Long Distance Hiking/Bushwalking


The links below are to a number of articles that take a look at long distance hiking/bushwalking, including a number of walks in the USA and the United Kingdom.

For more visit:
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/apr/17/pacific-coast-trail-long-distance-hiking-men-women
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2015/jan/19/top-10-long-distance-hiking-trails-us-california-oregon-texas
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2014/nov/06/walking-guides-uk-long-distance-footpaths-grand-union-canal
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/may/13/exmoor-somerset-walk
http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/may/13/lake-district-cumbria-walk

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Article: Wind Farms and Birds


The link below is to an article reporting on wind farms and the alleged danger they pose to birds. A study has shown no long term damage to birds.

For more, visit:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/apr/12/windfarms-damage-bird-populations

Check In: Day 2 of Holiday


I have had a most interesting couple of days on the road and in the bush. Currently I’m in a motel room at Woolgoolga, near Coffs Harbour on the mid-north coast of New South Wales, Australia. ‘Hardly the wild,’ I hear you say, and you’re quite right – it isn’t. The weather was beginning to change I noticed on the final leg of my day’s itinerary, so I decided to hide out in a motel room for the night – good decision, it’s pouring outside.

I won’t give all away – I’ll leave the main description of the holiday to the website – but just some of the ‘downlights’ of the first couple of days for this post.

I didn’t arrive at Cathedral Rock National Park until just on dark, but did get the tent up prior to darkness arriving – when it did, it was dark! The campfire took an eternity to get going as all of the timber was damp and by the time I got it started it was time for bed – all-be-it an early night (7.30pm). I had decided to not spend the money on replacing all of the gear I needed to replace for camping, following the loss of a lot of gear over the years due to storage, etc. I hadn’t done much in the way of bushwalking or camping for years due to injuries sustained in my car crash and a bad ankle injury, so I left it all a bit late. I figured that for this holiday I’d make do and replace the gear with quality gear before the next trip. In short, I’ll get by – but it would have been nice to have some good gear just the same. It was a very cold night let me tell you – and long.

When I reached the heights of my first walk today, standing on top of Cathedral Rock National Park, my digital camera decided to die on me. I knew there was something wrong with it during the ascent as it was really chugging away taking pictures. I did get a couple of reasonable panoramic shots on the top of Cathedral Rock before it died, so that was good. I took stills with the video camera I was using, so it wasn’t a complete loss. When I completed the Woolpack Rocks walk I made the trip to Coffs Harbour to seek a replacement and got one for a reasonable price. It’s just another compact and so I will also buy a digital SLR prior to my next trip I hope. My previous SLR was basically destroyed when the camera cap came off during a multiple day bushwalk and all manner of stuff got into it. It wasn’t digital so I didn’t bother repairing it.

So tomorrow – off to Dorrigo National Park I hope and several lengthy walks I haven’t done before. Hopefully the rain will clear.

 

Birds: Feeding Birds not a Good Thing?


Many people love to have native birds visit their gardens. To achieve this we feed birds in a variety of ways. Feeding wild birds does have consequences for the long term survival of the birds being fed. The following link is to an article with more on this subject.

For more visit:
http://www.nwf.org/News-and-Magazines/National-Wildlife/Birds/Archives/2011/Effects-of-Bird-Feeding.aspx

 

Holiday Update


My latest holiday plan has gone flop – the back packing holiday is a no-goer. Reason? It would seem from all reports that the Tops to Myalls Heritage Trail has been abandoned, with parts of the route now so overgrown as to be unrecognizable. I have been told of walkers in recent times having to back track a fair distance when the way ahead was no longer able to be walked. So as disappointing as it is I have abandoned the trail myself and will now do something else.

With time running out for a settled option, I have decided to fall back on an earlier idea and that is to visit the Cathedral Rocks National Park and possibly do some further walks at the Dorrigo National Park. I have booked a vehicle (car rental) for the trip so things are fairly settled now as far as the destination is concerned. I am now going to put some meat on the bones of my idea and draw up an itinerary, Google Map, etc. So some real detail of what I plan to do will be coming over the next few weeks.

This isn’t going to be an expensive holiday or a long one, but is mean’t to be a simple time-out break and one that will allow me to plan some much bigger holidays for later in the year and into the coming year also.