Table of contents for June - July 2023 in Great Walks

FROM THE EDITORBRENT MCKEAN I’VE never walked an official Camino (see our Camino special starting pg 46) but I ended up going on a pilgrimage without knowing it. When I was 28 my best mate died of cancer. Robbie was a year older than me and we had been through a lot together. We travelled through Europe in a kombi van, partied in London and spent a bunch of summers on the Gold Coast. First we were travel buddies, then we were flatmates, then best friends. When Robbie got lymphoma he went downhill quick. The last day I saw Robbie I sat on his bed talking to him. He was so high on morphine he hardly made sense. After a while I got up to go but he ushered me…

THE Snowies Alpine Walk in Kosciuszko NP just got even more thrilling with the opening of Stage 3. This newly opened section spans 13km between Charlotte Pass and Perisher, and features upgraded trails, including the popular Porcupine walk. The Snowies Alpine Walk will ultimately stretch 55km through the stunning alpine region of Kosciuszko National Park. The final section, Stage 4, is already underway and will take you from Perisher to Bullocks Flat and is set to include 11.4km of new walking tracks, upgraded car parking facilities, and amenities. nationalparks.nsw.gosv.au ANGRY porters blocked the entrance to the Kokoda Track in early May protesting about losing work after the tour operator they work for had its licence to operate on the track revoked. Kokoda Tour Operators Association (KTA) President Mick O’Malley said…

IT’S embarrassing. I’ve only been walking for 20 minutes, and I have to ask my group to stop. I haven’t spotted an elusive rock wallaby or a magnificent wildflower. No, I’m asking them to turn around because my shoe is falling apart. I don’t know whether it makes it better or worse that I was half expecting this to happen. I had packed duct tape in preparation and yet still wore my 10-year-old hiking boots, on a three-day adventure. I’d predicted my boot’s demise to the point that I’d contemplated packing my joggers into my day pack. I didn’t though, and now I’m paying the price. As my guide and walking buddies watch on, I quickly wrap the toe of my shoe with silver tape. “There, fixed,” I say. But…

THIS Top Ten day walks list is sure to draw some debate as everyone has their favourites. In Western Australia there are lots of new trails and upgrades to existing trails underway, so what is considered to be in the Top Ten changes regularly, but right now this is our list of favourites. 1 Bald Head Walk Trail (Torndirrup National Park) 12.5km return, Class 4 The Bald Head Walk Trail was often referred to as ‘probably’ the best day walk in Western Australia before 2022, but once the Parks and Wildlife Service of DBCA finished the long planned $1 million upgrade in December 2022 there’s now no ‘probably’ about it! Deep sand gullies created by wind and footfall have been repaired with stairs, boardwalks and erosion control and the…

WHO I WALK WITHREADERS’ STORIES PRESENTED BY CHRIS (67) “I was always on the lookout for a walking buddy and someone who was willing to carry a pack and escape to remote areas. Very few would put their hands up, so I was walking with groups of male friends. It wasn’t until 2015 when Robyn and I met each other through their work and prompting by a fellow colleague. There began a walking buddy friendship that’s expanded. I was planning on doing some walking in South Australia, after that Tassie and the challenging Kakadu escarpment. I suggested it to Robyn to give it a go. Rob jumped at the chance and took on the same passion of walking and escaping, so a lot of pre-walk training was started to fully…

A long-distance pilgrimage across the top of Spain to Santiago de Compostela, or on any of the other pilgrimage routes in Europe, is a life-changing experience. It may be spiritual, it may be physical, it may be geographical (at least I hope so), but one thing’s for sure – you’ll gain an acute appreciation of good equipment over those many hundreds of kilometres. To get you off on the right foot, here’s Great Walks’ guide to the most important gear to pack for this adventure of a lifetime. Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Poncho Rain jacket? Hard shell? You’ll be laughed out of St Jean Pied-de-Port. All the trendiest pilgrims are wearing ponchos, doncha know? And the best way to get in with the poncho crowd is by whipping out this…

BEHIND THE SCENES FROM the age of three to 10, I lived in the miniscule, remote Victorian town of Dinner Plain with my parents and older brother. Mum and dad both worked at an outdoor education residential school, and so spent much of their time on expeditions with year nine students. My earliest memory is of a walk to Carmichael Falls – a gorgeous waterfall that cascades from the plateau south of Dinner Plain. We crouched in mossy tunnels and tiny creeks and concocted stories of elves and hermits. I work as a freelance outdoor environmental educator, which involves taking secondary and tertiary students into the bush (in my case, most often the mountains) and walking around with them. I spend a huge portion of my year in a tent,…

