Innehållsförteckning för April - May 2016 från Great Walks

Welcome to the 60th issue of Great Walks. I'm so proud to have been editor since the first issue and often remind myself how lucky I am doing this job and working with a community of like-minded people. So if you're wondering who is this guy who's editor of your favourite bushwalking mag, here goes: I live in Sydney with my partner Holly and our two kids Matilda (6) and Billy (3). I'm the youngest of four, born in NZ to a Kiwi father and Aussie mother and grew up in Auckland surrounded by wide streets, forests and creeks. At five we moved to Singapore and I fell in love with the tropics. My best mate was a Chinese boy called Ming Ming who had a toy collection Richie Rich…

Make the grade Picked up your current mag and bumper issues at the newsagency yesterday and found lots of great reading. Might just put my feet up in front of the cricket today. Interested though that in your article on long-distance walks (Go ahead make my week, GRW Annual) you grade the Jatbula Trail moderate to challenging. I've done several of the walks listed, and the Jatbula in July this year, and the Jatbula is one of the easier of the walks listed (fabulous but not taxing). There are no hills of any note, and most of the walking is through savannah. It's definitely no harder – and probably easier – than the Overland Track. Melanie Ball, Euroa, VIC Hi Melanie, thanks for the feedback. The Parks NT website says…

With vast open spaces replete with abundant and colourful wildlife; timeless, breathtaking rock art; surpassed only by the beauty and antiquity of the land itself; and a long way from anywhere – WA’s Kimberley region is a walker’s paradise. The Kimberley as a whole encompasses an area larger than Japan, so the bushwalking opportunities are limitless. From those who prefer more modest day walks, to folks who heed the call of the wilderness in untracked terrain – this place has it all. Here are some highlights. Mitchell River NP Like much of the sandstone escarpment country in northern Australia, Mitchell Falls and surrounding bluffs and gorges are far more spectacular in the flesh. Photos never do the scene justice. What looks in a photo like a pretty, but rather tame…

As a travel writer and editor of Great Walks I always take photos on my trips. Part of it is for work and part of it is for fun. I’ve always loved photography but I always knew my photos had plenty of room for improvement. So when I was invited by Pinetrees Lodge on the magnificent Lord Howe Island to attend their week-long walking and photography week I immediately said yes. Lord Howe is a part of NSW and a two-hour flight from Sydney. It was made famous by Sir David Attenborough in the 70’s when he came to the island to shoot one of his iconic nature documentary series and declared it “so extraordinary it is almost unbelievable… Few islands, surely, can be so accessible, so remarkable, yet so…

Wise words “If you listened to the Aborigines speaking together you didn’t hear a jumble of foreign words, you heard the sighing of trees, the voice of birds, the sounds of storm and flood and wind, the rolling of rocks in a landslide; you heard stark fear and infinite sadness. There was never joy; that may have been always so, or perhaps because black man’s star was setting.” Bernard O’Reilly (Ripping Yarns, GRW Annual) wasn’t just an excellent bushman, he was a handy wordsmith as well. O’Reilly wrote two books I can recommend you read to enhance your bushwalking experiences. Green Mountains is about his family’s pioneering days establishing a dairy farm in what is now Lamington National Park in Queensland, where O’Reilly famously helped save survivors of the 1937…

There was much publicity about the opening of Tassie's Three Capes Track however many groups found the $495 entry fee excessive. Fortunately there are cheaper options available for bushwalkers to discover Tasman NP. Tas Parks and Wildlife states: “Walkers can access Cape Pillar via the old Cape Pillar track from Fortescue Bay. It is a 29 km round-trip walk. A formal campsite is provided at Wughalee Falls with tent platforms, toilet and rainwater tank.” Having delved further, this info also applies to those wishing to include Cape Hauy as a longer circuit walk. What can’t you do? Basically, you can’t camp or walk anywhere else along the track. Camping is only allowed at the Wughalee Falls. Other sites such as Tornado Ridge, Lunchtime Creek, Hurricane Heath and Perdition Ponds are…

“To venture into WA’s bush is to enter the realm of nature unfamiliar with human contact” When I am out hiking I don’t think about what trail I am on – be it in India or Canada or South America – but where I am, right now. At this moment I’m on the Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia. It is late spring and the wildflowers are blooming, my mind is on the present, and it is peaceful and meditative. Nature seems to have a way of doing that. One of the world’s great long tracks, the Bibbulmun is near enough to 1000km, its unique name derived from the native Australians local to the area it traverses. The Bibbulmun people’s territory comprised nearly the entire south west of present day WA,…

