Matt Down Under
Ruby developer, founder of choc media, bushwalker, MacGyver fan and hobby photographer, German citizen and Australian Permanent Resident.
In 2008 I moved from Germany to Australia, the best decision of my life. On this blog you can find stories and photos about hiking in Tasmania and on the mainland, travelling, and life in Australia — my journey from Working Holiday to Permanent Residency.
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11 posts tagged Hiking
Photos from my 6-day hiking trip in Pu Luong Nature Reserve in North Vietnam.
The sign in the photo marked the end of the Jatbula Trail, a few hundred metres before the Edith Falls car park. When I walked past it at 1pm last Tuesday, I had to pause for a moment, take a photo and recap the experiences of the past few days. The message on the sign is exactly what I tried to articulate in my previous blog post. It says:
“You have walked the land and now end your journey with photographs and memories of your experiences along the Jatbula Trail.”
“During the wet season Jawoyn moved around this high, broken tableland between Katherine and Leliyn (Edith Falls) that you have just walked. There was an abundance of porcupine, wallabies and other small game. As you have just seen, there was also plenty of water.”
“Jawoyn people hope you leave with a greater appreciation of country and culture.”
I did indeed. And I couldn’t have got that appreciation and those experiences from a bus on the highway or an airplane in the sky. Walking is the best way to learn to appreciate country and culture. You get to see places that others, who don’t walk, will never get to see.
At Katherine Gorge
This morning I left Darwin and jumped on the early Greyhound bus to Katherine. Timing couldn’t have been better because for the first time since I returned to Darwin five weeks ago, it rained.
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Going hiking on the Jatbula Trail
I’m still in Darwin, working on my tan and I’m actually fairly busy with work for some exciting online projects at the moment, but I decided to take a break from the computer and go back to Katherine on Thursday, where I will walk the 58km Jatbula Trail in Nitmiluk National Park before they close it for the wet season starting October.
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West MacDonnell Ranges
Last week I had the chance to join a British and a German girl with their campervan and spend a few days in the West MacDonnell Ranges not far from Alice Springs. A popular route is to drive down Larapinta Drive and then along Namatjira Drive until about Glen Helen Gorge. On the way there are several waterholes, gorges or other interesting attractions where you can often go on short marked walks for a few hours. This route also meets the Larapinta Trail in several places so I got a really good feeling on what it’s like to walk it.
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Great Ocean Walk — Day 7
Route: Devils Kitchen — Twelve Apostles — Port Campbell
I was glad it was the final day on the trail, it was really a lot colder at night that I would have liked. My equipment was simply too light for conditions like that. I was also pretty tired from the long walk the previous day.
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Great Ocean Walk — Day 6
Route: Johanna Beach — Ryans Den — Devils Kitchen
It was my 30th birthday and I thought about skipping the Ryans Den campsite and walk two day sections in one day. The reasons were simply that my gas can was about to run empty and it got so cold at night that I was keen to shorten up the trip if possible.
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Great Ocean Walk — Day 5
Route: Aire River — Johanna Beach
It was very calm in the morning. I got up early — I didn’t know what time it was but I had heard campers on the other campsite talking, so I assumed it was time to get up. It was still dark, probably around 7am.
