Table of contents for Issue 186, Summer 2022 in Wild

[Letter of the Issue] KNOWN UNKNOWNS I read with interest Megan Holbeck’s ‘To Plan or Not to Plan’ article in Wild Issue #185, and overall I agree with her thesis: “Through the sheer amount of planning, I felt they’d removed most of the adventure.” As Anthony Sharwood points out in his great book From Snow to Ash, dealing with the unknown is both a challenge and a reward of adventurous activities. To illustrate the point let me relate an example from one of my adventures. In October 2020, I was a member of a group of septuagenarians (the oldest in his 80th year) who decided to walk from Katoomba to Mittagong. This walk was well documented in an edition of Bushwalks in the Sydney Region, so what could go wrong?…

The bitterly cold wind of yesterday was gone, and with it the cloud. But that Antarctic blast had left a snowpack hard as concrete, though far more aesthetic than any concrete could ever be. Indeed, the utterly magnificent scene surrounding me was the antithesis of concrete. Draped over slender ridges, elegant spurs and steep faces—its smooth folds delineated by the late morning shadows—the spring snowpack was not only beautiful; it lent an added sense of remoteness and grandeur to the uniquely Australian alpine scene before me. To the east, across the deep timbered valley of the East Kiewa River, the shimmering plateau of the Bogong High Plains cut off any further vistas in that direction. Views westwards kept going and going, inviting my mind to go through the familiar ritual…

WILD: You got involved in environmental activism at a young age. Tell us about that. JP: I grew up in the Perth Hills, and my mum is an amazing artist, so as a small child I stared at trees for long periods while she painted them. But my first “activism” was marching with about 10,000 others to protect old growth forests when I was about 11 years old. That campaign was ultimately successful, so from a young age, I learned that people taking to the streets could change things for the better. WILD: As a teenager, you blended music with forest activism. And today, you’re on the board of Green Music Australia. What does music add to the environmental movement? JP: Music and nature are very connected for me—actually, I…

When the sun’s arc angles higher in the sky, and the daylight hours begin drawing out, there’s one thought that springs to my mind: “Let’s go canyoniiinggg!” My thoughts fill with romantic imaginations of abseiling down cascading waterfalls, wading through pristine pools between narrow, sculpted, fern-adorned walls. I see dreamy mental pictures of sunbeams streaming down through the clefts, illuminating the depths in a heavenly aura. Like a kid hyped on red cordial, I get an uncontrollable bout of the jitters, and rapidly set about devising enough wild and extravagant plans to last the next five years of weekends. On the other hand, for my wife, Martine, the word “canyoning” doesn’t immediately inspire such enthusiasm. Quite the opposite. Aside from telling me she wishes she had more of my energy,…

WHEN GRANITE MEETS THE SEA, the results are usually spectacular, and Wilsons Promontory is no exception. The 500km2 peninsula that forms the southern tip of mainland Australia—and which is known affectionately to Victorians (and confusingly to American tourists) as the Prom—contains a stunning diversity of environments: sweeping beaches; secluded coves; rocky headlands covered by tough coastal heathland; rugged granite mountains cloaked in tall eucalypts; and deep valleys sheltering pockets of temperate rainforest. Weaving their way through this landscape are some of the best hiking trails to be found anywhere in Australia. Whether you’re after a relaxing day walk, an overnight hike suitable for those just starting out on their bushwalking journey, or a challenging multi-day trek that requires high-level navigational skills, you’ll find it here. The trails are generally well…

“THE NEXT RAPID IS GRADE 5 and we’ll need to portage,” our friend and guide, Barny Young, told us as we paddled downriver toward the thundering whitewater. “Just wait for the water to surge up, climb onto the rock, then throw your boat down the other side and jump on top before it floats away!” Barny grabbed my partner’s arm and hauled her onto the rock, boat and paddle in hand, before it could be sucked into the rapid. Below this set of rapids, we found ourselves in the most beautiful, peaceful gorge either of us had ever seen (pictured on the cover). Electric-blue water coloured by rock dust from glacial melt flowed between tall schist walls. The gruelling walk in, the difficult portages and the risk were all worth…

