With a cold front blowing in from Antarctica having scuppered my plans for one final week-long trek in the mountains of Victoria, I had been forced to acknowledge that autumn had well and truly arrived in this part of Australia and it was time to start heading north. "No worries", I thought to myself, "there are plenty of adventures to keep me going over the border in New South Wales". That was until I finally got around to checking the NSW National Parks website, at which point the full extent of the state's recent spate of natural disasters became all too apparent. Blue Mountains? Most trails still closed from the bushfires of the summer BEFORE last. Yuraygir NP? Sections of the coastal trail and numerous campgrounds closed from a combination of fire and flood damage. Myall ... read more

After knocking off the first half of the Great South West Walk over the previous week, my 'half-time break' stared with a much needed rest day in Nelson, before I packed up early and got a lift back to Moleside Landing with Chris - the owner/operator of the local canoe rental company - for my three-day kayak trip down the same 50km stretch of the Glenelg River that I had spent the previous three days following on foot. Thankfully the incessant rain of the previous day had subsided, though another problem had presented itself: school groups. I had thought there was something odd going on when the same campsites that had been virtually deserted on my walk were fully booked for the coming days according to Parks Victoria's online booking system, and as soon as I ... read more

While pretty much everyone has heard of the Great Ocean Road that runs for 250km from Torquay to Warnambool in south-western Victoria, not so well known is the Great Ocean Walk that traces a line along part of the same stretch of coast for 100km from Apollo Bay to the (misnamed) Twelve Apostles. And while the road follows the shoreline for eighty breathtaking kilometres between Anglesea and Apollo Bay, beyond this it heads inland for a further eighty kilometres through the rainforests of the Otway Ranges, only reaching the sea again at the Twelve Apostles. This is great news for people such as myself, as it means that self-sufficient hikers tackling the Great Ocean Walk have a spectacular stretch of coastline all to ourselves! Well, almost. With three weeks having passed since I came down from ... read more

Wednesday Leaving the campsite at Cope Hut the following morning, I soon found myself walking along a vehicle track alongside the beautiful, clear waters of the Langford West Aqueduct, complete with a healthy population of small freshwater fish. A short detour up a side-track then brought me to the oldest surviving cattleman's hut in the High Country: the 132-year-old Wallace Hut, built on-site in 1889 by three brothers from the Wallace family, who were thus able to spend weeks at a time driving cattle across the High Country pastures whilst living in relative comfort in their specially-built shelter. Back on the main track I followed the gentle curves of the aqueduct as it pursued it's course high up on a ridge that wraps around the head of the Middle Creek valley. Not only was the walking ... read more

Having arrived in Victoria fresh from spending two months exploring the wilds of Tasmania, I was keen to get back out into nature as soon as possible. But with one week left of summer school holidays I had to find somewhere a little off the beaten track to avoid the crowds that would no doubt be lingering anywhere within a stone's throw of the coast; so where to go?!? The Strzelecki Ranges, of course! And I wasn't about to let my lack of wheels get in the way, so after hopping off the coach from Melbourne in Yarram, I shouldered my 20kg+ backpack and headed for the hills. 2km down the road I stuck my thumb out for the first time, and sure enough the very next motorist passing by happened to be heading to his ... read more