Our Hiking Blog

One of the reasons we manage Our Hiking Blog is the community of terrific people that are part of this site. We are in contact with many people from across the world who all have a shared love and passion of the outdoors. It is great fun to meet new people and read their stories or help them out with information.

A few months ago we were contacted by Pete who was planning to move back to Australia from the USA. He had lived in the US (California, NY, Oregon) since 1997 and had picked up a new job in Hobart. He was asking for recommendations about the best hiking books that contained walks suitable with young childern.

We kept up some correpondance and Pete recommended a book by William L Sullivan – Listening for Coyote – A walk across Oregon’s Wilderness. A couple of weeks ago it arrived in the mail from Pete.

Continue Reading…

You know the story.

Up at 4am to get to the start of the track. You have raced around for three days getting food organised, gear checked and packed , pets and kids palmed off to family or friends, just so you can escape for a couple of nights of solitude and reconnection with wilderness.

The traffic is great at that time of the day and you arrive in good time. Your packs are heavy but you know it is worth it to get to your special place, your secret camping spot.

As you arrive near camp, strolling over the last hill you look down to a scene like this:

Image – Surat Lozowick Continue Reading…

One of the iconic walks on many Australian bucket lists is the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea. Running for 96 km (60 mi) overland (60 km (37 mi) in a straight line) through the Owen Stanley Range in Papua New Guinea, the track is renowned as the location of the World War II battle between Japanese and Australian forces in 1942.

Frank’s uncle, Bob Melville, was up and down the track a couple of times before he was 19 years old. It has a strong place in the Australian psyche as  a small force of under trained and equipped troops fought the most desperate and viscious battle encountered by Australian troops in the Second World War.

For anyone who is interested in further reading, check out the Australian War Memorial site -  Kokoda Trail campaign.

This article is about a group of people Frank has worked with at Uecomm,  in Melbourne (It’s a large Australian broadband supplier)  and their shared goal to hike the Kokoda Track.

 Some of them did it for the challenge, some for the fitness regime and all out of respect of our Aussie Soldiers.

In this article we share Part One of their journey, the preparation and fitness campaign! Continue Reading…

We have been following a terrific journal by Leigh McAdam from Hike Bike Travel about her recent stroll along The Cumbria Way in the Lake District of England.  Leigh, a Canadian,  completed the walk in June / July 2010 as part of a walking holiday in the UK.

From our friends at Wikipedia:

The Cumbria Way is a linear long distance footpath in Cumbria, England passing through the towns of Coniston and Keswick. It also passes through the Langdale and Borrowdale valleys. The majority of the route is inside the boundaries of the Lake District National Park.

This 112 km (70 mile) route through the heart of the Lake District National Park links the two historic Cumbrian towns of Ulverston and Carlisle. The route cuts through classic Lakeland country via Coniston, Langdale, Borrowdale, Derwent Water, Skiddaw Forest and Caldbeck. It is a primarily low-level long distance footpath but does contain some high-level exposed sections

Image: stumayhew

Leigh had a  terrific adventure.   Continue Reading…

We love to read stories of adversary and tough times.  Sometimes hiking conditions can test and challenge you like never before. 

 In this article we welcome Greg,  who has been kind enough to share his recent Tasmanian bushwalking experience on a trip from the Walls of Jerusalem via the Never Never to the Oveland Track in Tasmania.

We have done this trip twice. Our article  Lake Meston Hut to Kia Ora Hut via the Never Never has a small map of the area and documents our experiences.   It might be an interesting background to Greg and his son’s story.

So, over to Greg who reflects on the trip by email to Frank,  often referring back to the GPS waypoints we sent him a couple of months ago to help navigate through this area:

My 15 year old son and I aimed to replicate the walk you gave me on the GPS. It seemed the most logical thing to do regarding distances covered in one day etc. We even started out the same with a trip with Simon from Tasmania Tour Company to the beginning of Walls of Jerusalem! Simon asked me my walking intentions and when I said I was going across the Never Never to the Overland Track he kind of paused and then said, “Take it easy through there. There has been a lot of rain down that way.” I replied, “Yeah, no worries!”, sounding confident but not really sure of what his definition of ‘a lot of rain’ was! He did remind us though that we would see ‘no one’ through there in winter.

The first day was spent walking to Dixons Kingdom Hut and we had an evening of wind, heavy rain and then a decent blanket of snow. Surprisingly there was already another couple in the hut. My son joined them for the night and me being conscious of the fact I snore like a Yeti with a stubbed toe meant I slept outside in a bivy bag. I don’t mind the bivy and have used it a few times.

The next morning was a combination of low cloud and falling snow. We waited for it to lift so we spend the day climbing some peaks. Unfortunately it looked set for the day so I gave the mountain climbing a miss. We had a casual walk in the afternoon down to Lake Ball Hut. No problems getting down there all any tracks or pads were covered in snow.

Hope their boots were waterproof!

The next day was to walk from Lake Ball Hut to Lake Meston Hut Continue Reading…