In early 2025 I came across the term Land snorkelling and it definitely piqued my curiosity about what it was because as a term its probably one that most hikers aren’t really familiar with, at least by name, even though they may be familiar with the practice. So what is Land snorkelling, what defines it and why should this form part of your hiking practice? www.australianhiker.com.au Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

Over the past 18 months we have caught up with New Zealand Hiker Jonty Crane about several of his adventures, many of which are on trails that fall outside the ‘norm’. This interview is no different as we talk to Jonty about the Ladakh Sky Trail in Northern India, a trail that most people would have never heard of and one that is classed as ‘strenuous’ reaching altitudes over 5000 meters. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

Ask most hikers to name some European hiking trails and the 170km Tour Du Mont Blanc hiking trail will often crop up. This trail includes sections through France, Italy and Switzerland, and circumnavigates western Europe’s highest mountain, Mont Blanc. For most hikers this trail, which starts and finishes in the Chamonix Valley, is undertaken in around 11 days but it can be done in a quicker, or slower fashion depending on the experience you are after.In this podcast episode we talk with hikers Joe and Annie who undertook this well-known European trail in August of 2025. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

On 11 November 2025 Australian Hiker celebrated its 9th birthday. In this podcast episode we reflect on our past year, and look at where we are heading over the coming year including our long distance hiking plans for 2026. www.australianhiker.com.au/   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube  

It’s that time of the year when you start to consider gifts for that special hiker in your life. In previous years we have looked at the full gambit of Christmas gift options covering just about every price range. In this podcast episode we take a bit of a tongue in cheek view of what you can do for that hiker in your life beyond spending money. www.australianhiker.com.au    Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

The 2025 Outdoor Retailer Australia Show was held on 14-16 October 2025 at EPIC located minuted form the centre off the city. For various reasons the last time that this ‘trade only show’ was held was in 2019 and is a chance for Australia’s outdoor wholesalers and manufacturers to showcase their new and existing products to Australia’s outdoor retailers and allied media and Australian Hiker attended this event as a media representative. After such a long break this show was smaller than usual but of the two days that we attended we recorded a number of interviews from 6 seperate suppliers, some who look after multiple brands, and also had a chance to catch up with others. As usual from our discussions with the various suppliers at the show, we will be undertaking a number of gear reviews over the upcoming year that will be of interest to you. australianhiker.com.au Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

Gill and I have been meaning to walk the Mount Dromedary Summit Trail, also know as Gulaga located between the coastal towns of Narooma and Bega. While easy to navigate this walk certainly gets the heart rate pumping being almost all uphill from start to the destination point at the summit before making your way back down. We didn't have any preconceptions about this walk but came away surprised at the solitude we found on this trail even with coming across a number of other hikers. In this podcast episode we bring you a series of on trail recordings to give you an idea of what to expect and offer suggestions for how to get the best out of this walk. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

One of the things I love about doing this podcast is hearing about people’s stories. I particularly love hearing about hikers creating a ‘chose your own adventure’ where they cobble together walks or undertake walks in a different way all to keep it interesting. In this podcast episode we talk with “self-proclaimed saunterer”, Greg Keaney, who over the past two years walked along Australia’s east coast from Tweed Heads near the NSW-Queensland border to the township of Eden close to the Victorian border. Instead of doing this walk all in one go, Greg did this walk in one week blocks in between his work commitments. He walked every beach and every headland (almost) over 80 days and 16 one-week stages. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube  

In this week’s episode, we catch up with Rob from Australian pack manufacturer, Whippa, to find out all about this uniquely Australian company and some of the great product on offer. www.australianhiker.com.au Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

Last weekend Gill and I walked the newly opened Munjip Trail, located just south of the NSW coastal town of Batemans Bay. This walk, which ranges between 15-18km can be done in a single day or over a series of days and has now become a firm favourite of ours. I took over 320 photos and videos on our walk, there was just so much to see. In this podcast episode find out all about this walk www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

The Kokoda Track has is a single-file foot thoroughfare that runs 96 kilometres overland through the Owen Stanley Ranges in Papua and New Guinea and due to military action during World War 2, has become part of Australia’s cultural identity. this track is on the must do list for many Australian hikers and while there are much longer tracks available both in Australia and overseas, this is one of the most physically and personally challenging tracks that many hikers attempt. In this episode, we catch up with New Zealand hiker, Jonty Crane, to find out all about his experience on this well-known track. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube  

The Australian Walking Track Grading System was endorsed in July 2010 as a voluntary industry standard and is now used almost exclusively throughout Australia having replaced an older system. This grading system provides a readily recognisable standard for walkers to be able to establish the difficulty of a particular walk regardless of where in Australia it is and allows them to determine whether they have the fitness and ability to undertake the walk. In this podcast episode we discuss the different grades along with the not so obvious quirks. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

Many hikers have heard of the New Zealand Great Walks and in this episode, we catch up with New Zealand Hiker, Jonty Crane, to find out just what the Great Walks are and to see how he rates them to help if you are considering doing one of these great trails. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

Recently we caught up with hikers Natalie and Pete Cornford to talk about their adventure on the 509km Turkish walking trail, the Lycian Way. Located in the northern Mediterranean this trail has a lot to offer including ancient Turkish cities, world heritage sites, and coastal vistas to name a few. In this episode we find out all about this lesser known trail  www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

In episode 317 we talked about the Camino del Norte-Camino and the Camino Primitivo but have you ever heard of the 350km Via Gebennensis, also known as the Way of Geneva? I certainly hadn’t. This set me on a mission to find out more about this European hiking trail. The walk was only designed in the 1990s with the aim of guiding walkers from Switzerland, Austria and Germany to le Puy, from where they could set off on the traditional pilgrimage on the Way of Saint James (Camino Frances). In this interview we catch up with hiker Lindy Saler to find out all about her journey on the Via Gebennensis to see what she thought of this trail. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

When we started Australian Hiker in 2016 one of the question’s that we got asked, a lot, was do we run hiking trips? As much as we love hiking and outdoor adventures we’ve been there and done that in the past and prefer to refer people to companies who do this for a living. In this episode we talk with Tom and Maddie about what its like to run an outdoor adventure company, find out some of what they offer, and also find out about some of their own amazing trips and adventures. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

Every year Australian Hiker touches base with suppliers, importers and manufacturers of hiking equipment to find out what new and exciting products are on the market and well as to see how the industry is trending. Gill and I were originally heading to the Industry Trade show in March of this year but due to a cyclone that show was cancelled. Over the past 7 weeks we have been catching up with five Australian based suppliers to find out about what gear has been recently released and what we can expect in the coming months. At the end of these supplier interviews I briefly discuss where I see the outdoor gear industry heading. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

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 Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube  

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 trail which was World Heritage Listed in 1993 takes most people around 35 days to walk. But did you know that there are over 200 ‘Caminos’ with a handful attracting the attention of keen hikers who want a different experience than that on offer via the Camino de Santiago. In this episode we talk with hiker Sheila Lunter who joined the  828km Camino del Norte (the Northern Way) and the 321km Camino Primitivo (the Original Way) in a ‘choose your own adventure’ option to find out about these ‘lesser known’ Camino's.   www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube

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 why is that? In this article we look at basecamping as an alternative to create a different type hiking adventure whereby you hike from and return to a central location. www.australianhiker.com.au   Australian Hiker can also be found on our various social media platforms Australian Hiker Facebook Australian Hiker Instagram Australian Hiker Twitter Australian Hiker Threads Australian Hiker Youtube