Forty years ago, on 14th December 1982, the Franklin Blockade began after a seven year campaign failed to stop work on the Gordon-below-Franklin dam. Six months later, with the Hawke government elected, the High Court stopped the dam, but not before $70 million had been spent by Tasmania’s Hydro-Electric Commission. During the controversy, HEC supremo Russell Ashton complained that “if parliament is to work through popular decisions, we are doomed here and we are doomed around the world.” He was speaking for the power-brokers on Earth who want to bulldoze nature for profitable conversion into human-desired dead stuff, regardless of what humans really desire. The result is unique. In my lifetime, Earth’s wildlife numbers have dropped by 75 per cent. Abraham Lincoln warned that corporations were out to “seize the…

I’m pretty sure I’ve made it through the last couple of years’ columns without mentioning the dreaded C-word, because while it’s had a large and undoubted effect on our outdoor adventures, it hasn’t really impacted the gear that we buy to take on those adventures. Or has it? Well, yes. For a start, the pandemic has changed our buying patterns, at least in the short term. With international travel being more or less impossible, and being blessed with a plethora of amazing domestic bushwalking destinations, keen overseas trail-baggers swiftly made the transition. And rightly so! Any one of us could walk the rest of our lives in Australia without ever treading the same route twice. Imagine being a hiking nut stuck in Lichtenstein for a couple of years, or Kiribati.…

OF MARSUPIALS AND MEN ALISTAIR PATON Of Marsupials and Men recounts the rollicking and often hilarious history of Australia’s amateur naturalists. To the first European colonists, Australian wildlife was bewildering, but a remarkable band of enthusiastic amateurs were determined to get to know the new colony’s fauna. From ‘snake men’ who fearlessly thrust their arms into hollow logs, to the Tasmanian bushmen who blazed the trails now followed by Overland Track walkers, and the top-secret plan to smuggle a platypus to Winston Churchill at the height of World War II, these are their stories. THE BACKYARD ADVENTURER BEAU MILES TBA is a dodgy Australian book by a dodgy YouTuber. He’s watchable, and readable, but there are better thinkers, runners, paddlers, pumpkin growers and conversationalists out there in abundance, especially in pharmacies…

This is a profile of an adventurous family. Lauren and Justin Jones and their two kids, Morgan (6) and Dylan (2), live on a 240ha property in the remote north of Bruny Island where they have sheep, chickens, pigs, a colony of quolls living under their toilet, possums and birds aplenty. They bushwalk and garden (badly); Lauren does long, looping runs, their collar-wearing sheep trying to follow; Justin (aka Jonesy) spearfishes a couple of times a week, bringing home cray, abalone, kingfish and more. This lifestyle is one ‘the Jonesies’ consciously created, moving from Sydney in 2020 after lives spent mostly in cities. The catalyst for the change? A three-month, 1,800km trek across the outback, from the Red Centre to the coast of South Australia, towing 15-month-old Morgan in a…

IF PADDLING TURQUOISE RIVERS in unspoiled wilderness is what floats your boat, then New Zealand’s western South Island (AKA West Coast) may be the best destination for your next packrafting adventure. The region is a world-class packrafting and whitewater kayaking destination with around 1,000km of paddle-able waterways. The West Coast offers everything from short whitewater trips, where you can fit in two or three different runs a day with a coffee in between, to multi-day wilderness adventures. There are Grade 1 float journeys through to Grade 4+ trips requiring a great deal of teamwork and river skills, pushing the limits of what’s possible in a packraft. The area has the highest rainfall in New Zealand, with over 130mm per hour being recorded in the Hokitika Catchment. It contains a large…

“While backflips off slippery rocks into questionable water in a canyon is not my cup of tea, it certainly is Sam Thompson’s. An epic day in Claustral earlier this year which was made almost too long by the new walk out.”ANJA FUECHTBAUER Newcastle, NSW Anja wins an awesome Osprey MUTANT 22 climbing pack. It features integrated rope carry, a wide-mouth zippered opening, customizable options for carrying crampons/other items on the front of the pack, a secure and easy-to-use ice tool carry system, and the webbing hipbelt won’t get in the way whether worn, buckled behind you, or removed. osprey.com SEND US YOUR WILD SHOT TO WIN GREAT GEAR! For a chance to win some quality outdoor kit, send your WILD SHOT and a 50-100 word caption to contributor@wild.com.au…

