Issue 179, Autumn 2021

Wild

Australia's Wilderness Adventure Magazine

Wild4 min read
Wild Letters
Dear James and co., I discovered your magazine the day after I finished my 9-5, high-salary, high-pressure job. I was burned out and overwhelmed. Wild appealed to me; after all, I’m the target audience. Or rather, I was. Five years ago, I was camping
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On The Cover
“Eight people camping in one tree, five of whom had never climbed a giant before. We’d been working towards this moment for weeks with our crew at the Hobart Recreational Tree Climbing Club. A club of regular people who decided to have a go at tree c
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Wild
EDITOR: James McCormack PROOFING AND FACT CHECKING LEGENDS: Martine Fogg, Ryan Hansen, Maya Darby INTERN: James Tugwell DESIGN: Sam Grimmer, James McCormack FOUNDER: Chris Baxter OAM CONTRIBUTORS: Megan Holbeck, Dan Slater, Ryan Hansen, Craig Pearce,
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Track Notes
I have a cricket in my bedroom. I can never see it during the day, but in the black, wee hours, it bursts into sporadic song, reminding me that—even as I lay in the dark—I no longer live in the city. For most of the last two decades of my life I have
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Airport Antarctica
While the rest of the planet is being marauded, Antarctica—except for its whales—has been too cold, too far away and too inconvenient. Antarctica is not much better than the Moon or Mars when it comes to accessibility for plunder, but our technologic
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Mind the Gap
The gap between Christmas and New Year is a natural space for reflection, with time for long walks and adventures and days at the beach to justify the ongoing devouring of leftovers. Work and admin and routines get replaced by catch-ups with family a
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GPS is Dead
As adventurers, we might like to think we’re immune to society’s brain-deadening addiction to ‘phones’—an antiquated label if ever there was one. But if anyone needed further proof that these devices have taken over every aspect of our lives, just ta
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Takayna Race Threatened
A selection of environmental news briefs from around the country This year, 2021, is the third year of the Bob Brown Foundation’s takayna Trail, a 51km ultramarathon held in North West Tasmania’s magnificent-but-threatened takayna/Tarkine area. It is
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Making Tracks
Windswept, deserted and just far enough from Darwin to be considered remote, Bare Sand Island is an idyllic sweep of reef and sand on the edge of the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf. The Kenbi clan—who won native title four years ago after the longest running
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Stepping Out
After 500km of walking, each step pretty much exactly the same as the last, I had heel-to-toe blisters. In some places, blisters were forming over older blisters, and my journey wasn’t even half completed. I’d been walking across the Gangetic Plain a
Wild22 min read
Luxury Lodges = Wilderness Lost
Public parks, Not private play grounds “Areas like Mt Stirling are attractive because they are undeveloped. Wilderness is of incalculable intrinsic value, even if not all of us realise it yet. This is the message we have a duty to espouse no matter h
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1,000km Of New Track In 10 Years
In December 2020, Bushwalking NSW Inc (the peak body for NSW and ACT bushwalking clubs) wrote to the NSW Government with a proposal1: ‘1,000 Kilometres of New Tracks in Ten Years.’ The goal? Significantly enhancing and nurturing NSW’s long-distance t
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Q+A with Mike Dillon
Mike Dillon is a prolific adventure filmmaker. For nearly 50 years, he’s documented inspiring, brave, epic, crazy, and simply out-there journeys from around the planet. He filmed the first Australian ascent of Everest in 1984. A few years later he we
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The ART Of The SCRUB WRIGGLE
I am falling in slow motion. The wiry tangle of bauera has wrapped itself around my legs and is unwilling to relinquish its hold. Meanwhile, the rest of my body has continued to move downhill; I am now upside down. My pack—containing a week’s rations
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Lucy Barnard
Hundreds of thousands of people must have heard of George Meegan’s record-setting walk up the length of the Americas—”the longest unbroken march of all time”—since he began in 1977. Thousands of them have read The Longest Walk, his book detailing the
