Our Hiking Blog

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…

We join the second part of Caitie and Lauren’s winter Overland Track trip where they have reached Kia Ora Hut after spending three days on the track that meanders from Cradle Mountain to Lake St Clair in central Tasmania.

To read about their adventures at Waldheim, Waterfall Valley, Windemere and New Pelion Huts, head over to Part One –  The Overland Track – Winter trip with Caitie and Lauren first.

New Pelion Hut to Kia Ora Hut – Monday 26^th June

Coal fires are the best invention!! We are in Kia Ora Hut tonight and have stoked the fire so that it is very warm and cosy inside, with snow falling outside. Great walk today from New Pelion. We started through rainforest with a nice little waterfall along the way, with a fairly hidden entrance, but well worth the look. A steep ascent to Pelion Gap followed, causing us to swelter in our thermal layers! We met Carolyn and CJ at the top of the climb and boiled up some water for a cup of tea to help block the icy wind that was starting to pick up and rapidly bring our temperatures down.

Mt Ossa turn off - fuelling up for the climb

After a rest and energy hit we all headed up to Mt Ossa via Mt Doris, Continue Reading…

Just a quicky to let you know we had a couple of articles featured in a Tripbase “inspirational” travel secrets eBook.

Our three articles are in the Destination book.  They highlight places we love to visit.

What you ask? A set of free travel eBooks?

This eBook series is the result of a unique collaborative project, the first of its kind to take place on the Internet.

Starting with just one blog post back in November 2009, the Travel Secrets project spread quickly with 200 amazing travel bloggers revealing their most closely guarded travel secrets.

The secrets were too good not to share! So we’ve compiled all 500 of them into a series of inspirational travel eBooks, available for free download right now!

From secluded beaches to bargain hotels, exotic foods and expert travel tips, this wealth of insider travel knowledge is available now, absolutely free!

Continue Reading…