“Early in 1976, a young doctor from New South Wales “Early joined a rafting trip which changed his life.” So wrote Rob Mitchell in the opening sentence of his story that, back in 1983, ran in Wild Issue #7, the subject of which was Bob Brown. The trip, of course, was down the Franklin. Paul Smith, a forester from Launceston, had been casting around for people to join on a rafting trip down the then little-known Franklin River. He’d asked fifteen or twenty people; they’d all turned him down. But Bob didn’t. Despite having no real paddling experience, and despite the fact that before that point no-one had hitherto paddled the Franklin in inflatable rafts, he decided to join Paul. To prepare for the trip, he practised paddling beforehand a…

In three days of walking, we saw only a handful of people. Instead of humans, we saw nature. We watched whales splash in a sheltered bay, followed cliffs along the coast, the red rock contrasting beautifully with the blue sea. The sun was out, the weather perfect—we walked in T-shirts and shorts and stopped to swim at empty, sandy beaches, squealing with the July cold. This wonderland of winter walking was the Light to Light walk near Eden, on the South Coast of NSW, in the newly renamed Beowa National Park (previously Ben Boyd). Nine of us walked the 30km track, a trip that’s been on my rather long list for a couple of decades. For the last 14 years, it’s been kids that have stopped me, the logistics of…

Some of the most beautiful places I’ve visited on Earth required many days of hiking to uncover, places so epic and remote I wish everyone could experience them. In the past four months, I’ve walked both the Larapinta Trail (223km over 12 days) and the Great Ocean Walk (110km over 6 days). These long-distance hikes required loads of training and planning, and along the way I had my share of challenges. Here are some of the elements that helped me prepare for my hikes. TRAINING Long-distance hiking requires not only walking stamina, but it needs to be coupled with the capability of carrying everything you’ll need to be self sufficient. I personally like to keep a base fitness all year round, but when it comes time to prep for a…

The thing about getting older is that you tend to know a little bit about a lot of things. Sometimes it’s helpful. Other times, it’s just enough for you to put your foot in your mouth. Trouble is, you just don’t know enough about the thing to even know you’ve just stuffed said foot in your mouth. No, the value of hindsight often comes with a little bit more age. And with that, I owe some nice people a deep and heartfelt apology. Most folks have a friend, work colleague or family member who have suffered from an adverse mental health condition. Anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD, social anxiety disorder … no matter whatform it takes, it can be crippling. Which brings me to my apology. I’m sorry to those…

WHETHER YOU’RE ADVENTURING in the backcountry or closer to home, being able to filter suss-looking water on the go can be a proper game changer. Enter the Katadyn BeFree 600mL water filter. Well, perhaps enter isn’t quite the right word, as the BeFree has been around for a few years now. But with summer just around the corner, I thought I should finally get around to trying one out. The Befree combines a TPU ‘Hydrapak’ flask with a hollow-fibre ‘Ez-clean’ membrane capable of filtering out bacteria, cysts, sediment, and microorganisms down to a pore size of 0.1 microns (0.0001 mm). Fill the soft-plastic flask with the dodgy water, squeeze it through the membrane, and you’re good for a swig. Weighing just 70g, and being easily collapsible, I found it ideal…

Since 1981 SUBSCRIBE NOW & GET IT BY XMAS IT’S A GREAT GIFT! (plus get a free $50 Adrenaline voucher) Wild is no ordinary magazine. Since its establishment in 1981, Wild has been the inspiring voice of the Australian outdoors. It is a magazine of self-reliance and challenge and sometimes doing it tough. While it is not necessarily hard-core, what it certainly is not is soft-core. It is not glamping. It is not about being pampered while experiencing the outdoors. Wild does not speak down to experienced adventurers. And Wild does not look on conservation as a mere marketing tool. For nearly four decades, Wild has actively and fiercely fought for the environment. Campaigning to protect our wild places is part of our DNA. Show that you care about stories…