A Long Way Walkin’ in Australia
From the Tasman to the Timor Sea
by
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Searching for a level camp site, I threaded my way around sandbanks and crept along ledges above the river until I approached a barrier of stones and boulders stretching right across the river. The river water churned through this barrier and slid down into a wide pool. There were large ripples rolling across its surface although the setting sun prevented me seeing anything more until I was on a ledge directly above the pool. Then I became aware of a low-pitched sound – a frantic hissing as if hundreds of razors wielded by madmen were slashing through silk curtains. Then I saw that the pool’s surface was being criss-crossed by bobbing fins. I saw some skimming just below the surface then rising swiftly and smoothly till they sliced into the air. A shark pack was scooping up the fish and other life that filtered through the rock barrier. There were long, smooth shapes zooming from the bottom of the pool to the surface hitting it with controlled fury, building up terrific speed for the raking slash across the length of the barrier. Other sharks were immobile and insubstantial shapes in the depths.
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About the Book
Tom Hayllar is a teacher, writer, bushwalker, caver, and adventurer. He has climbed inaccessible mountains in New Guinea, explored remote cave systems in New Guinea and the Philippines, walked across isolated Himalayan and Nepalese high country, and trekked lonely stretches of Alaska. In 1975 he was the first person to walk the 11,829 kilometer journey around Australia, and three years later he became the first person to traverse Australia on foot along its widest point from Cape Byron to Steep Point.
Tom Hayllar just loves to walk, but the journeys are enriched by the characters, landscapes, and even the hardships experienced along the way.
Here is how and why it was a long way walkin’ in 1985 when he made the diagonal journey walking from Wilson’s Promontory by the Tasman to where the Timor Sea laps the cliffs of the Northern Kimberley.
This walk, like his other long distance walks in Australia, is authenticated by the Guiness Book of Records.
About the Author
Tom Hayllar, teacher, writer, bushwalker, caver, and adventurer, has been mountain climbing and caving in New Guinea and the Philippines, and walking in the Himalayas, Chile, and Alaska. In 1975 he was the first person to walk the 11,829 kilometer journey around Australia.