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The Great unknown
The midnight wake-up call signalled a welcome end to my sleepless stupor. Double mountaineering boots are stubborn to get into at the best of times, but after a short struggle, I was crawling through the cramped tent vestibule into the tempest beyond
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The tree Projects
When it comes to forests in Tasmania (where I live), society is polarised; you are said to be either a greenie or a bogan. But really, there are a lot of people in the middle. They’re the people I want to communicate with, because they can be won ove
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THE LONG & NARROW PATH TO ENGAGEMENT PEAK
For a while now, I’ve been contemplating how to propose to my adventure buddy and partner, Martine. Or, as she puts it, “Martini with an e”. (I just call her Teen—much less confusing.) But let me tell you, this proposal business is hard work. If you’
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A Tale Of two Rivers
My foot again sank into the mud; mud that in a few weeks would desiccate to desert sand. Trying to avoid losing a shoe to suction, I spied a crab, the size of a mini-donut perhaps. Like so much of this country, the inland freshwater crab can sit out
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Sacred Steps A Traverse Of Stone
In a sense, it was the Ngatjis’ journeys that guided me, showed me where I should head. They created this land, breathed stories into it. And now the features they birthed—the mountains, the rocks, the gorge-incised recesses—opened their arms to me.
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Three Capes
Located on the Tasman Peninsula, the renowned Three Capes Track offers access to world-class scenery. Towering sea cliffs, Australia’s highest, plunge 300m into an ocean teeming with wildlife; pods of dolphins cruise the rocky capes, eagles ride upli
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The Walk in Sections
14km (approx. 6-8 hours) From Tasman Arch car park walk east to the spectacularly-eroded Tasman Arch. From here, head around the back of the arch (north, then east) for great coastal views and to find the walking track south to Devils Kitchen. At Dev
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Wild since 1981
Issue #175 AUTUMN 2020 Australia’s Fires: This Changes Everything The Battle for the Southeast Forests Ama Dablam: The Beautiful Mountain Walking the Pilbara Rafting Alaska’s Tatshenshini Escape from Jagungal Canyoning in Wanaka Epic in the Arrowsmit
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Vectiv
If you’ve been following the world of elite competitive running over the last year or two, you’d be aware of the huge strides (pun intended) that have been made in athletic footwear. As records all the way from the marathon down to the 5K have been s
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NEO 3R Rope
For me in the past, the only way I’ve recycled old climbing ropes is to cut ‘em up to use to tie down things on the car or round the house. Wait, that’s not recycling; that’s re-using, isn’t it? So I guess I’ve never recycled ropes. Actually, no one
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Preferred Stockists
MONT 18 Pirie St, Fyshwick P: 02 6162 1661 LONE DINGO 64 Todd Mall, Alice Springs P: 08 8953 3866 lonedingo.com.au OUTDOORS AND BEYOND 207 Princes Hwy, South Nowra P: 02 4421 4388 K2 BASE CAMP 140 Wickham St, Fortitude Valley P: 07 3854 1340 k2.com.a
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EarSHOTS
There’s a divide between runners, especially trail runners, about whether to wear earphones. I usually sit on the no side: I love hearing birds, glimpsing wallabies after hearing them rustle in the bushes, feeling connected to nature. But I’ve been t
Wild2 min readChemistry
RapidPure Scout
I’ve been waiting for the day some boffin finds a way to create dehydrated water. It’d make life on the trail so much easier. But that day hasn’t come yet, so anyone heading outdoors has two options: Load up before heading out, or find water on the w
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Stash Cooking System
In 2003, US brand Jetboil burst onto the stove scene with their revolutionary Personal Cooking System (PCS). Even though the original design—featuring a heat exchanger, insulated one-person cup and integrated burner head—was a huge success and spawne
Wild1 min read
[Wild Shot]
John wins an OSPREY DAYLITE CINCH PACK, valued at $79.95. It’s a versatile pack for quick errands, day hikes and afternoons, with a hydration reservoir sleeve and a top-loading cinch closure for quick-access to all your essentials. For a chance to wi

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