WORDS OF WISDOMCHRIS ‘NAVMAN’ HALL EXCITEMENT was intense as packs were unloaded from vehicles. We were ready to start a three day walk into the remote World Heritage Forest in Southern Lamington Plateau NP. Or so I thought… after putting on boots and long gaiters to combat the dreaded ‘wait – a-while’ lawyer vine, I hauled up my pack. As I went to clip the waist harness, I looked in horror at the buckle! The last time I used this pack was on a 5-day hike in Carnarvon Gorge months before where I had broken half the ‘male’ end of this buckle. It was the one thing I forgot about after that trip. So, I put my walking buddies on pause whilst I rigged a make-do-fix to the buckle with…

WHERE NEXT?BRONTE WAY, UNITED KINGDOM Now here's a pilgrim walk for all lovers of the Bronte sisters - Charlotte, Emily and Anne. That famous 19th century literary family from Yorkshire, England. They wrote some of the best-loved books in the English language, such as Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall - and now you can do a walk that follows some of their stories. The 70km/4-day Bronte Way has been designed to link places that have strong associations with the writings of the Bronte family such as Oakwell Hall, Charlotte Bronte's inspiration for Fieldhead in her 1849 novel, Shirley, and Top Withens, Emily Bronte's inspiration for the home in her 1847 classic Wuthering Heights. The route in picturesque West Yorkshire passes through Thornton, where the Bronte…

THE Murramarang South Coast Walk is a new, 34km multi-day walking trail on the stunning NSW South Coast. The north-south track starts at Pretty Beach and traverses the spectacular coastline of Murramarang National Park, connecting the coastal villages of Depot Beach, Durras and Maloneys Beach. It’s been created using new and existing trails, some of which have been significantly refreshed with new signage, sandstone steps, and small sections of boardwalk. Great Walks had the opportunity to walk it just before it opened to the public and it didn’t disappoint. Pretty Beach, as the name suggests, is very pretty and it’s the ideal starting point for the walk. There’s a NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) office there for walkers to check in and ask any questions before heading off.…

THE ARKABA WALK SPONSORED STORY THE Arkaba Walk is an exclusive opportunity to brave the wilds of the Ikara-Flinders Ranges and Wilpena Pound by foot, over four nights and five days, disconnecting from the everyday and re-wilding on this private 60-000-acre wildlife conservancy. One of the Great Walks of Australia, experience the sights, sounds, scale and space of outback Australia in a style that is exclusive and authentic. We bring together a team of skilled, passionate field guides to host your walking adventure, and pair the experience with a few key creature comforts for an immersive bush experience to remember. Sleep under the stars in signature swags at two exclusive bush camps. Combined with a night pre and post walk at the more luxurious Arkaba Homestead dating back to 1856,…

It would be fair to suggest that the Way of Saint James offers the best of both worlds: a sublime combination of physical and spiritual. Whether your footsteps are upon the snow-covered Pyrenees, the fertile farmlands of La Rioja or indeed the Cathedral of Santa María la Redonda as you gaze upon a painting by Michelangelo, the result is truly powerful. The Way of Saint James is an endless mixture of discoveries. Mountains, rivers, mesetas, cathedrals, monasteries, bridges and local myths are but a glorious drop in the divine Camino bucket. However grand these things may be, the journey is infinitely more. For just as the physical and spiritual are perfectly combined in this 800 kilometre pilgrimage, so too, are the discoveries external and internal. A radically changed life is…

RAW Travel Walking the Camino is a unique experience that requires preparation and organisation. Finding time to plan an itinerary and source suitable places to stay on the route can be a challenge. And not everyone wants to carry a heavy pack or rush each day’s walk to get a spot in a crowded albergue. Whether you are an experienced traveller or a first-timer, using a travel company for a self-guided walk on the Camino offers many advantages, especially if their staff have all walked the various Camino routes themselves. RAW Travel is Australia’s most experienced trip operator for the Camino de Santiago. They offer the widest range of itineraries from 6 to 40+ days across all the well-established Camino routes through Spain, France, Italy and Portugal. From full-length pilgrimages…

THE Nepalese government has banned solo or free independent hiking in any of the country's national parks, a move that the country’s tourism board said would reduce the risks for the tens of thousands of adventure seekers who travel to the Himalayan country each year. The decision, announced in early March by the Nepal Tourism Board, comes after incidents in which tourists became lost and sometimes died while hiking alone, said the board’s director, Mani R. Lamichhane. “There were many cases where tourists have disappeared,” Mr. Lamichhane said. Deadly incidents involving solo trekkers had given some tourists the misperception that Nepal was an unsafe destination, he said. In addition to the challenges caused when hikers go missing in rural areas, Lamichhane says that unlicensed tour guides and companies are also…

