Bushwalk Australia

Today's Mercury has an article about K Rudd walking at Dove Lake (well, doing the very short walk down to the beach).
http://www.themercury.com.au/article/20 ... -news.html

That got me thinking, someone here must have met or come across someone famous on a walk .... Best I can do is walking past Catriona Rowntree in 1997 (from the TV program Getaway) just north of Kia Ora hut. They were filming a segment on the private huts walk. Catriona was getting the full make up treatment as we went past - personally I prefer not to wear the stuff when out walking but each to their own.

Someone must have something more interesting than this ......

15 days on Southwest Cape circuit and not seeing anyone - Perfect!

Signed the log book 10mins after Geoff Law at Rodway Hut, as fast as I walked I couldn't catch up, a celebrity in my opinion

A little lateral to the topic, but ...

I love the story I heard about a fella who happened to get onto a ski tow in the Rocky Mountains next to someone famous. It was one of those two-seat, open sided jobs, and the celebrity was Clint Eastwood.
At the start of the ride the excited ski-er turned to Clint and said "Aren't you Clint Eastwood?" The star snarled the reply "What if I am?" The rest of the 200 metre ride was completed in stony silence.

cheers

Peter

Haha what if I am...

I'd of turned back to him and said.... well if you were Clint it'd GO AHEAD + AND MAKE MY DAY....

Speaking of 'Getaway',
Had to assist with one of those travel shows once while working with Parks at Carnarvon Gorge in central QLD. Frankie J Holden was the presenter, and instead of walking the 9.2km track, he was helicoptered into a couple of convenient points along the track, where we did our piece, then flew onto the next spot. My favourite part was being sprayed with increasing amounts of water before each shot by the camera man, to simulate the sweat we would have worked up had we walked...
More impressive though was the earfull he copped from an old digger who had walked the whole way.

Cheers

Not bushwalking but skiing back home in Switzerland I had previously bumped into both Prince Charles and his sons as well as Bill and Hillary Clinton (when he was still President).

I was sitting in a ski-restaurant when about 5 bodyguards came and checked out the place, had a look around and left again. Five minutes later Charles and his sons came in and from memory ordered a soup and some chips. (Couldn't see what he had for mains, his ears were in the way).
The Clintons also regularly came skiing in Switzerland (and I think still do), but incidentally Hillary had quite a bad crash and needed to be evacuated that day. Funny enough they renamed that slope 'Hillary Clinton Run' afterwards

And who says the Swiss have no sense of humour.....

We didn't think Therese would have walked very far in those shoes anyway. Not quite bushwalking boots. I know this isn't what this forum is about but we are always amused by what other walkers are wearing or not wearing. Passed a young couple 3/4 of the way into Montezuma Falls on Sunday wearing thongs yeah I know it's an easy track but really?? and on Tuesday we came across an asian lady walking at Lake St Clair with a Gucci handbag and matching sandals that cracked us up. Sorry but no famous people as yet,no people is always good!

Hi Col

You do indeed sometimes see some great 'fashions in the field'. To be fair, the woman with the Gucci bag was probably worried she was going to bump into someone she knew and that they would 'out' her if she was carrying anything less.

I think you may have the beginning of a new topic here: 'Most inappropriate clothing / footwear sighted in a National Park.'

Bender - I am pretty sure Catriona Rowntree was choppered in. From the look of her clothes and boots I don't think she had walked any further than the 200 metres back to the heli pad at Kia Ora.

And the spray bottle with Frankie J Holden is a classic.

Had Terri Irwin and Bindi and Bob up at Cradle a few times now, Jennifer Hawkins (that was a good day), Malcolm Turnbull, Andrew Daddo and a few well known politicians. Once had the US Ambassador on a guided walk with Federal Police walking 50 or so meters behind. I was just waiting for a Wallaby to jump out at us and get smoked.

I reckon you are going to win this Joel.

I know of one Ranger that escorted Miss Australia up the Gordon River - could not wipe the smile off his face for weeks!

Yeah - I'm pretty sure I fell in love within a minute or two. Very nice person.

Sorry guys I've spend my life ignoring these people, but I understand the curiosity. Much ado about nothing, but Clint Eastwood would have been interesting

I know where you are coming from StepbyStep - I guess I was curious as to whether anyone famous bushwalks or if the lack of hairdryers etc puts them off.

