Indholdsfortegnelse for December 2016 - January 2017 i Great Walks

WELCOME to our New Year/New Walks issue. We have some amazing new walks to show you. We’re proud to be the first media outlet to experience SA’s new Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail. I’m sure you’ll find Louise Fairfax’s story (pg14) inspiring. I was lucky enough to walk the inaugural Big Uluru Trek (pg24). It was the best walk I’ve done that featured an indigenous element. It was a truly immersive experience and everyone involved, from the walkers, crew and our Aboriginal guests, found it very positive. (Also read Caro’s column, pg64) “In Australia I tend to find that culture isn’t respected and only utilised for brief Welcomes to Country or tourism,” David King, the walk’s cultural liaison, tells me. “On this trip it was so encouraging to work with people…

ENTRIES are now open for the next Canberra Walking Festival, a non-competitive event for all ages that’s about fellowship, fitness, fun and personal challenge. The festival is taking place on April 1 and 2, 2017, and incorporates the Canberra Two Day Medal Walk. The two different circuit routes – the Centenary Trail Walk on Saturday (5-42km) and the Lake Loop Walk on Sunday (6-29km) – will take participants along the city’s extensive footpath and recreation network, passing national buildings and Lake Burley Griffin and going through a number of the Nature Parks. There are a variety of distance options available for each of these circuits, with 5-6km walks designed for the under 8s, over 75s and their walking companions; there are longer distances for other walkers. On Saturday’s circuit, walkers…

AS part of South Australia’s nature-based tourism strategy, the $5.8 million Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail gives bushwalkers access to one of the most rugged, remote and spectacular coastlines in the country. Great Walks was the first media outlet to take on the five-day walk. “I HAD BEEN GOING ABOUT TWO MINUTES WHEN I SAW MY FIRST KOALA, SLEEPING ABOUT FOUR METRES UP A GUM.” Two days in one Day one: My pack was heavy and it was nearly lunchtime, but I was so eager and impatient to get out on the trail that I added to my weight by buying a salad roll and OJ from the visitors centre cafe and set out. Lunch could wait for an hour – at last I could begin this new adventure. I had…

YOU really can’t appreciate the sheer size of Australia until you stand in the middle of it. Deep blue sky all around you, never-ending tracks, acres of wildflowers, hundreds of sacred sites, and iconic landmarks miles off in the distance. This is the land of the Central Deserts, the home of the Anangu people, where we experience the five-day Big Uluru Trek, a 100km walk from the South Australian border north to Australia’s most famous natural monument. But, besides the unique geography, what’s also special is the cultural immersion the event offers. Big Run Events has been working on plans for this trek for a number of years, and has had extensive meetings with a range of groups including the Uluru-Kata Tjuta NP Board, Traditional Owners and the Central Land…

THE best way to begin an Italian walking tour is with lunch: torta fritta, parmesan, salad, two types of prosciutto, wine, limoncello and a walnut liquor that had several people thinking about mince pies. Hedonistic Hiking’s slogan is Food, Wine, Walking, and our enthusiastic group would certainly be enjoying all three over the week. I’d been invited on their Parma, Tuscany and the Ligurian Sea tour, which starts with a short stroll to lunch in Parma and finishes in Pisa. Several of our group had walked with Hedonistic Hiking before, and many people commented during the tour how much they liked the attention to detail – this began immediately as Jackie, owner of Hedonistic Hiking and one of our guides, told us about Parma on the way to lunch and…

1 Donna Buang, Warburton Time/distance: 7hr/14.3km. Grade: hard. At 1245m, Mt Donna Buang is a hard day’s slog but offers great panoramic views of the Yarra Valley, the Dandenongs and all the way to Melbourne on a clear day. At the summit there’s a 21m lookout tower that gives great views. Large mountain ash and myrtle beech trees make for spectacular scenery. In winter toboggan runs open to take advantage of the heavy snows, but you should avoid the walk during these months. THE WALK: from Warburton Hwy cross the Yarra and walk up Martyr Rd past the golf course. Head north along a track at the end of Martyr Rd and then follow it east past an old aqueduct. Soon you’ll begin a steep climb into lyrebird country and…

