But she knows what she wants to get out of the experience: an appreciation of the Anzac spirit.

Ms Rowland, 22, will be taking on the track in Papua New Guinea as a sponsored participant in the Kokoda Youth Leadership Challenge.

The challenge is to start this weekend. 

“It's becoming very, very real now, which is both exciting and nerve-racking,” Ms Rowland said in the lead-up to the challenge.

The Kokoda Youth Leadership Challenge, established by the RSL and Services Clubs Association, encourages leadership and personal development, according to Ms Rowland.

It gives participants an understanding of the Kokoda campaign and the culture of the people who live along the track.

Ms Rowland feels the Anzac spirit has been a “little bit lost in modern society”.

“I want to see how I can apply it in my life and hopefully inspire others to see things in a similar way,” she said of her ambitions for the challenge.

Ms Rowland has been training since she applied for the challenge back in November, and training with more intensity since she received the call in April that her application had been successful.

"I run every morning and do either boot camp or a gym session every evening after work,” she said. “I’ve also been doing sand dunes and bushwalks.”

She has been given an indication of what to expect by previous participants.

“I have spoken to past trekkers who have also won this sponsorship and everyone has told me it's very much an almost spiritual process,” she said.

They have told Ms Rowland she should be prepared to be challenged mentally as much as physically as she takes on the track through the rugged Owen Stanley Range that runs through Australia’s near northern neighbour.

“Everyone has told me not to underestimate the mental aspect,” she said.

Former Western Advocate journalist Jo Johnson walked the track in 2012 and wrote about it for the Advocate, pulling no punches in describing the enormity of the challenge.

“I’m not ashamed to say Kokoda was the most God-almighty struggle I’ve ever had,” she wrote at the time.

“It exhausted me physically, mentally and emotionally.

“At times, as we scaled the mountains, we would wedge our feet into the stirrup-like pores in the clay walls before us and pull ourselves up whatever way we could.

“We navigated tree roots, fallen logs, sheer cliff faces and dense jungle. We learned about every type of mud imaginable – sludgy mud, slippery mud, sinking mud, sucking mud.”

Ms Rowland – who says she has always had a passionate interest in modern history and the World Wars - completed her schooling at MacKillop College in 2011, studied hotel management and now works in Sydney.

She is being sponsored by the Orange Ex-Services Club.