Games for Bushwalkers

[Allchin09]

In my never ending search for information about bushwalking and bushwalks, I came across a book today titled "Bushwalking" by Harry Frauca. Although it was published in 1978, it was quite interesting and a chapter on "Games for Bushwalkers" caught my eye.

Essentially, the author describes the types or "games" of bushwalks that we undertake, and I thought it would be relevant to share this here.

The games are summarised as follows:

The weekend game - Essentially, you aim to go bushwalking every weekend for a year.

The expedition game - Spending 10 - 15 days on a trip with a group of friends tackling a walk or area.

The exploring game - Bushwalking in a relatively unexplored or wilderness area, without following track notes or reports from other peoples trips.

The road game - Traveling through scenic rural and remote areas on foot, especially on secondary roads with minimal traffic. Good for covering long distances.

The night owl game - Climbing mountains at night and timing your trip so that you reach the summit for a spectacular sunrise.

The marathon game - Covering as many kms as possible in a minimal amount of time. Lightweight loads and virtually non-stop walking are essential.

The solo game - Walking by oneself but in a safe and responsible manner.

The bower bird game - Combining bushwalking with collecting specimens of plants or animals for scientific organisations.

The climbing game - Walks that involve rock climbing or hard rock scrambles.

The history game - Retraining the journeys of our early explorers, walking to places where history was made or visiting sites like Aboriginal places or ghost mining towns.

The guiding game - Taking others on walks for a fee or becoming a major leader in a club or organisation.

Some of these games I believe are still very relevant and practiced by many today. I also think that a few new games such as "The Ultra Lightweight Game" have recently appeared. Another one that I can think of would be the "Photographic Game", which I know many from this forum partake in.

I think the games the I play the most are the history and marathon game. I would like to get into the exploring or weekend game (if I ever get the chance) and I think that the night owl game is an interesting idea.

So, do what games do you play and if so, why do you play them? Do you think that there are other games to be played, or does this cover most possibilities?

[Ando]

I was recently discussing doing a night walk up mt Arthur with my step farther we climbed there recently and mentioned how good the veiw would be at night to see city lights in launceston and Tamar valley ,never thought about timing it for a sunrise though great idea so night owl it is

[GPSGuided]

Hide & Seek game - Where no one can find you.

[DaveNoble]

Not quite "Games for Bushwalkers" but rather "Types of Bushwalkers" - this one is good, which I have copied into my blog -

http://www.david-noble.net/blog/?p=3984

Dave

[GPSGuided]

Not quite "Games for Bushwalkers" but rather "Types of Bushwalkers" - this one is good, which I have copied into my blog -

With that classification in mind, which type is your favourite as a walk partner? The Amateur Photographer type looked to be out of luck here.

[Allchin09]

I quite liked that article Dave, there is so much to get out of old club magazines and publications.

[awildland]

Definitely the "Exploring Game" - because we have have a limited number of tracks in some of our local national parks so it's 'explore' or stay at home!

Yet to play the new "Lightweight Game" but as the knees get older it is looking more like my sort of sport!

And, You could combine Dave's post about bushwalking types and the Games for Bushwalkers and have the "The 'Ology Game" - people who bush walk in search of geology/ornithology/biology/etc...

[beardless]

A game my dad talked about was a find your way home game. Get someone to drive you blindfolded to the bush somewhere and then try to find your own way home (after removing the blindfold) by foot.

[perfectlydark]

Was that after a particularly nasty tantrum?