Table of contents for Issue 158, Mar-Apr 2017 in Wild

The 2017 Australian Rogaining Championships will be held in picturesque ridge and gully country just north of Cooma, over the 6th and 7th of May. Rogaining evolved in Victoria last century, and its rules were codified in 1968 which preceeded the first Australian championships, held around Tallarook, Victoria, in 1979. Today, rogaining is a home-grown international sporting success story, having spread to over thirty other countries. This year’s ‘Ridgy Didge’ Rogaine will greet competitors with open woodland country that is ideal for fast travel, and the historic remains of small gold mining ventures in the area dating back to 1888. Participants might just hear the grunts and screams of koalas, as conservation of koala habitat is a major goal for one of the properties in the area. The local koalas…

Aidan Kempster has been exploring the region known by some as the Great Forest National Park (despite the fact that is isn’t a national park) for nearly a year. A scientist by trade, Kempster has taken on the life of an environmentally conscious ‘bikepacker’ to try and garner more awareness for the region, with the hope of it one day becoming a national park in actuality. Kempster recently got in touch with us, seeking support for his Riding for the Great Forest website. As an impassioned individual, we thought it best to showcase his thoughts for our readership. The result is the below transcript of a recent interview. Aidan, you’re ostensibly a scientist and an educator. How have you come to find yourself bikepacking? around the Victorian wilderness? I developed…

Plans to construct 31 buildings along one of Victoria’s most popular long bushwalks, between the Falls Creek and Hotham ski resorts, are ringing alarm bells. It’s the latest of four ‘icon walks’ emerging from a decade-old ecotourism strategy. That document found that Victoria was short of experiences to attract the ‘comfort in nature’ market, the sought-after big spenders from foreign lands. The trouble is that Victoria, by far the most cleared state in Australia, isn’t short of buildings and the comfort they provide. What it is short of is wild experiences. The first walk off the rank was the Great Ocean Walk along the Otway coast, and the second the Grampians Peaks Trail, running north to south through Grampians National Park (Gariwerd). Despite initial hopes, neither of these walks attracted…

On the far side of the mountains, the wild land meets the wild sea in a fury of stone and wave. From the gum forests and dolerite of Hobart or Launceston, you would have no indication of the strange geology and ecology of Tasmania's deepest Southwest wilderness. Here, ancient rocks of baked ocean sands have been raised and gouged into jagged peaks, and curious buttongrass plains blanket the sodden valley floors. In the farthest corner of this wilderness, the waves of the Southern Ocean crash with Antarctic force against the rocks, and, surprisingly, a deep and peaceful harbour is there to be explored. You can trudge to Bathurst Harbour with your boots and pack, or you can fly over in an airplane, but optimally, you could acquaint yourself with this…

From a low saddle in the High Atlas Mountains in northern Morocco, a view of stunning proportion stretched before us. Mud brick dwellings suspended on the valleys edge above fertile plains of mule-tilled fields. Narrow dirt paths weaved amongst terraced fields, and distant soaring summits pierced the skies. We followed the dirt track as it led us through the fields over a small rise into a mountain village. We moved through the village past donkey drawn carts, continued past market stalls spilling into the street with spices and sacks of couscous, rice and other goods. Further along the carcasses of animals hung on hooks in front of the butchers open window, before we turned into a narrow ally where we arrived at a suitable mud building to dine. The menu…

The Bay of Fires area in Tasmania abutted by Mount William National Park can be described in a great many ways: heavenly; untouched; the edge of the Earth. These are just a few thoughts that spring to mind. The three-day walk described here is a great opportunity to soak in one of the most beautiful stretches of coastline in the world. Think pure white sand, orange granite outcrops and a lapis-coloured ocean with a clarity that cleanses the soul. The Bay of Fires remains one of the world’s best-kept secrets despite increasing coverage of its beauty. Commercial enterprises charge top dollar for guided walks down here. My advice is you don’t need it. Very little here has changed for thousands or millions of years apart from what nature has dictated,…

