Indholdsfortegnelse for April/May 2018 i Great Walks

“The efficient recreational walker, who knows how to camp as well as walk, is with us a ‘bushwalker’ not a ‘ hiker’. It is hikers who go out and get lost; it is bushwalkers who rescue them. It is hikers who leave their fires alight often causing bushfires, or despoil the landscape by leaving papers, tins and orange peels about – The hiker is the muddling inefficient; the bushwalker is the expert.” - Sydney Bush Walker magazine, January 1937. IT’S interesting how way back in 1937 there were arguments over semantics in the world of walking (pg36). Words have come under fire again after a letter we received accused us of Americanising Great Walks by overusing of the words ‘trail’ and ‘hike’ which were deemed not part of Australian outdoor…

SO you’ve dreamt of walking the Bibbulmun Track, the Larapinta Trail or one of many other long distance walks but haven’t had the time. Well maybe the first thing to do is a three or four day taster. Great Walks spoke to those in the know on how to experience some of Australia’s classic walks over a few days 1 Bibbulmun Track, WA (1003km) If you haven’t read part one of our two-part story on this iconic WA trek (pg16) then do so after this article. The track consists of about 58 sections and is marked at regular intervals with triangular pointers, most of which have an image of the wagyl, a mythical creature from Aboriginal Dreamtime stories. At the end of each section is either a town or a…

“THE RESCUE WAS LONG AND INVOLVED AND I HAD TO UNDERGO SIX HOURS OF SURGERY ON MY BRAIN.” PAUL Pritchard (51) is an internationally recognised professional rock climber and passionate outdoorsman who suffered a catastrophic brain injury and subsequent paralysis of one vertical half of his body on Friday the 13th of February, 1998; attempting to summit Tasmania’s ‘Totem Pole’ (a sheer piece of vertical rock sticking straight out of the ocean). He came within inches of death. Over the next 18 years he worked like a man on a mission towards the goal of going back to finish the incredibly challenging climb. Eighteen years later, he achieved it; adding several high grade bushwalks to his tally along the way including Eastern Arthurs and Mt Kilimanjaro. Paul talks to Great…

“WALKING at altitude is at best pure heaven and at worst sheer hell.” As I’ve trekked to the summits of Mt Aconcagua, 6982m, and Mt Kilimanjaro, 5976m, with teams from walking tour adventure company Wild Women On Top, I’ve experienced both simultaneously. Trekking at altitude can be tough, but the feelings of grand exhilaration you get from arriving at Everest Base Camp or seeing the sunrise over Borneo from the summit of Mt Kinabalu are very much worth it. Depending on how your body reacts to altitude, how fast you’re walking, how much homework you did and how much you’re carrying (amongst other things) walking at altitude is never boring, often challenging and always memorable. On an organised trek with an expert adventure travel company, your guides will assist you…

“THE CONDITION OF MY FEET MAKES OR BREAKS ANY HIKING TRIP FOR ME. IF MY FEET FEEL MISERABLE THEN I FEEL MISERABLE.” MY THREE CHILDREN and I try to go on a bushwalk once a month with a group from my town and once a year I also go on a girl-only multi-day walk with my sister, sister-in-law and cousin, called ‘Sister Act’. We have walked the Gold Coast and Sunshine Hinterland Great walks, Freycinet NP, Milford Track and Fraser Island Great Walk. Next year will be the Larapinta Trail. On our multi-day walks I definitely wear two pairs of socks. That has helped. Our last walk was at Fraser Island and my cousin had Band-Aids called ‘Advanced Healing’ and they worked miracles. I put one on a particularly bad…

If you're looking for a winter walking destination check out this stunning national park, 450km southwest of Alice Springs, which you can reach by 2WD. The park encloses Kings Canyon, with its 300m sandstone walls, walking tracks, lush forests and waterholes. The sheer red rock face of the canyon soars above dense forests of palms, ferns and cycads, sheltering them from the harsh desert, providing refuge for many native animals. Two walks stand out. The Kings Canyon Rim Walk (6km loop, 3-4hr). After an initial steep climb the walk offers spectacular views from the canyon rim. Along the way are the weathered domes of the ‘Lost City’ and the lush vegetation of the ‘Garden of Eden’. And for something longer, the Giles Track (22km/2 days) traverses the top of the…

THE Inca Trail runs about 50km through mountains and beside glaciers and is usually walked over four days. Guidebooks will give you a step-by-step account of what you’ll see. But what you don’t get are the tips and bits of background intelligence which can really make a big difference to both your preparation and eventual enjoyment of the trek. So, for what they’re worth, here are 10 killer facts you need to be aware of, based on my own experience on the walk. 1 It’s a surprisingly difficult walk About a day and a half of the four days were, for me, as tough as walking the Kokoda Trail. The time you’ve got to complete the trip in, combined with the need to pre-book campsites and the sheer number of…

