What makes an experienced walker?

[north-north-west]

We often get folks ring in or rock up to the front counter and announce that "we are going to do the Western Arthurs". My first question is normally "have you any idea what you are in for?"
"Not really but we have bushwalking experience"

Every mention of the WArthurs (especially in print) needs to be accompanied by a reminder that it isn't a bushwalk in the sense that most people understand the term. It's a combination mudslog/scramble/scrubbash (usually in rotten weather) with a little bit of normal walking thrown in.

[RayTheWanderer]

To exist is to experience, therefore everything is constantly experiencing.
Therefore everything is experienced.
So you are an experienced bush walker if you have walked in a bush... its not that hard to comprehend Haha.

We have all walked from an early age, beside those with nerve damage.
SO WE ARE ALL EXPERIENCED WALKERS...

[flyfisher]

I think I am missing something here.

ff

[corvus]

What he said
corvus

[bushwalker zane]

It's an interesting approach, but put it this way. I have been swimming since I was a small child (as with most if I assume correctly) however, if you were to put me in a deep pool I would be hopeless and possibly drown as I can't actually swim. As I am rather useless in the water, I would say I'm very inexperienced at swimming.

Just my take on the whole thing.

[corvus]

It's an interesting approach, but put it this way. I have been swimming since I was a small child (as with most if I assume correctly) however, if you were to put me in a deep pool I would be hopeless and possibly drown as I can't actually swim. As I am rather useless in the water, I would say I'm very inexperienced at swimming.

Just my take on the whole thing.

Sorry zane ,
You have lost me !! you can or you cannot swim and I believe most humans can as long as they dont panic ,lets face it most drowned bodies Float !!
corvus

[bushwalker zane]

Sorry zane ,
You have lost me !! you can or you cannot swim and I believe most humans can as long as they dont panic ,lets face it most drowned bodies Float !!
corvus

Sorry Corvus!

Well, I really do struggle to float, I don't know how I manage to be so hopeless in the water. I'm just comparing my years of swimming with my experience at it. Poor.

[andrewbish]

Er..have you guys been trying the blue shrooms?

[bushwalker zane]

Ahaha...

[sthughes]

Sorry zane ,
You have lost me !! you can or you cannot swim and I believe most humans can as long as they dont panic ,lets face it most drowned bodies Float !!
corvus

Ahh yeah but a live person sinks as soon as they get a certain amount of water in their lungs. It's only after death when the body (and food etc. in it) starts to decay, that it actually floats. Jump in a pool, breathe right out, then hold it - you will sink. Take a big breath in, then hold it - you will float. Of course in salt water things are a lot easier, hence 90% of drownings happen in fresh water. But like you said, if you remain calm the battle is half way to being won.

The human being is a land animal, and the human who can't get out of the water dies from it with absolute certainty.

[Son of a Beach]

Sorry zane ,
You have lost me !! you can or you cannot swim and I believe most humans can as long as they dont panic ,lets face it most drowned bodies Float !!
corvus

Ahh yeah but a live person sinks as soon as they get a certain amount of water in their lungs. It's only after death when the body (and food etc. in it) starts to decay, that it actually floats. Jump in a pool, breathe right out, then hold it - you will sink. *** Take a big breath in, then hold it - you will float. Of course in salt water things are a lot easier, hence 90% of drownings happen in fresh water. But like you said, if you remain calm the battle is half way to being won.

The human being is a land animal, and the human who can't get out of the water dies from it with absolute certainty.

*** You missed a step: "Swim back to the surface". Otherwise it would be "Take a big breath in, you will drown".

[Liamy77]

oops - good point

[bushwalker zane]

Well... Looks like I'm doomed

[north-north-west]

Have you ever been experienced . . .
. . . well, I have . . .

[flyfisher]

Ooohhhh !

[corvus]

Have you ever been experienced . . .
. . . well, I have . . .

In what and where and with whom

[stepbystep]

Have you ever been experienced . . .
. . . well, I have . . .

In what and where and with whom

I'd suspect it was with a man named Jimi in the late 60's

[north-north-west]

And the young gun gets it.

Which makes me wonder where the two old farts were during the '60s . . .

[corvus]

You mean you were experiencing a musical episode, hardly the experience some of us were really having !! personally I was learning to be a Soldier in 1967 and jumping out of perfectly good DC Aircraft but I guess that makes me an old fart
and n-n-w you must have been not long out of nappies then so you would have lots of experience about our sixties
corvus

[corvus]

I lied it was 1965 when I was playing soldier
corvus

[WarrenH]

I go into the wilderness to be brave and I come on to this site and a Dulugar calls me "a coward."

I'm used to confronting even more fearsome Dulugars. Dulugars are dangerous creatures that live in the High Country and they smell bad. One needs to go into the High Country and confront their own Dulugar ... I know not to let the fire go out.

http://www.weplan.parks.vic.gov.au/node/548

What makes an experienced walker? ... laughing in the face of a Dulugar. Certainly not panicking when confronted by any scary thing.

Warren.

[andrewbish]

Nice one, Warren

Have you encountered a Dulugar?

Last weekend, while in the Mt Bogong area, I was harassed by whispering snow gums, tripping me up.

Andrew

[north-north-west]

I go into the wilderness to be brave ...

That got me thinking. It's a totally different mindset. Of course, it all depends on your definitions of 'courage' or 'bravery', but still . . .
I don't think of going into the bush in terms of 'brave' or 'courageous' - one needs a bit of nerve sometimes, sure - to scramble up those rocks, cross that swollen river, push through the thick scrub, but that's a very different thing. For me, it's pretty well the opposite - in the bush I can walk away from the things I need to be brave about people, the past, the future, all the tedium and pressures of getting by in this mad world of ours. I don't need to be 'brave', I can just BE.