Walkers Journal is a beautiful print publication from Melbourne sharing stories and inspiration for hikes around Australia. I pitched a story about a hike I did with a few mates to Tasmania’s Lake St Clair National Park in 2024 and blow me down they put it on the cover.

The hike took us through landscapes I didn’t know existed in Australia so capturing nice photos was easy. And the hike itself, with some challenging parts, was enjoyable even with 15 kilograms of film cameras squeezed into my pack.

Map check at Lake Elysia on our way to Mount Geryon.

The real story of endurance and perseverance is that of the editor, Tamsin, chasing me to submit the story. Even though I was the editor of a magazine for seven years and fully understood the stressors and frustrations of chasing writers for stories, I made Tamsin ran an email marathon and not deliberately. It was in the tail end of my first ever writers block and, truthfully, I’d barely written in a year. When I finally submitted the story, 1000 words over the limit, Tamsin was good enough to let me edit it down and resubmit and I’m really happy with how it turned out. Writing about a hike isn’t quite as difficult as writing about surfing but it’s close — how could you possibly capture the expansive joys of trudging through remote Tasmania in words?

I didn’t know they were going to use my photo on the cover until I checked when it was going to be hitting shelves (another pet peeve of editors) and Tamsin said, “Wait till you see the cover.”

Fortunately, I learnt a lot from writing this story. The biggest lesson was to get out of my own way, to write more especially when it’s difficult and my inner editor is silently tut-tutting, to take more photos, and always pack more cameras on hikes.

Huge thanks to Tamsin and Walkers Journal for persevering and sharing my story and photos.

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