Ripping yarns I’ve only recently discovered your magazine and become a regular buyer. Two recent stories stood out to me in the August/September issue: an attempted climb to The Spires in Tasmania (Boots ‘n all) and the Sydney Oxfam Trailwalker event (The Longest Day). While climbing The Spires was the goal, it was a great read despite the party realising they weren’t going to make it. In fact, because they had to change their plans and re-route their walk, it showed that even elite walkers need to be aware of the simple things like time, water and the possible need to readjust their walk based on changing conditions. I liked the Oxfam Trailwalker event for similar reasons. Trying to keep a fractured walking group together, people not following directions or…

SOMETIMES you just have to find a way to walk. That was what we did last September when my husband, my three-year-old and five-year-old daughters and I walked the Yuraygir Coastal Track in northern NSW. It would be our first multi-day walk as a family and the last one before our third child would be born. We spent many hours looking for a walk that would be possible with young children. The biggest hurdle is that the campsites on most multi-day bushwalks are spaced a minimum of 10km apart, too far for young legs. I was three months pregnant and my youngest daughter was still only three, so campsites needed to be much closer together. Each campsite had to be accessible by car, as this was the only way we…

Kangaroo Island is 35min by air from Adelaide Airport to Kingscote on Kangaroo Island, or 2.5hr by coach plus 1hr by ferry from Adelaide. It’s then a 1.5-2hr drive to the start of the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail at the Flinders Chase visitor centre in the Flinders Chase NP. The trail can be walked any time of the year. The trail cost is $161 per person for independent walkers – your park entry fee, car parking at the visitor centre, trail guide and map is included in this cost. A bus transfer from Kelly Hill Caves to Flinders Chase visitor centre is an additional $25.kangarooislandwildernesstrail.sa.gov.au Camping on the trail There are four campsites along the trail. Each has 24 tent platforms, pit toilets, rainwater in campground shelters, shelter for food…

“ THE NIGHTCAP RANGE WAS THE SETTING FOR AUSTRALIA’S FIRST ENVIRONMENTAL FOREST BLOCKADE, IN 1979.” Home to the Widjabal Aboriginal people long before European settlement, the rainforest-clad Nightcap Range forms the south-east edge of the Mt Warning erosion caldera, a massive, breached volcanic crater at the heart of the Northern Rivers Region. Part of the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia World Heritage site, Nightcap NP is one of 41 reserves protecting subtropical, warm temperate and Antarctic beech cool temperate rainforests dating back to when Australia was part of the Gondwanaland supercontinent. Another is Lamington NP, a justly famous walking destination just over the Queensland border. The Nightcap Range was the setting for Australia’s first environmental forest blockade, in 1979, when more than 300 people camped on Terania Creek to stop the…

2017 marks the 30th anniversary of Steve Trémont and Barry Higgins’ complete traverse of the Great Dividing Range. All 6700km of it! On 20th September 1987 Steve (now 60) and Barry (81) left Dergholm in far western Victoria and spent the next 12 months (actually 375 days) walking Australia’s longest watershed. They designed their walk so they could reach the northern end of the range – the tip of Cape York – without the help of outside assistants. The organisation, let alone the trip, was epic. They purchased maps, planned their route, devised meal recipes, bought hundreds of kilos of foodstuff and then spent months driving to 139 locations along the Great Dividing Range to bury their provisions in protective drums. Many would not be opened for up to a…

THE spectacular valley that the Howqua River has carved – and continues to shape – on its 66km run from Mt Howitt, in Victoria’s Alps, to Lake Eildon via Alpine NP, was a major trade and war route for the central Victorian Taungurung (Daung wurrung) people, and a source of the hard Cambrian greenstone from which they made tools and weapons. Yet ‘Howqua’ is not an indigenous word. Consensus is that this beautiful river took the moniker of a pastoral run named for John ‘Howqua/Houqua’ Hunter, whose nickname was a product of trade with Canton Hong merchants, among whom Howqua/Houqua was synonymous with tycoon. This 12km loop walk to Ritchie’s Hut shows off the splendour of the Howqua River and the valley embracing it. An enjoyable day walk, it is…

