RECENTLY I found out that my name Brent is old English for ‘high place’ or – more aptly for this issue of Great Walks – ‘steep hill’. As you’ll see screaming on this cover the words ‘Climb that hill!’, because more often than not any bushwalk will involve going up – and sometimes up and up… and up!
And there’s only one way you’ll reach the top of that damn hill (and maybe the five or 10 in front of it!) and that’s putting one sure foot in front of the other and moving forward.
Our new writer for the Words of Wisdom column Katrina Hemingway (pg98) knows all about climbing hills, having walked PNG’s infamous Kokoda Track, and the PennineWay and Wainwright’s Coast to CoastWalk both in Britain, but it was her experience on America’s Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) that really taught her about digging deep and moving forward one solid step at a time.
And what’s her motivation? Well, every multi-day walk she does is to raise funds and awareness forta ckling type 1 diabetes, a disease she has to deal with every day.

“The PCT walk is an immens challenge, especially for diabetics,” says Katrina. “Logistics and safe planning were overwhelming. The dangers were deadly. We had to contend with rattlesnakes, mountain lions, black bears, snow, thunderstorms, desert heat, bridgeless river crossings and multiple injuries.”
“However, we had every confidence in our ability – and to inspire others to accept similar challenges in their lives without fear or hesitancy, one step at a time.”
We have a number of yarns in this issue involving extreme hill climbing. First off is the Walls of Jerusalem in Tasmania (pg18) where writer Dan Slater says: “This initial push proved the most taxing of the whole trip. Not only was it the steepest section, but we were humping full 70L packs.”
Then Cat and Joe Smith decided to walk nine of NZ’s GreatWalks in nine weeks (pg 40), and half way through their first Great Walk Magazine , the Routeburn Track, they realised it was going to be tough: “This made the moment that the clouds rolled away and opened up the view to Lake Harris, one of the most incredible of the entire trip. It was a definitely a ‘pinch me’ moment. It took us eight hours to reach our bed for the night and I realised combining days on the GreatWalks might be a little more challenging than I had imagined…”
We hope you’ll find plenty of motivation in this issue to put your hiking boots on and choose a bushwalk that gets you out of your comfort zone; that gets your heart rate up and offers a reward at the top of the hill of incredible vistas, and somewhere you can sit down, enjoy a snack and feel alive!

Happy walking
Brent McKean
P.S Check out our Wilderness Photographer of the Year comp – pgs 17 and 68!

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• Living The Photo Artistic Life – July 2021
• Fast & Healthy – June 2021