Australian Hiker

Some of the life decisions I make are very random and spontaneous while others are planned down to the nth degree. In regard to my hiking, I fall into the latter category for a number of reasons.

Firstly, as someone who still works I have a limited amount of leave and if doing a walk, of whatever length, I need to set a defined start and finish date. I have ‘zero days’, rest days without walking, ‘nero days’ with almost non walking, and I also have two days where I’ll be walking 40+ km a day. Understandably on these days I’m getting down in food and my pack weight is either at or near its lightest. Having said that I always build in contingency days to make allowances for things outside my control.

Secondly, I am goal driven on my solo hikes and if I set myself a daily distance I will typically achieve this. In regard to the Heysen Trail I will be staying in a combination of hostels, caravan parks and campsites and will need to book these, campsites included. Stopping in towns over weekends is a real issue with a number of events impacting my trip and again requiring me to lock-in accomodation sooner rather than later.

Thirdly there’s the food. I need to know how much food to carry with me as opposed to the meals I will be buying at a cafe or store on trail.

Last but not least from a safety perspective I need to provide a schedule to my wife Gill so she knows where I will be but also when and where to send my food drops.

This schedule is all about the logistics and nowhere in this post have I talked about the experience, that’s next week’s post!