Tag: Long-distance walks

Floodlit Alhambra at night with moon.

Camino Mozárabe, Spain. Part 1: Almería to Granada

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Travelling south to Almería (the start of our Camino Mozárabe) through provinces ruled by the Moors for 800 years. The landscape a dream. Windmills for tilting at, iconic black bulls silhouetted against the bright sky, stunted vines growing in the parched earth, trees white with blossom. The rugged, snow-covered peaks of the Sierra Nevada. A shimmer of yellow wildflowers in the valley below. Tall slender poplars, bare of leaves. Islamic forts, cave dwellings, forsaken adobe villages and stations where the train no longer stops. Afternoon winds laden with red dust from the Sahara, making the skies hazy and the horizon blurred.

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Red rock escarpment and water hole on the Jatbula Trail

Jatbula Trail: Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) to Leliyn (Edith Falls), Northern Territory

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The Jatbula Trail is named after Peter Jatbula, a traditional Jawoyn elder pivotal in securing land rights for his people. The trail weaves its way across the western edge of the Arnhem Land escarpment, following ancient songlines walked by the Jawoyn for thousands of years. 

It is a five-day walk; not a long walk, just 60 kilometres from Nitmiluk Gorge to Leliyn, but a remote and entrancing walk through natural and cultural landscapes full of spiritual significance for the Jawoyn Traditional Owners. Dreaming beings in the form of humans, animals and plants brought this landscape to life by ‘putting themselves’ in the country. Their actions can be seen in features of the landscape and are kept alive in language, sacred songs, stories and dance. 

September is regarded as the ‘most heavenly month of the dry season’. This year though, it’s the hottest and driest on record and the midday heat is searing. We’ll need to set out each day at first light, walk slowly and cherish water.

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Detail of Jawoyn rock art

Nitmiluk National Park, Northern Territory

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Darwin (en route to Nitmiluk National Park)

The shadow of a bird of prey moving across the dry grass. A shimmering flight of rainbow bee-eaters seeking refuge in the green canopy of the monsoon forest. White fruit doves, double-barred finches and orange-footed scrubfowl. The careless sea breeze that comes in with the tide each afternoon of the dry season. Travel-weary backpackers. A procession of red-dirt splattered twin cabs driving into town at the end of the working week. Later that night drinkers spill onto the footpath and men prowl the streets, an undercurrent of reckless longing in their gait.

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Heysen Trail: view of Spencer Gulf at sunset

Walking the Heysen Trail, South Australia: Episode 2.

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The Heysen Trail is a 1,200-kilometre walk from the rugged coast of South Australia to its arid inland. We are looking forward to the slow meditation that is long-distance walking but are a little apprehensive. We have walked long distances before but mainly in Europe, where there is a cafe every few kilometres and a warm bed each evening. On the Heysen Trail, we need to be self-sufficient and carry our own shelter, warmth and up to six days’ food. Do we have such a walk in us, we wonder? Read More

Sun lighting up the red rocks of the Heysen Range

Walking the Heysen Trail, South Australia: Episode 1.

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The Heysen Trail winds between Cape Jervis at the southern end of the Fleurieu Peninsula and Parachilna Gorge, 1,200 kilometres to the north. The trail traverses beaches, sea cliffs, national parks, rural landscapes, historic towns and the ancient, rugged peaks of South Australia’s largest mountain range. It is named for the artist Hans Heysen, renowned for his paintings of majestic gum trees and the arid, beautiful Flinders Ranges.
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Wide view of the cloud swept landscape of the Tongariro Crossing

New Zealand: Two Islands, Two Walks. # 2, The Tongariro Northern Circuit

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The four-day Tongariro Northern Circuit winds its way around the sacred mountains of Tongariro National Park; Ngauruhoe, Ruapehu and Tongariro. The stunningly beautiful volcanic landscape holds a profound cultural and spiritual significance for the Māori Ngāti Tūwharetoa iwi. In 1886, the iwi gifted them to the New Zealand people as the country’s first national park. In 1993 Tongariro National Park became the first site in the world to be inscribed on the world heritage list for both its natural and cultural landscapes.
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New Zealand: Two Islands, Two Walks. # 1, The Heaphy Track

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Aotearoa, New Zealand, the land of the long white cloud. We fly in over the rugged snow-capped southern alps to breathtaking glimpses of Mt Aspiring, Lake Tekapo, ice-blue ribbons of water and the grey scoured ghosts of long receded glaciers. A dramatically beautiful landscape. Then the wild country vanishes and in its place are the neat, green fields and hedgerows of the Canterbury Plains. We’ve come to tramp two of New Zealand’s ‘great’ walks; the five-day Heaphy Track in the north-west of the South Island and the four-day Tongariro Northern Circuit in the centre of the North Island.  
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Mont Blanc massif in stormy light

Tour du Mont Blanc, France

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Late Summer

The Tour du Mont Blanc is an epic 170-kilometre walk around the Mont Blanc massif, a dazzling landscape of snow-capped peaks, ice scarred mountains and tumbling glaciers. Its high, steep mountain passes are legendary and its wildness alluring. A walking journey through three different countries and cultures beckons (France, Italy and Switzerland). And the highest mountain in Europe, a fabled dome of snow and ice, will be our guiding star.

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White chalk cliffs, the blue sea and vivid-green grass

The South Downs Way, England

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Midsummer, 2016

The South Downs Way follows ancient tracks along the escarpment and ridges of the South Downs, a line of chalk hills stretching across Hampshire and Sussex to the white cliffs of the Seven Sisters. Green, smooth-swelling, unending, the Downs provided inspiration for the Bloomsbury group and continue to exhilarate artists, writers, travellers and walkers today. 

The concourse of London Victoria station a frenzy of movement. Financiers striding anxiously to work as the Pound Sterling plummets in the wake of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union. Dazed festival-goers returning from Glastonbury leaving a trail of mud and ennui in their wake. And those like us, keen to be away from the city, jostling against the incoming human tide to board the train. On the southbound journey, we sit opposite a sardonic, linen-suited Guardian reader, eruditely discussing the Brexit referendum with his travelling companion. Read More

The Blade, Three Capes Track

Three Capes Track, Tasmania

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The Three Capes Track promises to be ‘no ordinary walk’. A boat trip, three capes and four days exploring the wild coastal landscapes of the Tasman Peninsula. Meandering through fragrant heathlands, woodlands and lush green rainforests, climbing peaks, edging our way along some of the highest sea cliffs in Australia and being drawn to the swirling cobalt blue sea below. Read More