The renowned La Trobe University Wildlife Sanctuary has been honoured with its own exhibition at Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). The exhibition, which began earlier this year and runs until the 10th of March every evening (from 6pm to 10pm), gives visitors the opportunity to create a ‘virtual’ tree via iPad, before ‘planting’ it into a virtual scale replicae of the 30-hectare Wildlife Sanctuary. La Trobe University has committed to planting a real tree for each of the estimated 4,000 virtual plantings expected over the course of the exhibition. The installation forms part of a larger exhibition celebrating the life and work of David Hockney, a celebrated English artist and printmaker. The Sanctuary’s senior coordinator, Andrew Stocker said the University was delighted to be able to include an experience…

Mon Repos beach in Queensland has been the site of a grisly occurrence as daytime sand temperatures exceeding 75 degrees Celsius cause loggerhead turtle hatchlings to die in their hundreds. The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection’s chief scientist Dr Col Limpus spoke to ABC News regarding the occurrence in early February, saying the turtle hatchlings simply have no defence against higher-than-average temperatures. “They can’t sweat, they can’t pant, so they’ve got no mechanism for cooling,” Limpus said. The majority of hatchlings emerge at night, but there are many that attempt to make the journey from the nest to the water during daylight, and it’s those turtles that are most at risk The intense heat has also begun threatening the turtles’ incubation, with nest temperatures reaching around 34 degrees –…

Deer have invaded many parts of the world, leading to landscape-scale changes in ecosystem function. Their establishment in Australia began in the mid-1800s, when Acclimatisation Societies released deer for hunting, and continues today with accidental farm escapes and deliberate releases. Wild deer are now present in every state and territory and their abundance is increasing. Hog deer are unique among the six deer species established in the wild in Australia. They are small (30-45 kilos), with a sloping back-line. Their front legs are short and they have earnt their name from their odd habit of running through the undergrowth with their head low like a hog. Hog deer are solitary, occasionally occurring in small groups and tend not to exhibit some behaviours typical of other deer species such as wallowing.…

In 2012, global environmental organisation Greenpeace attacked the outdoor industry’s use of PFCs in the Durable Water Repellent (DWR) coatings of their waterproof garments and footwear. PFCs (Perfluorinated Compounds) are a family of toxic chemicals that repel oil, water and dirt and are therefore ideal for the use to which outdoor apparel manufacturers put them. The problem is that these compounds are largely long-chain carbon molecules, which do not readily break down in nature. In fact, Greenpeace presented evidence of finding PFC residues all over the world, including in snow samples in the planet’s most pristine environments and in human bloodstreams. Two of the targeted PFCs were PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) and PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate), both of which are proven to have myriad unpleasant side effects when ingested. There is significant…

It’s been a tough first day of hiking, with the sun beating down on us all morning. My Zulu guide Sipho isn’t one for talking much. Nor has he been keen on stopping. So for the past 3.5 hours we’ve pressed on to the Grotto, a dampened cave in South Africa’s Royal Natal National Park. As someone unfamiliar with local weather patterns, I’d have looked up at the bare sky and assumed the 34-degree heat would continue unabated for the remainder of the day. But when brooding clouds poke their brow over the escarpment rim above us, Sipho creases his brow. “I’m worried about them,” he says. “I think we will make it back to the lodge before it rains, but only just.” "It’s best for us to get moving…

Krystle is a National Geographic adventure photographer who regularly travels to remote locations capturing athletes whether they’re on the land, in the air or under the water. She was previous profiled in Wild issue 145. www.krystlewright.com www.instagram.com/krystlejwright…

One of the things most people love about bushwalking is finding some peace and quiet in a beautiful, wild place. Possibly this was not the experience most walkers had when 200 of them crammed into the Overland Track’s Waterfall Valley Hut, designed for just 24, and nearby tent sites one night. Environment These spikes in track use were a major reason the Tasmanian Parks and Wildlife Service (TPWS) introduced a booking system for the Overland Track (Wild issues 109 & 127) in 2004, addressing crowding that was detrimental to the environment and experience of walkers. Prior to introducing bookings, somewhere between 9,000 and 10,000 people were hiking the track each year, concentrated in the peak time of December to March. “The Overland Track was being loved to death,” says Nic…

