About Our Treks

OVERVIEW

Nature Trail’s Treks involve small group hiking tours that extend beyond one full day’s duration, requiring overnight individual ‘trekking pack camping’.

Our trekking policy requires that each participant (‘trekker’) be conditionally pre-required to demonstrate to us their current hiking fitness, advanced multi-day hiking skills and experience and to prove independent self-sufficiency in kit (suitable food, water, clothing gear).

Our treks are very different to our hiking tours.  Typically our treks venture into serious remote wilderness of the Blue Mountains Region.

Our trek routes are typically rated between Grade 3 ‘Moderate’ to Grade 6 ‘Very Difficult’.

However, from our experience, track conditions can often poor in sections (due to lack of Parks Service maintenance).  Also track climbs, descents and rock scrambles in sections can be additionally physically demanding.  Weather conditions (heat, cold, wind) can often vary from those forecast and worsen over the course of a multi-day trek.  In addition, carrying the added weight of a multi-day trekking pack and then after a number  of days trekking, what all these variables present is that a trek with tracks rated as a Grade 3 can feel like a much higher grade at times.

What all these ‘in-the-field’ variables sum to in our view is that the rated grades of a track should be treated as indicative of the comparative degree of difficult to expect – cynically,  in ideal weather conditions with no pack, and not having been updated for years.

Read more about Track Grades under Our Standards on this website.

Nature Trail does not undertake rock climbing, abseiling, canyoning, caving, bungie jumping, canyon swinging, parachuting, base jumping or selfies standing  on moving gondolas above gorges and the like.

Instead, we operate within our hiking, trekking and road touring expertise.  We otherwise referring enquiries about such more vertically challenged adventures to specialist local operators who claim expertise on a professional and commercial basis.

OUR TREKKING STYLE

Whilst our trek options are more difficult, longer and more physically demanding than our day hiking tours; Nature Trail applies a strict safety policy to each trek in order to mitigate risks and to promote the welfare and enjoyment of individual participants.

Our trek leader comprehensively plans each trek, approves suitable participants,  communicates key trek information enroute, and sets an easy trekking pace from the front.

We limit trekking distance to 10km per day or 8 hours trekking duration per day, which ever occurs first.  We safely trek only by daylight, set up camp an hour before dark, and we always stay together as a group.  Our primary goal is to all safely arrive at the planned finish, on schedule, uninjured, and each in good spirits.

We are not bushwalking clubbers trying to attempt arbitrary race or try to set speed records.  Rather we prioritise each participant’s safety, welfare and enjoyment and instill group cohesion in an ‘affiliate leadership style‘, which is characterised by as personable, supportive and encouraging of team harmony on any given tour.

Sometimes we find also that a limited ‘coaching leadership style‘ can be valued by some tour guests who find a touring experience at times outside their comfort zone or stressful.

As a tour leader responsible for usually little known strangers coming together in an outdoors and often remote field setting, unexpected situations can eventuate (emotional experiences, disputes, incidents and emergencies).  It is at these times that Nature Trail’s trip leader has the wisdom and interpersonal skills to adopt a secondary more ‘authoritative leadership style‘ as appropriate to take and effect direct action in the interests of a tour group’s safety and welfare.  We term this ‘Group Field Leadership‘.

Nature Trail’s Treks are seriously offered to only experienced, self-sufficient trekkers who have excellent health, and demonstrated advanced hiking skills, fitness, strength stamina and requisite mental strength to endure multi-day trekking.

Participants must be known to Nature Trail and have satisfactorily passed our rigorous test application process.  This is because in the interests of all participants, once we embark on one of our treks, especially on a Multi-Day Trek, it’s a bit late to enroute discover a participant cannot keep up or cope.  This would force Nature Trail Trek Leader to responsibly decide to terminate a trek enroute – inconvenient, problematic and costly for all involved.

 

OUR TREK TYPES

 

1. 2-Day Treks: extend up to 10km trekking per day
   
2. Multi-Day Treks: extend up to 10km trekking per day for 3+ days
   

TREK PACE AND DAILY DURATION

 

• Nature Trail values and preferences participant safety, welfare and enjoyment in all our treks.  These are prioritised over hiking speed and any sense of seeking to meet a scheduled deadline or location on any given day
• Nature Trail’s trekking pace
• Nature Trail’s trekking daily duration is a maximum of 8 hours of hiking from daily start time (break camp) to daily finish time (camp site arrival). This includes enroute breaks.  This may be reduced due to weather conditions and reduced daylight.  The decision for each daily duration, as well as daily start time and daily finish time is the sole discretion of Nature Trail’s Trek Leader.

SMALL GROUP SIZES

 

On each Nature Trail Trek we offer commercially, our group size limits are between 4 and 7 participants (including Nature Trail’s Trek Leader).

A minimum group size of 4 is for safety reasons to ensure that we have the best practice trekking group minimum in case of a remote area emergency demanding an evacuation.

Whilst a maximum group size of 7 ensures that our group causes minimal tramping impact damage to the usually sensitive wilderness ecology through which we traverse.  A maximum trekking group size of 7 is the recommended limit by the Parks Service.

TREK PRICING

Please refer to our Trek Pricing webpage on this website.

TREKKING POLICY

Please go to our Trekking Policy and Procedures webpage on this website

Enquire:

Phone us (within Australia):  1300 355 133

Email Us:   steve[at]naturetrail.com.au