My Learnings and Gear Evaluation
BACKPACK
Hyperlight Mountain Gear Porter Dynema Backpack – 85L: I had my doubts, but on Damien’s recommendation, I decided to attempt a big weight reduction on my pack (an Aarn Load Limo). After trying on two frame sizes, I opted for the longer one, which left the shoulder straps resting very lightly on my shoulders. Carrying up to 20kg, it has proven to be unexpectedly, remarkably comfortable to carry all day. After 60 days, it was dirty but undamaged. Highly recommended.
Limitations: it is not waterproof, so I took a liner. I used a 12L garbage bag and Neve Gear Nylofume Waterproof Pack Liners as needed.
Hyperlight Mountain Gear Dynema Backpack – Perplexity Review 2025
Neve Gear Nylofume Waterproof Pack Liner – 50.8 × 94cm 52L – 5 Pack. These proved to be far more durable than the garbage bag liner.
Hyerlight Mountain Gear Camera Pod – Large: These are designed for a large SLR-style camera and are attached to the pack via the chest straps. I used it to carry multiple small items and found it incredibly practical and useful.
Downside: If you lean forward too far, items may fall out unless the Camera Pod is zipped closed. We spent a combined 9 hours searching for my small pocket camera on the Cobberas after it fell out. Subsequently, I eliminated that possibility by tying the camera to the Camera Pod.
Hiking Daypack Ultralight: cheap but very useful for our side trips and clothes storage. Easily damaged.
SHELTER
Durston X-Mid Pro 2 Two Person Tent: I purchased this tent despite being put off by my last single-layer tent, which guaranteed copious condensation and ensuring wetness of the tent’s occupants.
However, this tent proved to be fabulous and an easy carry at only 510g (without the hiking poles, pegs and ground sheet). Yes, there was lots of condensation, but with its ample internal height, there is plenty of clearance when in use. The layout is strange but incredibly functional. Being a two-person tent, there is plenty of room to spread out and organise gear. The large vestibule on each side provides easy access and plenty of storage space. These twin vestibules are also an excellent space for cooking. This tent is highly recommended for three season use.
Downsides: Although we were not exposed to high winds, I’m sure it would not handle them very well, as there is too much surface area.
Durstan X-Mid Pro 2 Two Person Tent – Perplexity Review 2025
UL Tent Pegs: These were largely a failure for me, as I frequently managed to tread on them. They bend easily and do not straighten well.
Ground Sheet:
Tent Carry Bag: I used a heavyweight plastic bag. This was always kept at the top of my pack. This made it easy to pull out and dry the tent at lunchtime, and quickly accessible when raining, allowing other stuff to stay dry.
CAMPSITES
These are frequently small and rough, especially in Victoria. At several locations, we had barely enough room for our two tents. Large parties would struggle for space. At many campsites, we noted the campfire occupying the most level ground, with sloping surrounds left for the tent sites. This seemed back-to-front to us.
Many of these tent sites are nestled amongst trees. There is no option to pitch your tent away from potentially deadly tree falls. At no stage did we experience really high wind speeds, but we still had one tree and a large branch crack very loudly and fall too close to our tents.
SLEEPING
Neve Gear 1/8’ Ultralight Foam Pad: Protection for an airmat, extra insulation and backup if my Neoair XLite NXt Tmerarest were to fail.
Thermarest NeoAir XLite NXT: Very quiet and comfortable when I let out enough air so my butt just touched the ground.
Exped Swallow Sleeping Bag: My 20-year-old 3-season bag. As a warm sleeper, I found this comfortably warm down to heavy frost temperatures. One night reached -7 °C, and I remained comfortable by wearing all my clothes inside the sleeping bag, including a Goretex jacket and overpants.
Sea to Summit Reactor Extreme Thermo Sleep Sheet: This adds plenty of extra warmth to your sleeping bag and keeps the sleeping bag away from your increasingly dirty body and clothes. I always use one.
CLOTHING
Gore-Tex Jacket Fail: I retaped the seams on my old Gore-Tex jacket and reapplied the waterproof coating immediately before this trip. Until two weeks ago, I had been using a much newer, lightweight one, which I had been happy with.
The swap was made due to it becoming colder and the forecast for upcoming rain. So with less than two weeks of use, when the rain set in for multiple days, I find the jacket wetting out!
