In the world of stick walking, there is a stick for all occasions. A rabologist is a person who collects, studies, or has a strong passion for walking sticks and canes.
Category Archives: Historical
Quote: A la sainte terre
Hiking – “I don’t like either the word or the thing. People ought to saunter in the mountains – not hike! Do you know the origin of that word ‘saunter?’ It’s a beautiful word. Away back in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy Land, and when people in theContinue reading “Quote: A la sainte terre”
With Swag & Billy
H J Tompkins HJ Tompkins is to New South Wales as Robert Henderson Croll is to Victoria in terms of pioneering bushwalking and writing. Published in 1906, ” With Swag & Billy” was Australia’s very first bushwalking (hiking) manual and guidebook. Packed with hints on equipment, provisions and hiking tips borne from long experience trampingContinue reading “With Swag & Billy”
Walking Tune – Percy Grainger
“Grainger composed the little tune on which this piece is based as a whistling accompaniment to his tramping feet while on a three days’ walk in Western Argyleshire (Scottish Highlands) in the summer of 1900. At that time Grainger had just turned 18. He was deeply in love with thoughts of the Celtic world, havingContinue reading “Walking Tune – Percy Grainger”
The Complete Walker
This essay by club member, Sam Larsen in 1961, is a lesson in aspiration. It’s a blueprint to the olde ways of bushwalking before our society was dumbed down by labour saving devices. He is gifting us the tried and tested techniques to thrive in the outdoors, gifting us some preparation dot points.
Pedestrianism: the 19th-century walking craze
Leslie Stephen, “In Praise of Walking”
Sir Leslie Stephen’s essay “In Praise of Walking” was published in his four-volume collection of essays, Studies of a Biographer, which first appeared between 1898 and 1902.
Understanding Landscape Understanding Ourselves
This snip is from David Wescott’s book “Camping in the old style” Page 11
Feet across Australia – A daring 2300 km walk across Australia
When 2 brothers and 3 girls spent 4 months crossing the continent on foot by an inland route in 1973, they became the first recorded party to do so since Burke and Wills. They were also probably the first in which all party member walked every step of the way and still remain as the only party to cross the final salt-flats and mangroves (two more camps) and stand on the beach of the Gulf of Carpentaria. A ‘highlight’ of the walk was their struggle along the flooded Birdsville Track.
Quote: Stephen Graham: The Gentle art of tramping
The less you carry the more you will see, the less you spend the more you will experience. In tramping you are not earning a living, but earning a happiness. There is perhaps no greater test of friendship than going on a long tramp. You discover to one another all the egoisms and selfishnesses youContinue reading “Quote: Stephen Graham: The Gentle art of tramping”
