Outdoor Magazine

a world in flux

Is there a way to escape the clutches of an ancient Chinese curse? We most certainly live in interesting times. Maybe some sort of timeworn oil, rendered from herbs growing on the Himalayan steppes, is the answer, making a soul slippery enough to wriggle free from its grip? I’ve probably been thinking too much about the “interesting times” curse, but the constant log-jam of real-world horror doesn’t relegate the matter to a back level issue. In fact the complete opposite. The notion of it is constantly drifting to the forefront of consciousness, like a mountain of bobbing plastic disposable bottles jammed into a rock crevice on a deserted beach, blocking out the important stuff. No, instead of being able to get on with a productive life, there it is, the “interesting…

outdoor magazine

EDITORIAL Editor Aaron Flanagan Deputy Editor Sam Richards Senior Designer Janina Roque Designer Swathi Sankaran Content Operations Danielle Beadman Contributors Ash Gray, Simon Carter, Richard Bowles, Bel Smith, Emma Warren, Matt Williams, Laura Waters, Elspeth Callender, Caro Ryan, Craig Pearce, David Cauldwell, Chris Armstrong, Craig Fardell, Aidan Williams Editorial and News 125 Hawthorn Rd, Caulfield North, Vic, 3161 Australia submissions@emprisegroup.com.au DIGITAL Marketing marketing@emprisegroup.com.au Head of Marketing Lauren Grigg - 0436 407 493 lgrigg@emprisegroup.com.au Digital Marketing Executive Shilpa Balakrishnan sbalakrishnan@emprisegroup.com.au Marketing Coordinator Rebecca Lamplugh rlamplugh@emprisegroup.com.au Marketing Coordinator Craig Gonsalves cgonsalves@emprisegroup.com.au Marketing Coordinator Will Hayward whayward@emprisegroup.com.au ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES sales@emprisegroup.com.au www.emprisegroup.com.au Head of Partnerships Christopher Jefferson - 0477 775 020 cjefferson@emprisegroup.com.au VIC/SA/TAS - Scott Pimlott - 0498 880 377 spimlott@emprisegroup.com.au NSW - Serena Prasad - 0429 489 615 sprasad@emprisegroup.com.au Danielle Gowan - 0435 065 325 dgowan@emprisegroup.com.au QLD - David Forrest - 0455 999 085 dforrest@emprisegroup.com.au Heath Parry - 0412 957 475 hparry@emprisegroup.com.au WA - Ian Glyde - 0447…

this issue’s worldly wordsmiths

ELSPETH CALLENDER Elspeth allows a chronic compulsion to travel to rule her life. The road keeps her mind open to other ways of living and fresh ways of seeing and makes her take risks. To quote her hero, writer and activist Gloria Steinem, “more reliably than anything else on earth, the road will force you to live in the present”. Writing about travel feels as instinctive as that innate desire to be on the move. CRAIG PEARCE Once a rock 'n' roll writer, now a Monday to Friday corporate communicator, come the witching hour Craig is off the bitumen and in the bush, preferably doing multi-day walks with his son. His love of literature fuels his outdoor writing, finding inspiration in imagination and revitalisation in nature. Craig flinches not at extended solo trips,…

rising with the sun

As first light filtered through the tent fabric, I wriggled out of my sleeping bag and into the fresh morning air, putting some water on to boil. Meanwhile, my partner lay in the tent, his alarm clock combining with the gentle hiss of the gas stove to make up the dawn chorus. We were driving to Broome from Darwin and camping along the way. And within a day or two, we had settled into a go-to-bed-at-at-sunset, up-at-sunrise routine. This surprised me. I mean, camping for me goes hand in hand with multi-day walks. I assumed that the exhaustion produced by lugging a 20 kilogram pack around for a day is what pushes you to bed after dinner. But on this driving and camping trip, aside from day walks here and there, we…

dry in the desert

The desert beckons. Red dirt swirls over the flat land, gently singing your name. Or not. Anyway, it’s the perfect time to trek in the country’s hotter regions, the inland deserts that are inhospitable for so much of the year. Your summertime favourites, those that hug the coastline, already have a few grey clouds hovering over them and soon these clouds will be employed full-time, enriching the land for when Spring comes around. To you, right now, that just means getting drenched. Of course, deserts operate in a different way. Water for them is a rare entity, and accordingly, the animals and plants which reside there are of a different kin; gone from their midst are the precious. The lifeforms that linger are hardy, able to cope on what little of…

bunkum behind grampians bans

Modern rock climbing has been going on in the Grampians for nearly 70 years. Many consider it Australia’s best rock climbing area. It’s also home to a unique environment and many irreplaceable Aboriginal art sites. The job at hand is to balance the rights of climbers, whilst maintaining minimal environmental impact and preserving Aboriginal cultural heritage. This job does not need to made so difficult. For example, in the past, if an area became very popular and there was some erosion near a cliff, Parks Victoria and climbers used to work together to solve the problem – one way or another. But now, I feel us climbers are not given the credit we are due. Many climbers are staunch environmentalists; we spend a huge amount of time in the bush and hanging…