Tag: long distance walking

A walker stands on a mountain silhouetted by the sunset

5 things you need to know about the Grampians Peaks Trail loop

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1. Give me an overview of the trail

This is a two-night / three-day 36.6km circuit walk that can be shortened to an overnight walk by arranging transport from Borough Huts Campground back to Halls Gap. 

(Note: the full length of the Grampians Peaks Trail, a 160km 13-day walk, is now open).

For the three-day walk, we carried 2 days’ food by having breakfast at a cafe the day we started and arrived back in Halls Gap for a late lunch on day 3. Fuel stoves must be used at Hiker camps. Water tanks are located at each camp. Parks recommends treating the water.

A line of cliffs glow red in the early morning light

Day 1: Day 1: Halls Gap to Bugiga Hikers Camp: 8.6km. A well-made track that climbs nearly 500 mostly well-graded meters. It takes in some of the most popular sights in the Grampians including the Grand Canyon and the Pinnacle, so expect plenty of day-walkers in the Wonderland Carpark to Pinnacle section. The trail marking is very good but you’ll need to pay attention when leaving the Pinnacle as there are a few tracks and not every intersection is marked.

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Silhouette of walkers on the Camino Portugues

Camino Portugues

Our Wanderlust 2 Comments

September 2014

Sign with yellow arrow and text 'Here Begins The Way'On a warm hazy afternoon, we met our French friends, Jean and Marie-José, on the steps of the Lisbon Cathedral, procured our pilgrim credentials and set out to walk the Camino Portugues.

This is our third Camino. In 2005 we walked the 750 km Camino Françes from St Jean Pied du Port on the French side of the Pyrenees, across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. Three years later we walked the Via de la Plata, a 1,000 km journey from Seville in the south of Spain to Santiago de Compostela. It was on this walk that we met and fell in with Jean and Marie-José, our affection for each other and ‘the way’ triumphing over our limited grasp of French. We last saw them in 2010 when we spent a few idyllic days in their village of Saint-Thomè in the wild and beautiful Ardèche. Now we are together again, to walk the 650 km Camino Portugues from Lisbon, through Portugal and into northern Spain, hugging the coastline where we can and avoiding the more travelled inland route.

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Mt Sonder lit by the red light of dawn

Larapinta Trail, Central Australia

Our Wanderlust 4 Comments

The Larapinta Trail takes the walker deep into the astonishingly beautiful red-heart of Australia.

Following the spine of the Tjoritja / West MacDonnell Ranges, the Larapinta Trail traverses the land of the Arrernte people. Their songlines tell of ancestral beings who travelled this country, bringing its flora, fauna, waterholes and landforms into life. The trail extends for 225 kilometres, from Mt Sonder to the desert town of Alice Springs. It weaves its way through spectacular gorges, climbs over rugged peaks, drops into green oases and follows the meanderings of ancient rivers. 

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