Walked up Mount Anne a few years ago and Brian Harradine came up shortly after. Not a bad feat for a 70ish (at the time) year old. My brother (then 20yo) chickened out at the start of the final ascent, so I got to bag him out the whole way back.

Joel wrote:Jennifer Hawkins (that was a good day)

Yep, this one might win AND it would have been a GREAT day

OK, seriously now, best my wife and I can do is John and Monica Chapman at Lees Hut. We passed them on the way in while they were stopped, and they caught up to us having lunch at the hut.
Almost 5 years ago to the day!
There was another lady with them, but her name escapes me.
They were doing research for the Overland book, heading in further from here.



From the original post, I heard a guy who lives up the road from me (and is the brother of a ranger at Cradle) happened to be on top of Cradle very recently having a beer, when a security guard came along, then K Rudd turned up. Alas, our beer-drinking neighbour didn't have a spare... I heard all this from the guy across the road, the local grapevine at work.

Thats impressive! From a walkers point of view at least.
With all the walking they have done theres got to be a few people who have bumped into them. I missed them by a day last December at Mt Anne, saw their names in the log book on my way out.

I bet BB did have one but did not want to share as he needed his quota
corvus

corvus wrote:I bet BB did have one but did not want to share as he needed his quota
corvus

No, just came from my neighbours and verified, he only had the one. And he didn't share!

As the teach you at primary school, never share your drink, you don't what you might catch

Ewwww Political germies YUKKY

tasadam wrote:...happened to be on top of Cradle very recently having a beer, when a security guard came along, then K Rudd turned up.

I also have a Cradle story from Saturday. I was going to go up with my whole family but a nasty tummy bug stopped the 4yo at the last minute so mum did the noble thing and stayed home with him. My 11yo son who was reluctant in the first place also took the opportunity to pike which just left me with 8yo Miss TasTrekker.

Just before you breach the skyline on the summit track, there's an awkward section with little room to pass. Heaps of people were on the mountain as it was a ripper day with clear blue skies in all directions. A bloke passed us and said you may want to wait before climbing this bit, there's a large group behind me.

The group happened to contain one K.Rudd. The Advocate ran a story last week with a Prime Ministerial family photo at Dove Lake and they said Mr Rudd was casually greeting people with "Hi, I'm Kevin from Queensland." So when Mr Rudd climbed down towards me, I said "G'day, you must be Kevin from Queensland." To this, he replied, "Yes, I'm lost in Tasmania for a few days." I said something like it's great to see you enjoying our patch and I can't remember his response. Kevin was looking somewhat ashen faced with sweat dripping off him and quite unsure of his footing. Once he was able to share the solid boulder we were on, he regained some composure and politely shook my daughter's hand with, "Hi, I'm Kevin, what's your name?" All very cordial and friendly so Emily will have a good story for sharing at school.

Given that Mr Rudd was not looking terribly comfortable, I didn't take the opportunity to get a snap of him and Emily which is a shame. I think I was also a little concerned by the potential "What if I am" factor. However, once Kevin, his two sons and a burly looking security guard or two had passed, I took the phone out and grabbed a couple of pics:


Of course, the real celebs on the mountain were Mr and Miss TasTrekker so here's a fully authorised snap or those celebrity heads:

Impressive Tastrekker - photos and all. Are you sure they were security and not porters?

Not my story but a funny one none the less......

A number of years ago a work colleague of mine was on the final day of a 3 day walk. He had come through Lees Paddocks on his way back to Pine Hut Plain and made a stop at Oxley Falls. While there he remarkably found a copy of John Chapman's 100 day walks in Tasmania book lying on the ground!

When he got back to Pine Hut Plain there was a couple setting up camp who came over and had a chat with him as he walked out. A few minutes into the conversation the camper said something along the lines of "do you know who I am, I'm John Chapman" (not in an arrogant way though). My work colleague was then able to tell John that he just found a copy of his book lying on the ground at Oxley Falls and proceeded to get John and Monica to sign it!!

(and I refer to that exact book regularly as he leaves it in his office here at work).

Mates of mine years ago came across Tashy Tenzing (grandson of Tenzing Norgay, original Everest summiter) at Cradle.

Just on Chapman though... does anyone know if Mt Chapman in the Picton Range is named by/after him? I climbed it the other day and wondered.

no. its been mt chapman for 100 years.....
was named after an early surveyor i think