Auswalk Auswalk operate group guided and fully support self-guided walking holidays along some of Australia’s most iconic tracks, including the Bibbulmun and the Cape to Cape. With Auswalk’s seamless organisation you’ll get to experience all these incredibly beautiful landscapes, completely stress free and in comfort. All accommodations are hand-selected to provide comfort with ensuite bathrooms, welcoming hosts and convenient locations. Walkers joining a group guided tour can expect to be picked up and returned to Perth. On self-guided trips you will enjoy a night’s accommodation before and after walking the track. www.auswalk.com.au Park Trek Park Trek Walking Holidays offers three guided walks in WA – a nine-day Bibbulmun Track trip, a seven-day El Questro and Bungles walk, and an 11-day Kimberley Explorer adventure that encompasses the Gibb River Road and…

The winner of this month’s photo comp receives two great prizes: LEKI EAGLE WALKING POLE This is a great all-round pole with a lightweight aluminium three-piece construction (540gm per pair). It features the easy-to-use classic twist locking system (adjustable between 65-145cm), universal carbide tip and Leki’s unique Turbo Sport grip. RRP: $99.95 Website: www.velovita.net.au DEUTER WASH CENTRE 2 This wash bag (330gm) offers the perfect amount of space to stash a large assortment of wash and body care items. Storage space includes plenty of pockets, elastic organiser strip with loops and removable mirror. RRP: $52.25 Website: www.velovita.net.au Email your pics to: editor@greatwalks.com.au (Subject: Picture Perfect) Try to supply an image file no smaller than 1MB. Also include a 50-word caption, your address and the type of…

If you are a bushwalker looking to take the next step from day walks, but aren’t yet ready to tackle a multi-day pack-carry hike, then I think I’ve found the perfect walk for you. You’ll get two beautiful days of walking and spend just one night in a tent. In fact, the developers of the 21km Beeripmo Walk, near Beaufort in western Victoria, had first-time or novice overnight hikers in mind when they developed the trail in the early 2000s. Richard Wadsworth, state-wide Recreation and Tourism Coordinator for Victoria’s Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, led the project. “One of the key things I wanted out of this walk was for it to be a really good-quality entry-level walk,” he says. “It was to be an overnight walk but…

Monte Rosa is the highest mountain of both Switzerland and the Pennine. As a massif, Monte Rosa straddles the border between Switzerland and Italy, although its main summit lies on the Swiss side, within the canton of Valais. The 10-day Tour of Monte Rosa follows ancient trails that have linked the Swiss and Italian valleys for centuries. The circuit includes wooded forests, alpine meadows, balcony trails and a glacial crossing. The trail connects the German speaking high Valais, the Arpitan speaking Aosta Valley and the valleys of Lombardy and Piedmont. In total six passes between 2700m-3300m must be crossed on a relatively challenging terrain. Equipped huts in the mountains and hotels in the many villages mean that you do not need to carry tents. More info: www.myswitzerland.com…

It's not common knowledge but due to the amount of exploration by the French off Western Australia in the 1700s, it could have become a French possession, resulting in a bilingual state like the Canadian province of Quebec. This is no more evident than on WA's premier coastal walk, the Cape to Cape Track, where place names such as Cape Mentelle, Point Picquet and Cape Clairault add a continental flavour to an already fascinating walk. The 135km Cape to Cape Track follows the Leeuwin-Naturaliste Ridge (there's that French influence again), offering spectacular geological scenery such as limestone cliffs, granite outcrops, sand dunes and long stretches of white beach. The easy walking track mostly hugs the coast but there are several inland loops that take in lovely sheltered woodland sections and…

“It’s also now known as the real-life ‘Kings Landing’ to Game of Thrones” Great Wall of China The longest wall of them all, the Great Wall of China stretches thousands of kilometres across the country and once provided a barrier against the invading Mongol hordes from the north. Its construction started in the third century BC under the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang, and continued to the 17th century AD in the Ming Dynasty. It has been said that no trip to China is complete without a visit to the wall; those who are interested can even walk along it and enjoy the sight of the undulating wall stretching before and behind them across terrain that varies from forested hills to the desert, depending on the section you’re…

Participating in any charity event has its benefits as not only are you experiencing something unique and fun, you’re also helping out a worth cause. And when walking or trekking becomes a component to the event you’re also getting fit and possibly achieving a personal goal. So here are 18 charity walking events you should put your hand up for. Oxfam Trailwalker Take on 100km in 48 hours for Oxfam. This is regarded as the world’s toughest team event so train hard and you’ll reap the rewards (see story pg 76). Brisbane 17-19 June (60km challenge also available); Sydney 19-21 August; Perth 16-18 September (50km challenge also available). trailwalker.oxfam.org.au Melbourne Coastrek 30km and 60km events, raising money for the Fred Hollows Foundation. Sydney Coastrek (in March) has been going from…