best SAFE hikes in Australia?


More often than not on our list of best hikes in the world we promote “challenging” adventures.

The very dangerous West Coast Trail is our #1 pick. One in every hundred hikers has to be evacuated!

What if you don’t want to be evacuated?

From Our Hiking Blog:

We have come up with a short list that meets the following criteria:

– No death defying stunts required to complete the trip
– Relatively mountain / drop off free
– Challenging enough to make you feel a sense of accomplishment
– Multi day with at least 3 nights camping required
– Generally isolated and away from too much infrastructure

Before we give you the list, recall that Australia is chock full of dangerous animals. My friend from Canberra found a poisonous snake in the back seat of his car while putting his infant daughter into the car seat. I’d rather risk a Grizzly than meet a Brown Snake on the Trail.

The walks, in no particular order, are:

  • Great South West Walk – Victoria
  • Wilsons Promontory Circuit Walk
  • Overland Track – Tasmania
  • Australian Alps Walking Track
  • Thorsborne Trail – Hinchinbrook Island – Queensland
  • Bibbulmun Track – Western Australia
  • Great Ocean Walk – Victoria
  • Read the entire entertaining post – Hiking with Bathmophobia – 7 hiking trips that won’t scare you to death (too much) !

    wallaby
    photo – besthike editor Rick McCharles – Overland Track, Tasmania – 2007 trip report

    15-day Tahoe Rim Trail $1750


    Book fast if you want one of the 30 spots. Late July 2009.

    It’s a fund-raiser for the trail association.

    Hiking a long-distance trail from end to end in one push, or thru-hiking, is a badge of honor for those who have accomplished such a feat. It takes a lot of planning to coordinate food, water, campsites, and the like. Plus, you have to be extremely fit to carry your lodging and all of your food on your back for days on end.

    But there’s a great way to get a similar experience without sacrificing all of your weekends to planning from now through May. The Tahoe Rim Trail Association, steward to the 165-mile Tahoe Rim Trail in Nevada and California, is offering people the chance to participate in a 15-day guided thru-hike with support in the way of food and other supplies. You’ll still need to be in good shape and carry a backpack with personal gear and one- or two-days’ worth of food and water. But that’s pretty cushy, by most thru-hikers’ standards. …

    details via – Where Next? – Thru-Hike the Tahoe Rim Trail

    tahoe-rim1

    larger version – flickr – asmythie

    Norwegian Trekking Association

    Just researching hiking in Norway …

    The Norwegian Trekking Association has a nice website: English, German and Norwegian.

    dnt

    Today, DNT is Norway’s largest outdoor life organization, with more than 210,000 members (2006) in 55 some local member organisations across the country, from Kristiansand in the south to the North Cape in the north. …

    The local member associations operate cabins, mark routes and ski tracks and arrange trips and courses. Together they maintain a network of about 20,000 km of marked foot trails and about 7000 km of branch-marked ski tracks. DNT activities are based on extensive volunteer work. Each year, volunteers together work more than 175,000 hours. …

    Here’s their information on arguably the most popular walk in the country, the Besseggen traverse:

    More than 30 thousand hikers traverse Besseggen each year, making it Norway’s most trekked route. With good reason. The splendid view of the wild Jotunheimen and steep trails imbue a feeling of having mastered the mountain. The hike isn’t particularly difficult or exposed, but it’s airy, with lake Gjende 400 metres below on the south side and Bessvatn a few metres below on the north side. When you’ve also gone up the gigantic Bukkelægret scree slope, you’ve had a real hike. …

    click photo for more padraic woods photos on flickr
    click photo for more padraic woods photos on flickr

    If researching hiking in Norway, the Norwegian Trekking Association is a good place to start.

    It will lead you to links like the official Welcome to Besseggen home page.

    Incredible Crater Lakes

    Another amazing photo article from Environmental Graffiti12 Most Incredible Crater Lakes On Earth

    … While popular belief is that crater lakes are formed after water fills up meteorite impact craters, very few such lakes actually exist. Most of them are formed in volcanic craters – but all offer spectacular sights for sore eyes!

    Fascinating, spectacular, stunning and at times deadly, this is a trip into the extraordinary world of crater lakes. …

    Mount Katmai, Alaska
    Mount Katmai, Alaska
    Crater Lake, Oregon
    Crater Lake, Oregon

    see the rest – 12 Most Incredible Crater Lakes On Earth

    related post – hiking Earth Impact craters

    Torres del Paine Circuit trek, Chile


    Hank Leukart posted a magazine quality essay on one of our top treks in the World, the Paine Circuit.

    Adopted by Kiwis in Chilean Patagonia. How to hike the Torres del Paine Circuit on someone else’s family vacation

    … The only thing standing between us and views of 270-square-kilometer Glaciar Grey was Paso John Garner, a steep and rocky pass through the Patagonian Andes Mountains. My brother Brian and I looked up nervously at the severe mountain crags and glacial ice surrounding us, and though we hadn’t been able to substantiate the rumors of a lost hiker’s death during a blizzard in the pass three days before, the gossip made us uneasy. We knew that some hikers had turned back, failing to conquer the pass due to dangerous weather. …

    glaciar-grey

    read the 3-part series article on Without Baggage

    Especially if you want to find out why Hank decided to climb on to an iceberg.

    hank

    related posts – more Without Baggage trip reports

    walk Pembrokeshire Coast Trail cliffs


    Geoff emailed a response to our UK – South West Coast Path post.:

    … if you’re going to add the Cornish Coast to your list, you really should consider the UK’s other great long distance coastal path, the Pembrokeshire Coast Trail in south Wales – the scenery is relatively similar, but being mostly within the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park is less developed, less touristy, a bit more rugged (and a bit wetter) – and overall I reckon a bit better. It’s also one of the best places in the country to see seabirds, too. I’ve only done sections, but the bits I have seen are stunning.

