Table of contents for February-March 2024 in Great Walks

RECENTLY we put up a post on the Great Walks Facebook page (facebook.com/GreatWalksmag) asking people what they thought were Australia’s toughest day walks and the response was overwhelming. Seems like a lot of people like to get their heart rate up on a bushwalk! Here are some of our favourite suggestions. Mount Bruce, WA’s 2nd highest peak is a great walk to get a sweat up and there are a couple of hairy turns when you might not want to look down. – Clive Phillips Great Walks did this late last year as part of Life's An Adventure's 7-day Karijini National Park and Ningaloo Reef pack-free guided walk (lifesanadventure.com.au) (see Surf and Turf, GRW Dec-Jan 2024). We can attest it offers an exhilarating physical challenge and stunning views. The 9km…

PRESENTED BY SUPPORTING SPONSORS WHY does photography matter? Why do we keep waking up at 4am hoping to capture the perfect sunrise or hiking for hours in the rain looking for that amazing shot of a secluded lake? Photography helps us see the beauty in a complex world. Life isn’t picture-perfect. Just look at the news. Sometimes it’s chaotic and overwhelming. But amidst the clutter and the struggle, there are glimmers of beauty waiting to be found. That’s where your camera can be a transformative tool – yes, photographing that sunrise you got up so early for or that crystal-clear lake that finally comes into view. Capturing the world through a lens allows us to freeze moments in time. It’s not just about historical landmarks or world events; photography can…

“THE woody interlacing branches even when not an inch in diameter will bear the weight of a man laden with his knapsack. But woe betide the luckless wight who while travelling through this scrub, treads on the treacherous mossy disguised twig or branch which has decayed. Should this not infrequent case happen down to unknown depths he may drop while the green treacherous mossy carpet springs into its place like a trap, concealing the engulfed explorer...” R M Johnson, Systematic account of geology in Tasmania, Hobart 1888 R M Johnson's dramatic account refers to an area a century or so later would be known as the Tarkine and a visit to it today still reveals an ancient untamed land of great beauty and mystery. As a guest of Park Trek…

BEHIND THE SCENESWALK TRAVEL ADVISORY GROWING up near Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, my family often spent wonderful weekends exploring the extensive bushland of the Mornington Peninsula Park and the coastal trails linking the wild ocean beaches overlooking Bass Strait. Bushrangers Bay was a particular favourite with its magical mix of moonah tree mazes, abundant wildlife and sandy coves. My working life has comprised a variety of interesting jobs in Australia and the UK, including being a lawyer, a securities regulator, a retailer, a travel writer and a travel agent. Raising three children and running a busy household has also provided me with skills applicable to establishing and operating a busy travel business. All my jobs have instilled the importance of high standards of customer service. My legal background enables me to…

GUIDED GETAWAYS WILD TREK TOURS WHEN we were kids we walked everywhere – our family did not have a car so our little legs were used to travelling on foot. My first bushwalk would have been around the Dandenong Ranges near Melbourne and my first overnighter around Wilsons Prom in Victoria. From there the bug had bitten and progressed to Nepal, Panama, Columbia, New Zealand, PNG, and of course home in OZ. It was a natural progression to turn my passion for hiking into a business – life’s too short to not follow what you like. I enjoy the hiking challenge (the tougher the better) and to pass that on to clients and see them meet the challenges along the way and come out at the end is rewarding. There…

A few years ago I spent a week with Australian Desert Expeditions (ADE) as they explored and surveyed a small section of the Simpson Desert. I wrote a feature story in the Aug-Sept 2021 issue but I had so many photos I couldn’t feature them all so now's my chance to include some that never made the story. Need to know desertexpeditions.org…

The Italian Alps are considered one of the most majestic mountain ranges. Opened in April of 2020, the 220km Walk of Peace trail connects the Alps to the Adriatic Sea. Not only is it a splendid trek through mountain trails, roads, and towns, but it's a string of museums and memorials commemorating damages and losses from World War I. The 11-section trek can be completed as a thru-hike, broken into one (or more) of those sections, or walked in smaller day-hike sections. Hikers can trek high alpine meadows to vineyards. thewalkofpeace.com…

“I GAVE MY WEARY BODY A REST AT THE SPA BEFORE DINNER, ENJOYING A RELAXING HALF-HOUR MASSAGE” “ARE we going to see much wildlife?” one of my fellow walkers asked our guides on Day 1 of our four-day Bay of Fires walk. Guide Katie gripped the two-way radio attached to the shoulder strap of her backpack and jokingly put in a call for some wildlife. So, imagine our surprise when we rounded a bend in the coastline, started walking along a new stretch of beach, and spotted a giant seal lazing happily on the sand. Our group of ten approached with caution, leaving plenty of distance between us and the seal, who right on cue got up from his horizontal position. It was almost as though the cheeky creature was…