We are told left right and centre about training our cores – but why? What relevance does it have to a walker, a trailrunner, a mountaineer or general adventurer? Training the core reinforces the way that your pelvis, abs, hips and lower back work together. Muscles included in the core are the transversus abdominis, internal and external obliques, rectus abdominis, multifidus, erector spinae (sacrospinalis), especially the longissimus thoracis, diaphragm and the pelvic floor. You may also also include the trapezius, latissimus dorsi and gluteus maximus. For anyone that knows their anatomy, the functional influence of those muscles listed above is incredibly broad, making the ‘core’ a very important collection of muscles to maintain. When you have structural integrity, everything moves in sync. As your foot strikes the ground beneath you…

Social media platforms are an amazing way to get your work out to an audience of thousands from the comfort of your armchair. They also act as a great way to draw potential customers into your website or online store. However, along with being a fantastic way to get your work out there to be seen by others, there are also some risks involved with sharing work online that I have come across all too often. • The general way to get noticed by a certain company or tourism board to showcase your images is to hashtag (#) your images online with a word that relates to or names that business or tourism board. This allows them to instantly see the image you have posted. It’s an amazing way to…

So many of us are looking for a John Muir, a kind of tawny hero that mocks time with explicit eyes—surefooted as deer in movement and cause. We need a raffish leader who thinks over-civilization is a thoughtless threat, who declares singly, “wildness is a necessity,” on high for all to hear. We seek a totem of universal appreciation, a breaker of limp and vain protocol, the virtuous wanderer. We want to converse with eternal man, someone arriving impromptu from the wild, “homogenous throughout, sound as crystal.” A pure soul, who immortally observes, “How deeply with beauty is beauty overlaid!” We want to echo the wilderness. John Muir, the Scottish-American conservationist, bearded protector of everything that grows in and of the wild, died in California on Christmas Eve in 1914.…

Kids in nature. The benefits of the outdoors may seem obvious to ‘grown ups’ and they are widely reported on. But what’s going on inside the minds of children who have experienced these benefits? Do they realise the enormous potential of the outdoors to their development? During the summer school holidays, I spent a couple of weeks facilitating kids’ nature play activities. With a flexible structure including shelter building, beach play, games, art and exploration, the outdoor model of vacation care is an emerging trend in Australia. At Outdoor Connections, the five to 12 year olds are dropped off at 9am and they are collected at 3pm, somewhat dirty, recounting stories of adventure and with some eclectic nature artwork to adorn their shelves at home. As an educator, I perceive…

INTRODUCTION Food choices are a minefield. Everyone has their personal preference, and we all know there’s no accounting for taste. But regardless of whether you’re vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian or don’tgiveacarian, the food you prepare for an adventure is critical for your health and wellbeing. For car campers and the 4WD set, there’s not much to it. Just throw whatever perishables you like in the esky, be sure to include the portable barbecue and you’re fairly well set for a weekend away. You may even consider the old jaffle iron for a midnight snack. Of course, if you really want to get off the beaten track and see true wilderness, that’s 10 or more kilos of untenable weight. As always, volume and mass are important considerations for selfsufficient adventuring and there…

Touching the SKY Kirsty Storey from Derrimut, VIC writes: The plan was to head out to South America with my husband and specifically record our time away using my new iPhone 7. South America may not be known for being an extremely rich country economically, but it’s so so rich geographically. It felt like I never put the camera (phone) away. This particular scene captured my eye as it was the end of a long hike on our second day on the Inca Trail, Machu Picchu. By the time we reached camp each day, our tents had been set up for us (which was an incredibly welcoming sight). Kirsty wins an Osprey Manta AG 28, valued at $239.95. Designed for lightweight hiking for the day or even overnight, the Manta…