Bushwalk Australia

There seems to be two schools of thoughts when it comes to gear and clothing choices

1. Blend in, muted colours that do not distract or stand out and also typically being dark, hide grime well.

2. Stand out, make it easy for location if needing help and increase visibility to other bush users

Which camp are you in? Or do you fall into one camp simply as that what was available when purchasing?

I ask this as I recently custom ordered a pack and it arrived with the wrong use of colour. I would say I am firmly camp '1' and often like to be a bit stealthy and unseen where possible. I had branched out with a little bit of colour with my order, but the incorrect order result is quite lairy for my own tastes and has forced me to consider why I consider it a bit obnoxious to look at.

Fo toe! required ms mudd

I usually lean towards discretion when it comes to colour, also easier on my eyes. But I do like a touch of multicolour.

For accenting nature photos, nothing beats a bright red/orange jacket


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Dunno, personally I'm all over the shop colour wise. I do prefer darker, more sedate stuff but plenty of my clothing is bright purely because I wanted that particular bit of kit and it was only available in a bright colour.

I'm much the same as Petew, usually darker/muted clothing but depends on what's available. I bought a very bright patagonia houdini the other day because that's all that was in stock and I didn't care enough to wait. Actually got me thinking that bright colours for wet weather gear is probably not a bad idea. For small things like sporks, knives, lighters etc brighter is much better for me, less likely to put it down and forget to pick it up, or easier to find if dropped.

While I usually choose drab/neutral/camouflage colours a lot of my winter gear is very bright Hi-Vis unless I am stealth camping inside the resort boundary, which doesn't happen often these days

My preference would be for muted darker colours... however since I am very budget conscoius and brighter colours are often the ones that don't sell as well and therefore discounted more I have plenty of brights too. Certainly not too fashion conscious when I'm hiking lol!

Mismatched is a fashion statement right

FionaShedden wrote:Mismatched is a fashion statement right

In which case I must be a fashionista

Ah yes, small items I go for bright colours too, less easily misplaced or left behind.

The rest of my clothing and gear tends to be drab, I don't want to get noticed which is why I probably attire myself that way.

Ooo Fiona Shedden, am imagining a technicolour outfit that required sunglasses to view!


I do own a colourful shirt, but only tend to wear it in company when I am not in stealth mode.

New will get a pic for your viewing critique. It is going back in a box to Utah shortly, it is a small thing, colour, but it was a custom pack. The retailer was amazing , apologised, offered either a partial refund or to make it how I ordered it.

I do like a red tent! Looks nice in the photos & easy to find

Rockclimbing with a bright orange helmet, bushwalking in remote areas with an orange tent and again an orange shirt or puffy jacket handy. Also on the glacier, avoiding white gear, orange IMO is an important colour in the event of a search and rescue and also to be spotted by other party. Unfortunately orange gear is not super easy to find to the specs I need. And this is for Australia and NZ, as probably in USA you'd want to go camo...

Very interesting to hear everyones take on colours.

Red tents do look striking! I have thought that also when looking at others photos.

My cycling gear is all very bright orange, I really like the colour. I wear my brights even when MTB'ing in the middle of nowhere on my own. That is interesting as there is no traffic, yet I feel confident in my brights then.

For clothing I prefer neutral, muted tones, although I always have something in bright red as an attention grabber when necessary.

Back in the days when I was paid to carry camouflage gear, I also carried a fluoro orange piece of plastic in case I needed to signal to a helicopter or the like.

Nowadays I like muted colours but won’t wear camo.

Similarly, was paid to wear splodgy green and brown clothes for some time but refused to use any army equipment for bushwalking - having an army set for work and a civvy set of equipment for bushwalking.

I prefer muted colours when hiking but do have bright clothes for skiing/snowshoeing for safety reasons. My pack is also pretty bright which is good in low vis or for contrast in snow.

Definitely not camo here either, my son would not be impressed with me. He also gets paid to wear camo.

I realised my lack of cheery colour choice extends further than bushwalking when a colleague last night stated she knows I don't wear a certain scrub top she gifted me as I always wear plain colours. Ooops. I need to lighten up

Surplus [ either US or UK ] has the advantage of being cheap and hardwearing tho and in some parts of the world [ thinking the USA here ] camouflage might be taken as religious clothing so many wear it as street fashion

Ms_Mudd wrote:Definitely not camo here either, my son would not be impressed with me. He also gets paid to wear camo.

I realised my lack of cheery colour choice extends further than bushwalking when a colleague last night stated she knows I don't wear a certain scrub top she gifted me as I always wear plain colours. Ooops. I need to lighten up

I am an RN and my scrubs are blue, blue or blue....

