Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall begin tour of Australia Before leaving Papua New Guinea last night, the Duchess met a group of Australian veterans of the fighting on the Kokoda Trail, where Australian and Papua New Guinea forces held off Japanese troops in 1942 as they tried to push through to the nation's capital Port Moresby, which would have been an ideal launch point for an invasion of Australia. Len Griffiths, 90, held the Duchess's handand when he learnt that her Diamond Jubilee tour would take her to the Australian capital Canberra, he made a cheeky offer: "Oh, I will put you up." Another, on being told by the Duchess that she would like to visit Western Australia, told her: "I'm not getting any younger - you had better be quick." Afterwards, Mr Griffiths was asked if he had been smitten by the Duchess, smiling bashfully he replied: "Yes, a little bit. She is a charming lady. The meeting was arranged at the last minute after the royal party discovered the veterans were staying at the same hotel. The Duchess, whose father Major Bruce Shand was captured at the Battle of El Alamein and spent three years as a PoW, said: "I felt I ought to be here because my father was in the war and I know he would have liked to see me here with all of you." Recalling the fighting, Bob Iskov, 92, said: "We lost 109 people from my battalion on the track, and 29 missing who were never seen again. The trail was a muddy track, range after range culminating in an 8,000ft mountain. When we got there we were into close quarter fighting. It was just horrendous. Veterans of the campaign remember with gratitude the role played by the so-called Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels, the local tribesmen who ferried supplies along the trail and carried away the wounded to safety. Mr Iskov said: "I remember one bloke put on a stretcher with a bad shrapnel wound in the backside. They took him away and he survived 29 days in the care of those natives. The final leg to New Zealand, from November 10-16, will see the royal couple meet popular children's author Lynley Dodd, writer of the Hairy Maclary stories about the adventures of a hairy dog. Charles will celebrate his 64th birthday in the country on November 14 when he will visit a movie workshop working on the new Hobbit film.