Wild

from the editor

Inspiration I’ve been thinking a lot about the Daintree lately. This is only partly because this issue of mag looks at—as the third in our year-long series on Australia’s great environmental battles—the campaign to save it. No, more importantly, I’m thinking of a road trip I once took there that changed my life. When I was four, my parents loaded up our car and took me on a six-week trip to Cape Tribulation, camping all the way. Cape Trib in the 70s was almost completely undeveloped. The road in was a goat track, barely passable in our 2WD. I have vivid memories of getting bogged in sand, of Dad knocking off the muffler and then tying it back on with some vine, and of him lying in water under the car after…

wild letters

Letter of the Issue TAKE THE KIDS WITH YOU I wanted to thank you for Issue #173 and the focus it drew to such an important issue. Although the Franklin River is an amazing place, it is not the important issue that I write about; it is instead the story of young Maya Bristow. I, too, have a seven year old daughter who loves the outdoors, and Maya’s story confirmed that I’m doing the right thing by taking her on wild adventures. On a recent trip to New Zealand, the few other hikers (or trampers) we met all stopped to comment on how great it was to see a “wee little one” out on the trail. All seemed surprised, but supportive, when they heard we were out for four days. I think it’s important to…

crafting your life

@meganholbeck www.meganholbeck.com Some of my most memorable adventures have been the ones that have just happened with little planning or preparation. My husband and I spent three days exploring Mt Mulanji in Malawi, central Africa’s highest peak, in socks and hiking sandals, supplementing a shared sleeping bag with some old woollen blankets. We later sailed for four days up the coast of Mozambique in a traditional wooden dhow, sleeping on deck with rucksacks as pillows. The moon was so bright you could read the brands of the concrete bags from which the sail was made. The trips don’t have to be big, either. My husband and I recently got a very rare overnight leave pass so sailed our crappy yellow boat across the harbour to Watsons Bay. We followed the cliffs to Bondi…

the european triple crown

I was recently fortunate enough to fulfil a long-held ambition—walking Europe’s three best long-distance trails in succession: the UK Coast to Coast; the Haute Route from Chamonix to Zermatt; and Corsica’s GR20. Much as my mouth (and legs) watered at this hike-fest, it was clear that prodigious planning was necessary to ensure I took the correct gear for three quite different scenarios. I was to walk the C2C with just a day pack, with most of my belongings being transported each day, and me staying in B&Bs. The HR would be a mix of camping, dormitories and mountain huts, so I’d need to carry a full pack. I’d be passing through small towns most days but cooking meals due to the high cost of dining out in Switzerland. In Corsica,…

paths of joy

The start of the track was hard to find and we had to study our topo map carefully. Having parked next to an old gateway, we shouldered our packs and headed across the grassy, sometimes boggy flat to where we hoped the track started at the edge of the forest. The fine weather seemed to be holding but streaks of high cloud streaming out of the north west were a reminder that tomorrow’s weather may not be so benign. For the moment we could enjoy the view. All around us steep, forest-coated slopes rose to meet the tendrils of snow coming down from the mountains still white from winter. The warm afternoon sun, a cooling breeze, and anticipation about what lay ahead gave us a spring in our step. As with…

sumac ridge siege

Bob.Brown.Foundation bobbrownfndn www.bobbrown.org.au There has been no reporting of the siege of the Sumac outside Tasmania. The Sumac Ridge runs south from the Arthur River in Tasmania’s takayna/Tarkine wilderness and is clothed in the most cathedral like, moss-covered, open spaced rainforest one could ever find. It is an Earthian gem. For three years our foundation kept the loggers at bay by occupying the point where they plan to bulldoze a logging road south from the Tarkine Tourist Highway near the Kannuna Bridge over the Arthur. Last week, however, officers of Sus. Timbers Tasmania, accompanied by police officers, arrived to begin arresting those in our camp. First to be taken off to Smithton Police Station was 21yo marine science student Josh Nichols, who was sitting 25m high in a magnificent eucalypt which will be destroyed when the…