THIS walk has been brewing since the last time I completed it in 2018. I decided when I first walked the trail the year before, to do this walk every year – an annual journey to witness the change in the landscape, externally and internally. The Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail (KIWT) holds a special place in my heart. It opened in 2016 and quickly became popular, then the devastating fires of summer 2019–20 closed the trail. Since then, KIWT partially re-opened to day-walkers with a licensed tour operator, but the trail remained closed to independent multi-day walkers camping on the trail until now. It was my first multi-day hike when I walked KIWT in 2017. One’s first multidayer is like a first love; it holds a place in your heart…

BEHIND THE SCENESWOLLEMI RETREAT GROWING up on Sydney's Northern Beaches doing the Spit to Manly through Sydney Harbour National Park would probably be my earliest childhood memory. We would often do the walk early on a Sunday morning and stop along the way for swims in the harbour. Another memorable walk was trekking in the forest of Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda to visit the gorillas. This was probably one of the best experiences of my life and one I would highly recommend and aids in the protection and conservation of the world’s last remaining mountain gorillas. I've always had a passion for interiors, architecture and design in general. Travel and visiting new places through my childhood and adult life also helped establish my love for interior design and experiencing new…

THIS MONTH’S WINNING PHOTO Kosciuszko National Park, NSW John Evans, Gordon, ACT Camera: iPhone John: "An overnight trip to camp near Seamans Hut in Kosciuszko National Park. A new, sympathetically built matching stone toilet saves packing a poo tube. We exited to the south over the upper Snowy River valley. Lucky snaps via an old iPhone." Lac Lu Speke, Uganda Ian Gibson, London, UK Camera: iPhone 13 Ian: “A shot of Lac Lu Speke, sandwiched between Mts Speke and Emin, two of the six fabled Mountains of the Moon in Uganda, where I went trekking last year. We were blessed with unusually good weather to allow me to get this shot in a very remote location rarely visited. A very challenging trek but a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit a truly…

FEATURECRAZY NEWS STORIES EVERY news outlet does it. At the end of the year they love to republish their silliest and craziest stories of the last twelve months. Really, it’s a just cheap and easy way to fill space and any self-respecting magazine wouldn’t stoop so low as to do this. Fortunately, we’re not that self-respecting so here are the craziest and silliest stories that we published on the Great Walks website last year! Enjoy. Stoned hikers rescued from UK mountain Mountain rescue teams had to be dispatched to a UK National Park after a group of young men got so high on mushrooms that they couldn't walk down the mountain. Other hikers noticed the group acting weird on the slopes of Stonycroft Beck, Newlands area of the Lake District…

PORTUGAL is more than just the historic cities of Lisbon and Porto, velvety custard tarts (pasteis de nata), rich port wines and bacalhau (cod) dishes, more than grilled octopus and sardines, big wave surfing at Nazare and the golden beaches of the Algarve. It’s also a place of outstanding natural beauty and mesmerising scenery like the verdant, vineyard covered valleys of the Douro wine region, the Alto Minho and Costa Verde with their isolated beaches and picturesque river towns, and the rugged wilderness of dramatic peaks and frozen-in-time stone villages of the Peneda-Geres NP where hiking trails take you over old Roman roads and past castle ruins and sparkling waterfalls. Trish and I have come to explore this fascinating land the slow way - on the ‘Heart and Soul of…

MELBOURNIANS are a lucky lot, not only do they live in a cosmopolitan city with wonderful galleries, cafes and restaurants at their doorstep, they also have some of the best bushwalks within an hour or so’s drive – as these four day walks show. Bushrangers Bay to Cape Schanck / Two Bays For an easy day stroll, walkers can hit the trail amid farmland on the Rosebud-Flinders Road where you dive into banksias and a bustle of birdlife, including honeyeaters and wrens. Follow the creek line before detouring down to sandy Bushrangers Bay. From there, double back to track along the basalt coastline to postcard-famous Cape Schanck Lighthouse. Be sure to head out to the point, reached via a boardwalk, to admire Pulpit Rock, a stack that is actually a…

GREAT NATIONAL TRAILS THE SOUTH WEST COAST PATH, UK “BE not afeard; the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not.” Caliban – a monstrous character in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest – spoke from a stone stage, in front of a suitably tempestuous sea. White-tops crashed on a wild jumble of rocks below a turbulent sky. Full of noises, too: the huffing roar of a salty coastal wind, and sea birds’ calls ringing from the indigo sky. But these were no painted sets or special effects: Caliban spoke in the Minack Theatre, a spectacular open-air amphitheatre carved into a clifftop in the far south-west of England. I had walked more than 20km to see the performance, my face burned red by sunshine and…

FEATURE BIBBULMUN TRACK, WA PHOTOS_BTF LAST issue we featured a story on the Bibbulmun Track’s 25 anniversary celebrations (Birthday Bushwalk, GRW Dec-Jan 2024), however some of the images we featured appeared blurred or badly cropped. We apologise to all the good people at the Bibbulmun Track Foundation (BTF) and to make it up we are publishing more photos from the celebrations which included a group of people successfully completing an end-to-end walk on the 1000+ km Bibbulmun Track. Need to know bibbulmuntrack.org.au "A GROUP OF HARDY BUSHWALKERS CELEBRATED BY WALKING THE ENTIRE THING”…