Why do we go bushwalking?

[quaggyduck]

Currently researching a feature story on the history of bushwalking in Australia, and am curious to know what motivates the modern-day bushwalker. Physical challenge? Communing with the Australian bush? Communing with yourself? Sharpening bushcraft? What does bushwalking mean to you?

Feel free to be as brief or florid as you wish

[Drifting]

-Not physical challenge- I'm a fat slug, and likely to stay that way.
-Getting away from the madding crowd
-Communing with Nature, particularly with this bizarre sort of mystical image I have developed of Tasmania, as being a living, semi-sentient being, if you will. In short, it feels like I'm in the presence of an ancient entity out there, something older than anything human, European or otherwise. It's like being up in the rocks in Picnic at Hanging Rock sometimes.
-Teaching my daughter about Nature/Conservation
-photographic opportunities
-seeing it all before someone (or humanity as a whole), f%&@s it all up (I've missed out on things that have vanished before, and it's uncool)
-Bird watching/wildlife watching
-that's where you see the best trees

[Marwood]

I go bushwalking because like it. If I didn't, I wouldn't.

[Waipuna]

Soooo many answers to this question.

The quick ones that come to mind are:
- To keep some balance in my life where 5 days/wk are spent office bound in front of a computer screen
- I like to push the limits of what I am capable of doing. Both physically and mentally. For example planning a day trip and getting caught out overnight with minimal equipment and yet being comfortable and safe in the process.
- I like the challenge of trying to pack as light as possible for a 4-7 night trek and have enough to be prepared for any situation, and yet not take anything that isn't absolutely necessary.
- I love learning new things about the flora and fauna and researching when I get home with photos of wildlife or leaf clippings and trying to positively identify what I have seen. Then the biggest challenge is remembering it again next time.
- I really enjoy reading maps and plotting gps tracks and memorising Google Earth pictures etc so that I can confidently know where I am at all times. Even when I was 12 years old I would fall asleep reading maps at night. Maybe this bug is something you are born with. hehe!!
- I combine group hikes with many solo treks as I like my own company. Without verbal communication for days I feel like I can really get in tune with nature on some treks.
- Now for the best one.......Creating memories - I take very few photos now as I prefer to try to remember all that I see. I cut my teeth as a kid hiking Lamington National Park from the age of 12. By the time I was 14 I was doing the Stinson Wreck and around to the Pinnacle near the Kyogle Rd on my own. I organised similar treks with small groups of friends and I look back now and these are the best memories I have. Sitting on the edge of the cliffs overlooking Mt warning on the way to Rat-a-tat Hut eating a sweet orange on a crisp and sunny winters day. Hysterically laughing at my friend who dropped his shellite fuel bottle while trying to light a fire in the middle of a blizzard in the rainforest and catching his boot on fire. There is nothing better in my books.

I could go on for hours but I am sure there will be plenty of great comments by others through this thread.

Good luck with your article.

Waipuna

[Charlievee]

Currently researching a feature story on the history of bushwalking in Australia, and am curious to know what motivates the modern-day bushwalker. Physical challenge? Communing with the Australian bush? Communing with yourself? Sharpening bushcraft? What does bushwalking mean to you?

Feel free to be as brief or florid as you wish

Hey quaggyduck. All of your points actually ! I like the physical challenge ; I'm a hefty feller so it's good for the fitness side. I grew up in the Scouts, and my family always camped, so it's sorta "in the blood", if you know what I mean ... I also like to fish and hunt and practice bushcraft. I do a day job where I'm continually driving around, testing fire systems, so a recharge in the bush is wonderful therapy. I'm also a hopeless gear addict - buying a new piece of kit is a great reason to "strap it on and get out there".... I hope this helps. Regards, CV

[shazcol]

We go bushwalking because:
* Admiring and appreciating the bush, flowers,plants, mountains, snow, animals etc this wonderful island has to offer.
* Col likes to photograph all the above.
* To do our first overnight walk after just purchasing brand new tent, pack, bags and mats (Dont ask how much it cost)
* It's an activity we both enjoy doing together.
* To escape two teenage sons and their guitars.
* Lately to escape the noise from the four kids and large dog that have moved in next door.
* And because we can!!

[north-north-west]

Why not?

[HitchHiking]

Why do we go bushwalking?

Good question!

Im not sure if it really answers the question but this poem by Robert W Service (my personal fav) seems to be a step in that direction.


The Call of the Wild


Have you gazed on naked grandeur where there's nothing else to gaze on,
Set pieces and drop-curtain scenes galore,
Big mountains heaved to heaven, which the blinding sunsets blazon,
Black canyons where the rapids rip and roar?
Have you swept the visioned valley
with the green stream streaking through it,
Searched the Vastness for a something you have lost?
Have you strung your soul to silence? Then for God's sake go and do it;
Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.