WE are now accepting entries for this year’s Wilderness Photographer of the Year presented by Mountain Designs. There are two categories – People and Places. We received almost 700 entries last year and there were some real stand-outs. The following photography tips will help you and your photos stand-out during judging time. Get up early, stay up late This follows from the first point and it really is important for outdoor shooters. Learning to recognise ‘good’ light is vital for outdoor photography. Arguably the most important point to remember is that both early and late in the day sunlight comes through our atmosphere at a low angle. For outdoor shooters, the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset generally offer the softest, most atmospheric light for the whole day.…

MY eyes landed on another of the now-dreaded signs, ‘Walkers Follow Creek’, as my legs trembled with exhaustion. At this point, on day 11 of my journey along the Heysen Trail in South Australia, it was late afternoon and it had taken most of the day to navigate the remote, rocky gorges leading to Dutchmans Stern Conservation Park. I’d had enough. As I leaned onto my trekking poles, my tears dropped onto the dry riverbed, and I didn’t know how I was going to get through the next 5km. However, the beauty (and the challenge) of a long-distance walk means that you really have no other choice. You have to keep walking, and somehow, I did. In a zombie-like state, I stumbled into Dutchman Hut outside of Quorn in the…

WHAT’S it like to take on a long-distance pilgrim walk? How do you cope on cold wet days? What’s it like meeting other pilgrims? There are so many questions people ask before they do their first Camino and it would be easy to disappear down an online rabbit hole trying to get some answers. But fear not, Great Walks has spoken to a number of people who have walked a Camino (or in some cases five or six Caminos!) so you may well find many of those questions answered here. Ash Barker (53), Birmingham, UK Ash has walked the Camino Portuguese, completed four St Cuthbert’s Way pilgrimages (Scottish borderlands to Holy Island) and completed the Jesus Trail (Nazareth to Capurniam, Holy Land). How much preparation and training did you did…

“THE TRAILHEAD ITSELF IS HIDDEN BEHIND THE SHRINE ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ROAD” THE mountains of Japan’s Kii Peninsula rise abruptly out of the Pacific Ocean. Fishing towns and orange groves sit between a rocky shoreline and a dense range of mist-shrouded valleys and dark forests. The train I’m on winds its way along this coast in no particular hurry. It stops long enough at each station for passengers to get a drink from a vending machine and hop back on again. Meanwhile, I flick through a local guidebook. There is a whole page dedicated to the etiquette of using a bus (‘It is good practice to tell the driver where you want to get off’) and another on proper hiking etiquette (‘Greet others with a smile and…

UNPRECEDENTED, shocking, unbelievable, devastating. These are just some of the adjectives being used to describe the last couple of years. And yet many people have found challenges such as the COVID pandemic have led to increased resilience, strength, connection with valued others, and even happiness. How can this be? Research shows that we all have a happiness set point (HSP). Your HSP is your underlying happiness level. It can be shifted, but it does take work. The good news is that the sort of actions you can take to increase your happiness can be enjoyable too, like exercise, meditation, practising gratitude and spending time with loved ones. People who thrived during these tough past years prioritised their happiness and positivity, even if they didn’t know that’s what they were doing.…

100 WALKS IN A YEAR IT was just before midnight and we were soon to be introduced to 2022. That year we were staying with close friends at Dinner Plain near Mt Hotham, Vic. Like millions of others elsewhere in the world, I was contemplating what my New Year’s resolution would be. This is when the idea of 100 hikes for 2022 was first incubated. But not just any hikes. To make the task a challenge, they would need to be an overall average of 10km+ per hike, double ups wouldn’t count and no more than one hike a day would be allowed. One of 100 Hike one on New Year’s Day saw us head out from the Mt Hotham ski resort on the Mt Loch track. A solid morning…

GREAT DAY WALKSMT GINGERA, ACT DON’T let a 500m climb in the first two kilometres put you off this great walk. The Stockyard Spur to Mt Gingera walk is an ACT classic. At 1857m, Mt Gingera is the second highest peak in the ACT and a familiar sight on the horizon of the Brindabella Mountain Range viewed to the west of the ACT. This 20km walk with a 1100m height gain starts from Corin Dam, a major dam in the ACT water storage system. Access to the start of the walk is by sealed road and the well-marked track starts directly from the Corin Dam car park. This area was devastated in the 2003 bushfires and the track up the spur while always there, stems from this period when it…