"Takes you places"

Gear tips

InReach Explorer Satellite Communicator

InReach Explorer Satellite Communicator: How-to Guides

The Club’s InReach Satellite Communicator can be borrowed at no charge when used for club activities***. It can be used to send and receive messages (via SMS or email); plan, track, navigate and share your trip and — if necessary — trigger an SOS and then correspond with emergency services.

100 percent global Iridium satellite coverage enables 2-way text messaging to any mobile phone number or email address from anywhere in the world. Interactive SOS with the ...

NatureMaps – A How-to Guide to Create Free Topographic Maps for SA

A how-to guide to use the NatureMaps website to make your own topographic maps, including marking your own routes, trails and campsites. Martin discusses how to optimise the map to print with contour lines and grids, a valuable walk planning tool.

Bushwalking Food and Cooking

As part of the Club’s 50th Anniversary, I published The Bushwalker’s Cookbook, and in the Spring 2002 edition of Tandanya, a substantial amount of the book was re-published. Now, 14 years later, and so many new members in the Club, it is worth publishing parts of it again, so following are some extracts from the book, plus a few personal comments thrown in for good measure.

A Weighty Issue

After courting controversy with my previous article, I thought it appropriate to perform some experiments on myself, as is the tradition of all the finest Australian troublemakers!

The Final Frontier… Starts at Your Feet!

The final frontier… starts at your feet! I have to agree. There has never been a more exciting time to be a light-weight bushwalker. Gone are the days of the heavy and cumbersome canvas packs and huge and bulky tents. The quality and technology of even the humble sleeping mattress has finally reached space-age status with the application of high-tech lightweight materials and special insulation coatings.

These days, we are surrounded by excellent technical resources – both material and informational – ...

Hydration for Bushwalkers

My cumulated knowledge has been used to transform myself from an obese dysfunctional 130 odd kilograms person to 70 odd kilogram hiker and marathon runner. This statement is not meant to impress you but to impress upon you, the importance of true health and the responsibility you have as an individual to take full responsibility of your own health and wellbeing.

Saving Weight and Bulk

We all know that person - the one whose pack seems to be a lot lighter than everyone else's. And they don’t seem to be wet, cold or uncomfortable. How is it that they’re carrying all the same essentials with a lot less weight and bulk? Here are a few new ideas to help you reduce your load.

MEALSPEC Flameless Meal Heaters

Heating food and hot drinks is an everyday task during bushwalking. It is not difficult but there are times when naked flames are banned and it is always impossible to take fuel on commercial aircraft. So is there an alternative?

What the Wily Weekend Walker is Wearing

A look at the hiking packs of members on a recent ABW hike down Onkaparinga Gorge.

Snakebite Bandage

Many of us have received tuition in first aid and in how to treat a patient for snakebite. Immobilise the injured limb and apply a pressure bandage along the affected limb. Easy. But how tight does the bandage have to be? We're getting it wrong, this product fixes that problem.

Leader Gear Checks – should they be compulsory?

Should leaders have to check participants in a walk are carrying vital gear such as a first aid kit, torch and rain jacket? A discussion about why mandatory gear checks might be a good idea for walk leaders to undertake.



Katarapko Trail - Murray River National Park, 5 Apr - 7 Apr
Sturt River Linear Park, 10 Apr
Waitpinga/Newland Head CP, 13 Apr - 14 Apr
Kyeema Conservation Park, 24 Apr
Mt Bimberi, ACT, 24 Apr - 28 Apr
Hiking gear for hire at reasonable rates. Try out gear before you buy your own.
Checklist of equipment, food ideas, water, first aid list, rules, minimal impact bushwalking and what to do if you get lost.
Meetings 7:30pm on the 1st Wednesday of the month, in the hall at the North Adelaide Community Centre.
Joining ABW takes you to new places you may never have heard of, off the beaten track, and to have new experiences.