Have you wandered in the wilderness, the sagebrush desolation,
The bunch-grass levels where the cattle graze?
Have you whistled bits of rag-time at the end of all creation,
And learned to know the desert's little ways?
Have you camped upon the foothills, have you galloped o'er the ranges,
Have you roamed the arid sun-lands through and through?
Have you chummed up with the mesa? Do you know its moods and changes?
Then listen to the Wild — it's calling you.

Have you known the Great White Silence, not a snow-gemmed twig aquiver?
(Eternal truths that shame our soothing lies.)
Have you broken trail on snowshoes? mushed your huskies up the river,
Dared the unknown, led the way, and clutched the prize?
Have you marked the map's void spaces, mingled with the mongrel races,
Felt the savage strength of brute in every thew?
And though grim as hell the worst is, can you round it off with curses?
Then hearken to the Wild — it's wanting you.

Have you suffered, starved and triumphed,
groveled down, yet grasped at glory,
Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?
"Done things" just for the doing, letting babblers tell the story,
Seeing through the nice veneer the naked soul?
Have you seen God in His splendors, heard the text that nature renders?
(You'll never hear it in the family pew.)
The simple things, the true things, the silent men who do things —
Then listen to the Wild — it's calling you.

They have cradled you in custom, they have primed you with their preaching,
They have soaked you in convention through and through;
They have put you in a showcase; you're a credit to their teaching —
But can't you hear the Wild? — it's calling you.
Let us probe the silent places, let us seek what luck betide us;
Let us journey to a lonely land I know.
There's a whisper on the night-wind, there's a star agleam to guide us,
And the Wild is calling, calling... let us go.

[north-north-west]

Grown bigger in the bigness of the whole?

That says it all. Or, as Byron put it 'And thus I am absorbed, and this is life'.

[yonderer]

I grew up on a dairy farm and got to love roaming over the paddocks from an early age. Then I had a stressful job and walked in the bush mainly to unwind and regenerate. Now I walk in the bush just because I love it. Oh! and to find the odd geocache.
Cheers,
Dan

[buggeriamold]

All of the above.

But the main one for me is it simplifies life.
When I am out in the bush it’s the basics that count, food, shelter, travel & being in "the moment".
Not the information & expectation overload of modern society.

Mark

[Phil]

aahh, the serenity. To get away from it all. Even as a young kid I would explore the local reserves and the highlight was when I found a spot where I could not see 'any sign' of civilisation (in my immature eyes anyway!!).

I'm also a Christian fella, so for me part of it is connecting with God's creation.

I also enjoy a challenge and gain great satisfaction in achieving something I've not done before, whether it's a new track/mountain to explore and tick off the list, or completing some of the trail runs that I've started doing of late.

[Cocksy_86]

This paragraph expresses it for me. Also I go to find the places in history that have not really changed for the last 100-200 years.

"Amongst the fun and despite our sore feet the serenity and peacefulness of our surroundings soon had us captured. The evenings were filled with a spaciousness which merged with my mind, allowing me to rise above the sensation of mere physical pain. The setting sun shone golden across rounded whaleback slopes which in turn extended long shadows blending into night. Then, while the sky held its last rosy glow, dozens of bats flew, silently wheeling into our camp site. I was experiencing the very reason for my presence there. The fulfilling reward of being able to realise, acknowledge and accept the beauty of my bush surroundings as they entwined with my own existence. It is such a shame that modern living is so tied up with sophisticated lifestyles and that we're often unwittingly forced to overlook the natural wonders that constantly surround us. Such wonders embody the reality of my heart's desires, and often enshroud me with feelings of inner peace."

The Never Ending Bushwalk, Steve and Ruth Tremont (1997)

[pazzar]

I walk for the love of being outdoors, the physical challenge, the opportunity to meet new people and visit new places, and climb as many mountains as I can!

[north-north-west]

... and climb as many mountains as I can!

Peakbaggers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose except . . . errrrr . . . your fear of heights? your lack of peakbagging points? your sanity?

[ollster]

I walk to get away from the plastic, soulless circus that is civilization and it's vile and worthless people.

Oh yeah, and for somewhat airy peaks, and forest and forest scunge, and scrub and gear and lunatic gullies and lakes and tarns and mushrooms. And sometimes flowers and lizards and grasshoppers.

[Macca81]

to see the joy on the faces of your scouts when they complete a walk that they didnt think they could do and that their parents had told them they had no chance with!

so many other reasons also, but after this weekend, the above is fairly high on the list atm...
also, walking a 4 hour walk in 2 hours 9 mins in the dark, because you had to take a scout back to hobart and then walk back in after ariving at the trailhead at 8pm again... that gets the heart pumping thats for sure