Distance: 14kmElevation: +500m -500mTime:5:15Total Distance: 107km Hike your own hike (H.Y.O.H.) It rained overnight, and I wake to a dark and dank forest barely illuminated by overcast skies. I dawdle, taking time to wring every ounce of pleasure out of my coffee. After only a short walk though, the clouds lift and the sun filters through and turns the wet forest to a sparkling fairy realm. I...
Distance: 28kmElevation: +1500m -1100mTime: 11:30Total Distance: 93km Abels: 1Music: Tom Waits – Long Way Home Forgive me pretty baby but I always take the long way home. Tom Waits – Long Way Home I wake before the dawn and listen to the sounds on the night-bush. There’s a bird I don’t recognise, and something moving around at ground level making a cry like a pencilcase zipper being...
Distance: 13kmElevation: +800m -600mTime: 8hrTotal Distance: 65kmMusic: Simon and Garfunkel – El Condor Pasa “There’s always a sunrise and always a sunset and it’s up to you to choose to be there for it. Put yourself in the way of beauty.” Cheryl Strayed’s mother. And Cheryl Stayed. And me. A beautiful warm night with the sound of the river rushing by. Today will be shorter...
Distance: 27kmElevation: +700m -650m Time: 10:00Total Distance: 52km Music: Evi Vine – I Am The Waves Keep following the lonely rivers song Go the distance A yearning to belong Found in silence With the movement of the tide Evi Vine – I Am The Waves The wind died down and after reading for a bit to the sound of kookaburras and the creek, I was out like a light. The morning is still...
Distance: 25kmElevation: +1200m -1200mTime: 8:15Music: Heather Nova – Rewild Me I’m over the hate and I’m over the gate and I’m gone. Like a fox in the meadow, no-one on my trail, I’m gone. Heather Nova – Rewild Me I start my walk on the beach, instead of at the PCT’s official start point near the local rubbish tip. Penguin is a charming, sleepy seaside town. At least, it is...
It’s a bit more expensive, but it’s a hell of a lot easier than walking. The Be Good Tanyas – Light Enough to Travel [New feature: sometimes I’ll put a song here. If you don’t like it, please read quietly in uncomfortable silence punctuated only by the sound of clearing your throat.] What was the question again?– George Mallory I jump onto one last club hike before...
…it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you’re attempting can’t be done.― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites 29/12/2025:I developed an ingrown/infected toe nail during the club Thredbo > Tharwa walk earlier in the month. Surprisingly, it wasn’t much of an impediment to hiking, but I really wanted to get it sorted and I was kinda...
Distance: 7.7kmElevation: +259m -499mTime: 2:22Total Distance: 241km We made a lot of birds very unhappy.-Inga, cryptically We’d agreed on a 7:00am start to beat the heat. We’re all ready to go by 6:45. It’s not that we wanted the walk to be over; I think we all would gladly have gone another week. It’s just that by now we were a well-oiled machine built for the simple...
Distance: 20.3kmElevation: +504m -552mTime: 6:15Total Distance: 234.1km Upwards and upwards… I’m sitting on the grass at five minutes to seven with my cook kit still spread out in front of me, when it suddenly dawns on me that the troops are going to be ready to go at seven despite the previous night’s agreement, and I’ve still got stuff to do. So I hastily smear on some sunscreen and brush my...
Distance: 22.7kmElevation: +427m -1017mTime: 7:00Total Distance: 213.8km I could eat a whole BBQ chicken. – Inga Tastes like cayenne pepper Back in the ACT we descend along a track that frequently crosses boggy ground east of the saddle. Down to Cotter Flat. Somebody has built a pair of small rock weirs that are doing a good job of raising the level of the crossing. The day is warm. Really warm...
Distance: 18.1kmElevation: +680m -380mTime: 5:20Total Distance: 191.1km An absolutely gorgeous morning. The kangaroos were grazing and the foxes were sneaking. When I went to bed I briefly thought “this car campers yapping away is annoying” then immediately fell asleep. But the early rising hikers have the campsite to themselves. Swiper, no swiping! The walk out of Blue Waterholes climbs steadily...
Distance: 22.2kmElevation: +193m -361mTime: 6:00Total Distance: 173km What’s brown and sticky? A stick. The thermometer dangling from my pack says the temperature fell to -2° this morning. I vaguely recall somebody saying that black sallees grow on the edge of frost hollows. There was frost. I roused myself from the snuggly warm cocoon of my hammock to go and light a fire in case anybody had...
