You start training. Immediately.
That’s how it all started for me. I had always been a nature lover and a very occasional hiker but, once that trip was booked, hiking quickly became a dominant force in my life. I guess hiking has a way of doing that.
Having lived in Melbourne for 10 years, it was hard to believe how many incredible places were relatively close by that I’d never even heard of. I started taking every opportunity to explore somewhere new. The tricky part was finding enough information online about the tracks, especially as a new and not-so-confident hiker who preferred to know what was coming before leaving home.
Surprised at this lack of readily available information, I was inspired. I started to meticulously record and photograph every hike I did, and Bushwalking Blog was born in November 2008. By the time I left for South America in July 2009 I was a different person, and readers were telling me that Bushwalking Blog was becoming an incredible online resource.
Over the years it morphed into more than just a hiking guide. I’ve shared my journey from couch potato to regular hiker, but these days I also try to share a piece of myself with each post. I try to inspire and help people to make a change in their life and get outdoors, not just because it will help them get fit or lose weight, but because it has the potential to affect every aspect of their life. Just as it has mine.
Bushwalking Blog has trip reports, travel-style posts, how-to guides, hiking photography, gear reviews, and rants about anything else interesting that contributors want to rant or muse about, from conservation to exercise and beyond.
The hikes are mostly in Victoria, with a handful from interstate, and also South and Central America. I’ve been slowly working on expanding this, with the help of some guest contributors. If I didn’t have to work full-time, I would most definitely be hiking my way around Australia right now.
Before I post anything on Bushwalking Blog, I ask myself it entertains, informs, or inspires. If it doesn’t fit at least one of those categories, I don’t publish it. People seem to respond well, so hopefully this means I’m doing a good job.
I’ve met lots of amazing people through my daily interactions with readers when they email me, or leave a comment on the blog, or on Twitter or Facebook. I love hearing how they relate to my stories, and I love hearing theirs. It’s even better when I see readers interacting with each other because of something I’ve written.
Creating Bushwalking Blog has been one of my life’s greatest achievements and brought me loads of joy. Aside from being my biggest creative outlet, it offers me the occasional free bit of hiking gear or travel opportunity, gives me the occasional 15 minutes of fame (whether in the local rag or the much more unlikely Woman’s Day), and has prompted people to hire me for all kinds of work from writing to consulting on blogging and search engine optimisation. It’s even led to my co-authoring a hiking guide to the Great Ocean Road for Woodslane Publishing (hopefully released by Christmas 2014). That’s not even mentioning that blogging led me to the three most important people in my life – my partner and two step-kids.
Bushwalking Blog has given me so much that I feel I need to keep giving back to my readers and the hiking community in general.
Bushwalk