Hilleberg Allak tent The Allak is what you bring when you’re not sure if it’ll be sun, rain, hail or snow. It’s become a strong paddlers tent due its free-standing pitch ability and durability, able to make you a home on sand or even rocks. The two integrated vestibules make its roomy stability exceptionally livable on a small footprint and the retro colours add the finishing touches to a world-class tent. Weight: 2.8kg min, 3.3kg packed. Online price: US$990 Website: hilleberg.com Macpac Fiord 40 rucksack Macpac’s lightest hiking pack at just 1.04kg, the Fiord is the perfect companion for overnight adventurers looking to minimise pack weight. It’s built tough yet light with Titan Grid 100d nylon dobby and a durable 500D Cordura nylon base. For ultimate comfort when you’re moving,…

The theme for the November online photo comp was ‘Birds’ and we received dozens of wonderful entries. Here are our favourites.…

MY daily bushwalks near my home in NSW’s Snowy Mountains region certainly did not prepare me for this moment. I was plastered to a rock wall, my hiking boot tips wedged into a crack and my hands were scrabbling over the surface, searching desperately for purchase. If I slipped I would plunge at least four metres – okay not death-defying but definitely hard on the legs. We were in Arches National Park in southern Utah, halfway through our road trip through Canada and the Rockies, across the southwest and winding up in the Pacific northwest. We’d arrived in Moab a few days previously and it was to be our base camp to explore both Arches and Canyonlands national parks, as well as nearby river gorges and the spectacular La Sal…

THERE are usually some benefits to hiking a particular trail at any given time of the year – perhaps watching the landscape transform with the seasons, fewer visitors or a changing light. But there can be few places better to be, and few times better to be there, than Western Australia’s Bibbulmun Track in spring. Arguably Australia’s best long-distance trail, the ‘Bibb’ winds 1003km from Kalamunda in the Perth Hills to Albany on the south coast, and in spring the region explodes with wildflowers in a riot of colour and fragrance. This is a journey through an ancient land left largely untouched over the millennia by volcanic or glacial disruption. Isolated by ocean and desert, plants have been left to their own devices, evolving under a highly variable climate that…

“MATE, do you want to go to Switzerland?” read the email from my editor. “You’ll be on assignment for Great Walks, doing some hiking around the Engelberg region.” My mind immediately conjured images of high alpine meadows scattered with edelweiss, huge empty skies reflected in aquamarine lakes, blushing milkmaids in traditional dirndls coaxing chocolate milk out of yodelling cows. “It’s a lovely part of the country,” he said. “You’ll have a great time,” he said. It didn’t take long to come to a decision. So how come, three months later, I’m wrapped up like an Antarctic explorer, thigh-deep in snow, my eyes squeezed shut against blasts of icy wind? There’s not a dirndl clad milkmaid in sight! Hiking in Switzerland is not the same as hiking in Australia; I know…

“CARRY ONE SMALL FRESH ONION A DAY FOR EVERY PERSON.” Editor of Great Walks’ sister publication Australian Sporting Shooterand author of Bushwalking Basics, Marcus has spent much of his life in the outdoors. THERE are three paths an overnight walker can go down in pursuit of fuelling the legs on extended wild sojourns. The first is to buy all prepackaged expensive freeze-dried main courses and commercial dried fruits and the like. Second is a big bag of muesli, a big bag-o-pasta and a big-blocka-cheese and gradually whittle away at each. The third and most satisfying is to menu plan, dry your own meal ingredients and make use of stuff your grandmother cooked with at home. Let’s explore some options. Working with flour Flour is a great ingredient to carry as…

“It’s been 27 years since I walked the Inca Trail but the memories of that trip are so vivid. I remember hitching out of Cuzco one cold afternoon in December 1991. My mates and I spent a few days exploring the ancient town of Ollantaytambo. I was fascinated by its ruins and the aqueduct system that ran under the streets, a design well ahead of its time. From there we caught the train to the start of the walk. There was no official entrance to the park. The train just stopped at a spot called ‘km82’ (82km along the railway from Cusco to Aguas Calientes) and the conductor pointed to which way we should start walking. The train then left and we were on our own. We weren’t expecting many…

 IF you’d been around 35,000 years ago for the last Ice Age you could have walked from Victoria’s Wilsons Prom along a range of hills sticking out of the Bass Strait and ended up in Tasmania. This land bridge, part of a massive ice cap, was eventually flooded as sea levels rose 10-15,000 years ago, leaving a chain of islands, the largest being Flinders. “ONCE THE SKIES CLEARED YOU COULD SMELL THE FRESHNESS OF THE BUSH AS IF EVERYTHING WAS RENEWED.” Due to this geological event, Flinders and the other 51 islands that make up the Furneaux Group became a virtual Noah’s Arks for flora and fauna. For bushwalkers it’s a picture postcard gem of unlimited possibilities. Great Walks spent four days discovering the best walks the island offered. Life’s…