At 18 yo – January 2012 – after working for 6 months on a construction site and saving up some funds. I packed up my things into a backpack and headed off to Australia. The plan was to study there, although with the difference in school years, offers weren’t out yet.

I spent a few months being a tourist and checking out different universities and different states. I ended up settling in Sydney. I wasn’t my first location, but it was my first choice university. It took me till after I graduated and started working on George St, to really understand and begin to love Sydney itself, but NSW grew on me quickly.

My second year of university, I moved in to a house of climbers and somehow found myself suspended of rock faces in the blue mountains. I was not a fit person and I remember the first canyon we went on as a house, destroyed me. I was by far the slowest (I probably still am), but it began to hook me, slowly.

My First Camping Trip

Most uni breaks I spent travelling, hostel style rather than in the bush and it wasn’t until my last year at university I finally spent a night out there. One of my housemates took me on a exploration route, an off track loop near his childhood home in Wentworth Falls. Off we set. I was completely green and knew nothing. The route we took was steep and through thick undergrowth, our legs were covered in leaches every time we stopped.

We decided to head down from the cliff face we were following to find water and came across another small cliff. Tracking along the top to find our way down. It reduced in height and Tom saw a route he saw as achievable down. I followed behind, slowly and cautiously, until suddenly the cliff fell away and I started somersaulting down the hill.

To highlight how naive I was, I genuinely wasn’t worried at this point. I had been falling over all day and I honestly I was pleased to be finally making some ground. When I didn’t begin to slow down I casually thought I better grab something. Luckily I grabbed a dead log as it slowed me down and more importantly covered me as the rocks I dislodged followed rolling behind. One of the larger rocks bounced off the log then my head.

Luckily it only left a gash and no lasting damage. We managed to make it down to water and camped for the night. Before finding our way on to a defined trail and a much easier hike out the next day. Luckily Tom’s parents are doctors so managed to glue my head up the next day.

My Next Hiking Trip

The rock most have done more damage than we thought as it didn’t put me off hiking at all. Although, it was a long time before I trusted anyone elses review of trail conditions again. My final winter break from uni, I decided I need to do something and my same housemate suggested the Larapinta trail. I wrote it down on my hand as a potential idea – neither knew how to spell it but it quick developed from planning a small section hike to, sitting on my living room floor measuring out food for a three week thru hike of the trail.

I did so much research and weighed out my food to the gram, including the protein and carb content. Became a tent expert, took my gear on one trail run and set off.

See here for more on this.

From Then

After the Larapinta, hiking and endurance sports became my focus. I spent most weekends in the bush. Slowly ticking off Tom Brennan’s list of routes https://bushwalkingnsw.com/walk_list_park.php. Walking anything I could get to by public transport or when I could convince friends with cars to join.

I headed over to Tassie for a cycle tour and hiked the Overland with my parents.

In 2018, I quit my job and left Australia. I left to go hike the Pacific Crest Trail in the US and combined that with moving back to the UK to be closer to my family, but I will also miss the Blue Mountains bush. There is something very special about the smell of the gum trees and the deafening sound of the cicadas.