    It does look great.

    pembrokeshire-coast
    larger original – Wikipedia

    The Pembrokeshire Coast Path is a National Trail in southwest Wales. It was established in 1970, and is 186 miles (300km) long, mostly at cliff-top level, with 35,000 feet (11,000 m) of ascent and descent. …

    Wikipedia

    pembrokeshire

    official website

    trip report

    UK – South West Coast Path


    Mark Owen, South West Coast Path National Trail Officer, emailed to recommend his “best hike” in the world:

    The South West Coast Path National Trail 630 miles of superb coastal walking. From Minehead on the edge of the Exmoor National Park to the shores of Poole Harbour in Dorset it is the best way to enjoy the wonderful coastal scenery, wildlife and heritage.

    map

    He’s convinced us. We’ve added it to our list of the best hikes in Europe.

    We love coast trails. The vistas are non-stop. Unless it gets foggy.

    foggy-coast
    Trail Database

    Of course you need not hike the whole thing. It’s very easy to section hike.

    south_west_coastal_pathawb_158_h
    National Trails

    official website – South West Coast Path National Trail

    maps and guidebooks

    trekking South Africa

    Very high on my life list.

    The Otter Trail along the Tsitsikamma coast is probably the most popular hike in the country. Lush forests, rugged shorelines, mountain streams and waterfalls and fragrant fynbos make this a special one. It’s strenuous, with lots of ups and downs, but the distances aren’t too great.

    otter-trail

    larger version – flickr – South African Tourism

    If you want the scenery and walking with less slog and more luxury, try the Dolphin Trail. It traverses similar terrain to the Otter – joining up with it in places – but instead of hiking huts you stay in fully catered guest houses with great views and good food. Your pack is transported to your next overnight spot by vehicle, and you carry only a day pack with lunch, water, camera and swimsuit.

    The Wild Coast of the Eastern Cape offers similar trails but dramatically different scenery: miles of deserted beaches, wave-lashed rocks and occasional tropical forest.

    Accommodation is in coastal hotels instead of huts. The usual is to carry your pack, but you can arrange to have it driven around, if you plan ahead.

    Purists can tackle the Wild Coast rough as they like. There are miles and miles of unspoiled hiking trail traversing high mountains, deserts and forests, where the accommodation is the usual hiking hut, and the cuisine whatever you decided to carry.

    For an even wilder experience, you can hike for days in the Cedarberg, near Cape Town, or the Drakensberg in KwaZulu-Natal, without seeing a hut or a route marker. These are designated wilderness areas, and you simply take a map and a permit and set off, sleeping under the stars or in convenient caves. …

    drakensberg
    larger version – drakensberg – flickr – jaejongkwak

    hiking – SouthAfrica Info

    related – Footprint Hiking Club

    Some of the most popular hikes require advance booking far in advance of your start date.

    Socotra Island, Yemen


    Dark Roasted Blend linked to some amazing pics of a place they call The Most Alien-Looking Place on Earth.

    I’d love to hike there. Check out the incredible vegetation.

    socotra-trees
    larger version – flickr – jan_vandorpe

    socotra-vegetation
    larger version – flickr – jan_vandorpe

    … Socotra is considered the “jewel” of biodiversity in the Arabian sea. The long geological isolation of the Socotra archipelago and its fierce heat and drought have combined to create a unique and spectacular endemic flora (which may, therefore, be vulnerable to introduced species such as goats and to climate change). Surveys have revealed that more than a third of the 800 or so plant species of Socotra are found nowhere else. Botanists rank the flora of Socotra among the ten most endangered island flora in the world. The archipelago is a site of global importance for biodiversity conservation and a possible center for ecotourism. …

    The island was recognised by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) as a world natural heritage site in July 2008. …

    Wikipedia

    The beaches look pretty sweet, too.

    Qalansiyah beach
    Qalansiyah beach

    larger version – flickr – Valerio Pandolfo

    A friend of mine (Canadian who spoke Arabic) traveled in Yemen decades ago. And loved it.

    There are some trekking tours listed on the internet, including Socotra Guide.

    more photos – Dark Roasted Blend – The Most Alien-Looking Place on Earth

    legend of Kayak Bill

    Rocco forwarded us an amazing feature story in Sea Kayaker magazine:

    … We asked the clerk at the Echo Bay general store about the kayaker, “Oh, that’s Kayak Bill. He has a camp at Eden Island, and a bunch of other camps around. He does a few odd jobs sometimes, but mostly he lives off the land. He started off from Vancouver about ten years ago to paddle to Alaska, but after wintering at Eden Island, he said he didn’t need to go any farther.” …

    Kayak Bill – A Requiem

    It’s well worth the read. Thanks to the author Keith Webb.

    kayak
    original – flickr