In 2018 I undertook my first really long distance walk spending 35 days walking the 1000 km Bibbulmun Track in Western Australia. In preparation for this walk I spent the 18 months prior setting myself a number of physical challenges to see what I was physically capable of. The aim of these challenges wasn’t about breaking or setting records it was about working out how much annual leave I needed to take from my job and based on that, what I needed to achieve each day.

This podcast episode discusses why you should know your walking speed and in addition, looks at the health implications of walking speed as we age.

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Over the past seven years, after some failed hikes, some ever worsening issues with my right leg, and much not so subtle badgering from my wife Gill, I finally decided to see a specialist only to discover that I needed my right hip replaced.

Now the reason for me releasing this podcast is that as an information driven individual I need all the facts that I can find and after searching the internet for ‘hiking with a hip replacement’ I found minimal hits and those that I did find has less information than I was after. In this podcast episode I take you through the process leading up to my operation and finishing 12 months later with the hope that it will help those of you in a similar situation.

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In this final episode of our series on my  journey on the Great South West Walk we look and at my pre-trip expectations and compare them to the reality of my on-trail experience. In addition will provide recommendations to assist you if you are planning on doing this trip yourself.

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This podcast episode contains a series of recordings on my Great South West Walk starting from my return to the trail after my rest day In Nelson, and finishing on the final day of my trip on my return to Portland.

Podcast episode 347 titled 'expectations vs reality' episode looks at my pre trip exceptions after the trip and compares them to the reality. In addition I offer suggestions on how I could have made this trip better. That episode is due for release on Tuesday 13 June. Enjoy!

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This podcast episode contains a series of recordings starting from my travel day prior to my trip to the end of week 1. 

For the first two days there are multiple recordings and for the first time on one of our trips we will then be doing a single daily recording. 

Week two's episode is due for the second half of the trip is due for release on Tuesday 6 May, followed by our 'expectations vs reality' episode due for release on Tuesday 13 June. Enjoy! 

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As this podcast goes to air I am just a few days out from starting my journey on the Great South West Walk in southwest Victoria. In this episode I talk about the trip planning and discuss my pre trip expectations; and hesitations!

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Throughout Australia much of our wilderness areas and reserves are managed by the relevant government agencies and while to do the best they can with limited resources they also rely on the support of enthusiast volunteer groups and individuals to assist, often undertaking work that government is unable to.

In today’s Episode we catch up with Jon and Justine from the Tasmanian Volunteer group Wilcare SPRATS (“Sea sPurge Remote Area TeamS”), SPRATS for short, who for the past 18 seasons have taken on the responsibility for managing invasive weeds growth on an 850km section of Tasmania’s’ wild and remote southern and Western coastlines which has seen a 98% reduction in the targeted weed species.

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Recently I’ve come to realise that at some stage I may not be physically able to do every walk on my list and even though the plan is to do 3 long distance walks a year for the foreseeable future at some stage as I get older I’m eventually going to slow down. So quite arbitrarily I estimated that I have about 30 long distance walks left in me in addition to all the short walks. As such I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to start prioritising these walks just in case I don’t get to the end of the ever growing list. But as the title of this podcast says, “I need a bigger bucket as there are too many good walks, and not enough time to do them”!

This podcast discusses what we look at when prioritising our walks and hopefully helps you with your own choices.

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On the 2nd March 2026 Australian Hiker has gone through a major change and in this short episode we want to update you, our listeners, with what this change is and where we are heading in the short to medium term. We are also seeking your input about what you would like to see.

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When you think about Transylvania the name Dracula comes to mind. But did you know that Transylvania was originally part of Hungry and only incorporated into Romania after World War one. More importantly Romania is home to the Via Transilvanica long distance hiking trail which was officially launched on the 8th of October 2022. At that time the trail was 1400km but at the time of this interview covers just on 1600km in distance. The aim of this trail was to give travellers the chance to discover various parts of Romania in quite a unique way - different regions with their history, people, culture, landmarks, and stories. On launching it was designed to be the trail that unites.

In today’s episode we catch up with Alin, one of the team involved in creating this trail, along with Siobhan and Geoff, two Australian Hikers who undertook this walk to get different perspectives on this relatively unknown trail.

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