much or as little as they wish.

Major Zac Zaharias, CSM

Zac spent 31 years in the Regular Army with the rank of Major until 2005, served as a UN Military Observer in Kashmir and was awarded a Conspicuous Service Medal in the 1998 Australia Day Honours List. He currently serves as a Major in the Army Reserves.

Zac has led many international expeditions and his corporate training experience, military background and historical interest in Kokoda combine to make him one of Chessell Adventure's respected Kokoda leaders.

Ben Taylor

Ben has vast international trekking experience including in Africa, Nepal, North & South America, Europe and of course Australia. He has also led expeditions for the Duke of Edinburgh Award and co-ordinated training for outdoor leaders in Scotland, as well as leading expeditions through the jungles of Vietnam! Ben's qualifications in outdoor recreation, experience in business and Kokoda expertise developed while he was our Operations Coordinator make him an important member of the Chessell Adventures team.