Australian Hiker

I follow a number of US based podcasts and blogs and one of the things that appears unique to the USA is the discussion on ‘fun’. It’s not that we don’t have fun in Australia but for some reason we just don’t seem to discuss it in the same way and we definitely don’t label it. But should we?

In this podcast episode we discuss the concept of fun as it applies to hiking and outdoor activities. www.australianhiker.com.au

Australian ...

Ask just about anyone who is a non-hiker to name a long distance hiking trail and chances are they will say the ‘Camino’ and by default this means the ‘Camino Frances’. also known as the ‘Way of Saint James’ or  the ‘Camino de Santiago’, This well-known pilgrimage trail starts in France, crosses the Pyrenees mountains which straddles the border of France and Spain, and continues into Spain for a total distance of 780km long. This t...

When we think about hiking there are two pictures that typically come to mind. The first is of moving from place to place over multiple days, carrying everything on our backs, sleeping in a small tent, then moving on and repeating the process the next day. The second picture we think about is driving to a nearby destination hiking for part of the day with a ‘smallish’ pack, and then returning to your car before driving home. But wh...

I first fell in love with long distance hiking in about 2014 and surprisingly it had nothing to do with the movie ‘Wild’ that was released in the same year.

The more I investigated the concept of long-distance hiking, the more I liked the idea of doing one of the well-known USA Triple Crown trails. The US Triple Crown is a goal that many long distance hikers set themselves and consists of the

• Appalachian Trail
• Continental Divi...

In 2012 we hiked in Bhutan and at that time we were trying to decide between two hikes. One of the choices we were looking at was the 350 km Snowman Trek which in the end we didn't end up doing. This trek is one of Bhutan’s and for that matter, one of the world’s, best known treks taking around 24 days to complete the whole hike.

In today’s episode we catch up with hiker Jonty Crane to find out more about his experience on the Snow...

In mid 2024 Larissa and her husband Brendan, hiked 1047km along the length of Ireland predominantly on ‘The Ireland Way’. This is a trail that has come across my desk from time to time and when Larissa first contacted us towards the end of last year, this was a great opportunity to find out about Ireland’s long trail. www.australianhiker.com.au

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Australian Hi...

The new Southern Headlands Walk is a one way, 20km walk between Narrawallee and Burrill Lake located near the southern township of Ulladulla. The new walk combines stunning scenery, beaches, wildflowers, cafes and accommodation options for those who wanted to play and stay! In this episode listen to our on trail recordings to see what we were thinking about this walk in real time and then at the end of the episodse we discuss how t...

No one plans to get lost or injured on a hike but every year our state and territory police forces, with support of organisations like the state emergency services, parks services as well as local volunteers, respond to incidents of lost or injured hikers. In many cases the outcomes of these incidents are just a minor inconvenience to all concerned but at the other end of the scale, there is occasionally the unfortunate loss of lif...

In 2018 Tim hiked the Bibbulmun Track as a solo male hiker, but what’s it like hiking the Bibbulmun as a solo female hiker? In this episode Gill takes control of the microphone and asks Trudie all about her experience on-trail, along with the reasons for undertaking this trip, and what she came away with from this long distance hiking experience. www.australianhiker.com.au

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Once you decide to start doing overnight hikes there are additional pieces of gear that you need to consider like a sleeping bag, tent and also some sort of light. By far the most commonly used light for hikers is a headlamp but with so many to choose from how do you decide what to purchase? In this podcast episode we discuss key considerations for choosing a headlamp for hiking but having said that you may find that you end up wit...

In January 2025 over the Australia Day Long weekend Australian Hiker headed up to Kosciuszko National Park to walk the newly opened Snowies Alpine Walk. We, more specifically Gill, completed the whole walk in three days and I played a support role due to injury completing about 18km of the 56km walk.

While this walk was designed to be done over four days from a number of hikers that I ...

Ask just about any hiker to name some overseas hiking destinations and Timor-Leste is unlikely to be in that list. In fact, most people would probably struggle to place Timor-Leste on the world map. In this week’s episode we catch up with hiker Jonty Crane to find out what’s so special about hiking in Timor-Leste and to find out what we have been missing out on.

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In late 2017 our friend Kellie, Gill, and I undertook a five day walk on the Kangaroo Island Wilderness Trail in South Australia and to this day, this walk still ranks as one of our favourite hikes of all time, it was that good. In 2020 major bushfires decimated Kangaroo Island including this trail and much of the Flinders Chase National Park in which it resides. It wasn't until around 2023 that hikers could again do unsupported tr...

Sleeping bag liners; what are they used for and why should you consider using them if you are into overnight camping? As the name suggests, their main use is as a liner for sleeping bags but they are so much more and are a very versatile piece of gear that many hikers don’t even consider, but should they?

In this podcast episode we find out more about they types of liners and the uses that they have. www.australianhiker.com.au

Au...

In this podcast we interview Canberra hikers Amanda and Paul about their recent trip on the UK based Coast to Coast Path National Trail. This is one of the UK's best known walks and over recent times has been upgraded to be included in National Trail system. www.australianhiker.com.au

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On 21 October 2024 Lauren Thomas and Steph Brake started on their 40 day, 500km journey starting at the northern Tasmanian township of Penguin and finishing at Cockle Bay is the states south to raise awareness and funds, deeply motivated by the desire to make a difference in men's health. They finally achieved their goal on 29 November 2024. www.australianhiker.com.au

Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media...

In this podcast episode we talk about our bucket list of overseas (outside Australia) multi-day hikes. Each of these hikes, regardless of their length, has something that resonates with us for one reason or another. However, they may not be your cup of tea, given that most of them are long distance trails ranging from 75 km all the way up to the longest trip on the list at around 3,000 km.

Use these walks as a guide and hopefully i...

In this podcast episode we talk about our bucket list of Australian-based multi-day hikes. Each of these hikes, regardless of their length, has something that resonates with us (particularly Tim) and while they may not be your cup of tea, they are all on our ‘to do’ list for the coming years. Our bucket list hikes range from 62 km all the way up to the longest trip on the list at around 1200 km.

Use these walks as a guide and hopef...

There are estimated to be approximately 3,200,000 podcasts in existence however many of these are no longer in production. Many shows start with a flourish but peter out after around seven episodes once their creators realise the amount of work involved in getting an episode to air. Reaching 300 episodes is a rarity, particularly for outdoor podcasts with only a rare handful lasting this long.

In this episode we discuss where the A...