Red shorts are my favourite. Deep sky blue my fave shirt.

slparker wrote:Similarly, was paid to wear splodgy green and brown clothes for some time but refused to use any army equipment for bushwalking.

Yep same, and cringed when I saw people wearing cam while out walking (still do)! On topic, I don't have a particularly strong preference - mostly neutral/conservative I guess but don't mind wearing a brighter coloured shirt or hat, or wearing a coloured pack. Certainly don't feel like I need to try and blend in.

Woooweee Lamont. I should have put my shades on to look at your fine picture.

I forgot you are an RN too Slparker. I also rock the navy, although us RMs used to have purple scrubs. In Birth Suite we can wear free choice scrubs to be bright and cheery I guess...I still wear Navy...if I am feeling wild I might go for a navy scrub top with a royal blue trim on the neckline;-)

I am keeping my too colourful pack despite my initial aversion to it- I need to challenge my muted palette. Not ready to go Full Lamont yet though

Years ago right here , I pointed out to a member that maybe he had chosen his tent not because of the design but because of the colour (it wasw a rather odd colour but matching exactly his puffy jacket).
That guy got very upset with me (why would I buy a tent based on colour???) but within a few months had that tent for sale because...he did not fit in (I had told him that before he bought it...)

What surprises me is the number of people who wear black while walking under the hot sun. Wearing black in the sunshine is the most reliable way to become uncomfortably hot. Even black gaiters are noticeably hotter than lighter-coloured gaiters. Unfortunately nowadays there's not much choice other than black for full-length gaiters, although I did see a guy in hot pink mini-gaiters on the Larapinta earlier this month.

The same goes for a tent. If a tent is available in a lighter colour, that will be my choice. I'll put up with the fact that it shows marks and stains more.

Even for a backpack, the colour makes a difference. Do you want your chocolate to melt or not? If the air temperature is below the melting point of chocolate, you don't want radiant heat to raise the temperature the rest of the way. Unfortunately, since pushing through the aftermath of bushfires, my once-white HMG pack is now a dark grey.

That is hilarious , Franco.
I think we consider colour more than we acknowledge, which is why I started this thread as I was surprised to my aversion to my new pack, despite the fit, quality etc being absolutely spot on.

Ribuck, No one wants their choc to melt! Hmm good point with packcolours. I would love a HMG Southwest 2400- if only they made curvier shaped straps.

In the stand out camp for the most part. Not to aid my rescuers, but to help hunters identify me as not a deer.

One of the weirdest sights one experiences in the Victorian bush is a deer hunter out in full camo, including balaclava, beanie and gloves ... topped with a hi-vis vest.

north-north-west wrote:One of the weirdest sights one experiences in the Victorian bush is a deer hunter out in full camo, including balaclava, beanie and gloves ... topped with a hi-vis vest.

The answer to the apparent contradiction is simple. Deer don't see blaze orange as we see it, and consequently, the colour does not alarm them. The pale colour of human faces and hands, does however contrast sharply with the surrounds.

stry wrote:

north-north-west wrote:One of the weirdest sights one experiences in the Victorian bush is a deer hunter out in full camo, including balaclava, beanie and gloves ... topped with a hi-vis vest.

The answer to the apparent contradiction is simple. Deer don't see blaze orange as we see it, and consequently, the colour does not alarm them. The pale colour of human faces and hands, does however contrast sharply with the surrounds.

I know. But it still looks weird.

ribuck wrote:What surprises me is the number of people who wear black while walking under the hot sun. Wearing black in the sunshine is the most reliable way to become uncomfortably hot.

Reportedly, black is the best colour to wear in hot weather because it both absorbs heat from the body and radiates it away, whereas white will heat up but radiates poorly to the environment and reflects heat from the skin back to the skin.

This article makes the point that the effect is low either way and the principle of loose clothing that allows draughts is the optimal clothing for hot weather:

https://science.howstuffworks.com/scien ... eather.htm

Umm radiation works from a hot body to colder things.

If you are hotter than the surrounds then black will work.
Most of us sweat and that evaporation cools us if that gets you below the surrounding temperature then black will only heat you up.

A black item in the sun will be hotter than a white item in the same sun - assuming the item is not generating heat itself.

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To me it depends on how much heat you are generating, how much heat you get rid of by evaporation, and the ambient temperature. So the answer of if white is better than black .. depends.

For things that don't generate heat - like your backpack, brim of your hat - white is clearly better.

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Numbers?
A resting human generates some 300 watts of heat (waste). A normal human at maximum exercise generates some 600 watts. somewhere between those is where I'd expect a bushwalker to be.
Don't know how much we sweat ... expect 1 litre an hour maximum... convert that into watt hours and there would be some data to work with.
I'll google it later....
Humm .. gear skeptic could do a you tube on this