IF you’re travelling through NZ's central North Island region, walk the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (20km/moderate). It ranks in the world Top 10 for one-day walks. Old lava fields, steaming craters, volcanic lakes and massive views of mounts Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu will keep you reaching for your camera. As the country's oldest national park – and the world's fourth national park – Tongariro NP has been acknowledged by UNESCO as one of the 28 mixed cultural and natural World Heritage Sites. There are 56 significant species of birds, such as rare endemic species like the North Island brown kiwi, ka– ka– , blue duck, North Island fernbird, double-banded plover and New Zealand falcon. www.doc.govt.nz…

AT 1900m Vic’s highest mountain, Mount Bogong, seems barely worth a mention. However, on a poor day in winter Bogong can be a hairy environment. This was bought home when two snowboarders were tragically killed when we were on the mountain in 2014. On that occasion, I had been accompanied by my daughter and we had not got above the tree line because of the driving snow. Nevertheless, this was a wild and beautiful place and we both knew we had to return. The following July we planned finish what we started. Ellen (11) and I had an early start from Melbourne, stopped in Bright for lunch and were at the start of the trail by 2pm. The most popular route up Bogong starts near the Mountain Creek campsite and…

The northern section of the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary has been proclaimed South Australia’s 22nd national park. The first new national park in the state for 10 years, the area is made up of 2457ha of land north-west of Adelaide, to be known as Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary NP - Winaityinaityi Pangkara. Up to 27,000 resident and migratory shorebirds visit the Adelaide International Bird Sanctuary area each year; some of the migratory species travel from as far away as Alaska and Siberia. environment.sa.gov.au Staying in SA, the state's iconic Waterfall Gully to Mount Lofty Summit trail in Cleland Conservation Park has been reopened. The bottom section of this popular 4.5km (one-way) trail has been closed since mid-September, when floods caused rock falls and erosion. Environment Minister Ian Hunter said the…

THIS MONTH’S WINNING PHOTO Larapinta Trail, West MacDonnell Ranges, NT Nigel Skyring, Broken Head NSW Camera: Cannon G16 Nigel: "My hiking buddy Maxine enjoying magnificent morning views toward Mt Sonder. After a heavy 16km slog the day before it was decided to push on up onto Giles Lookout from Waterfall Gorge for the nights camp. Carrying extra water made the climb brutal, but with views like this to wake up to, the gain definitely outweighed the pain." Great Ocean Walk, Vic Mark Kelly, Colac Vic Camera: Samsung S7 Mark: “Day five of eight walking the Great Ocean Walk. Just one of my favourite campsites along Victoria's best coastal walks – Johanna Beach. Life doesn't get any better than this.” Cradle Mountain-Lake St Clair NP, Tas Harry Young, Broulee, NSW Camera:…

HOW do you know what to choose when it comes to sleeping gear when hiking? Like all decisions on what to choose, it isn’t as easy as just walking into the hiking store and buying a sleeping bag and sleeping mat. You need to ask yourself what type of hiking will I be doing? Will I be in a cold climate or warm one? Will I be camping out in a tent, under the stars, or am I staying in a hut? Once you have decided what type of hiking you are doing you can choose the sleeping gear that’s right for you. Let’s breakdown the choices and make the decision easier. We will look at different styles and fills of sleeping bags and what will work for cold climates…

THE Sentiers de Grande Randonnée, which translates to ‘great hiking trails’, are a network of long-distance hiking trails that criss cross France. The official network is made of around 35,000km of walking tracks, with designated numbers, that run through mountains, along the coastline and through the countryside. Some of the most popular trails include the French section of The Way of St James via le Puy (Grande Randonnée 65) or Grande Randonnée 2, which travels between Le Havre and Dijon via Paris. The five trails we’ve featured are just a small sample of this vast network, with beaches, mountains, wildlife and history. 1 Grande Randonnée 34 – the Breton coastal footpath If you’re looking for a coastal path, Grande Randonnée 34, also known as the Breton coastal footpath, takes hikers…