FOOD
Vacuum Sealing Food: Tezilon Vacuum Sealer Machine and Wevac 20cmx45m Food Vacuum Seal Roll (cut to any size or shape) were used in combination with Ziplock bags and freezer bags (multiday powders in both). A durable system like this was required for our main meals which were to be left in the bush for weeks on end.
Mini-scissors: to open vacuum-sealed bags, safer than using a knife
Scent Stopper Odour Proof Bags – reduces the risk of wildlife visiting.
Health Food Bags – zip local bags from the local supermarket are far more durable than any zip lock or freezer bag.
BRS Stove BRS 3000T Stove: $25 26g
Excellent flame control.
Why would I want one when I have a Jetboil stove? Two reasons: a massive weight reduction (at the expense of carrying more fuel) and the ability to bake cakes. I made chocolate and walnut cakes very successfully multiple times, something that is not possible on a Jetboil or similar.
Defrosting boots or drying melting snow.
FOOD DROPS
SPARES and REPAIRS
THE MENU
I thought it was remarkable that during our 60 day trip I had no food cravings. I assume that was due to the quality of the food taken.
Xtreme Gourmet – Sonya Muhlsimmer 2015 – excellent, tasty meals. Sonya is a bushwalking nutritionist. Her meals mostly involved commercial, dry ingredients so there is no dehydrating required.
BREAKFASTS
Mostly a home-made roasted muesli mix and around 10%, quick oats for a change.
LUNCHS
Vitaweats, Shredded wheatmeal, McVities Hobnobs Oat Snaps.
Flavoured salmon and tuna pouches.
Caterers pack of single serve honey, jam, peanut butter and Nutella. This solved the problem of finding enough containers and repacking from bulk containers.
DINNERS
Xtreme Gourmet – Sonya Muhlsimmer 2015 – Camp stroganoff p69, Laksa p84, Rice and lentils p98, Satay curry 101, Szechuan and vegetable quinoa 105, Vegetable stew p106 and a a smaller selection of home made, dehydrated meals.
DESSERTS
Xtreme Gourmet – Sonya Muhlsimmer 2015 – Flat pan chocolate cake, Scones p118, Custard Crunch p119
WATER
Water tanks and soaks are all locatable from my Tracks and Waypoints Download.
Steripen Ultralight Water Purifier, Sawyer SP128 Mini Water Filtration System and Steriden Water purification pills. I used the UV purifier almost exclusively whilst Damien used the Sawyer system whenm he felt the water needed treatment. Neither of us had any sickness resulting from tainted water.
BNR Bulk Nutrients – BCAA Recovery
Reduces muscle soreness, reduce recovery time
Aids recovery during long gruelling sessions. Hydration, before/during session.
PARTY SIZE
TRIP PLANNING – with the benefit of hindsight
Concept: I envisaged this trip as a soak it all 60-day cruise (relatively), suitable for a 68-69 year old (myself) with dodgy knees. Also, both Damien and I had a preference to walk in cooler conditions and max out at around an “easy” 15km/day on average. Setting off during the shorter days of April and May, it still felt like we had full days.
Investigations of my right knee after the trip revealed mild osteoarthritis, bone bruising and a meniscus tear.
Sunlight in winter versus summer
Planning:
Miscalc 10-day Victorian section a bit short on food.
Flexibility: skipped Charlotte Pass to Cascade Trail Head due to poor weather.
TRACKS and WAYPOINTS
NAVIGATION – Guru Maps Pro and iPhone
Both Damien and I carried iPhones with Guru Maps Pro installed. I had located three GPS tracks online from people who had previously completed the AAWT and generously shared their routes. I had also pored over the Australian Alps Walking Track – Fifth Edition 2022 – John Chapman, Monica Chapman, John Siseman and “transferred” every one of the 400 mentioned waypoints from the book to Guru Maps Pro. All maps for the entire walk were loaded locally onto both iPhones, ready for offline use – this step is essential.
Each waypoint was verified along the way and additional information added. Water sources have an estimated flow in litres/minute. A reasonable estimate of what to expect ahead can be made by establishing a “correction factor” to account for drier or wetter conditions as you encounter them, compared to our experience. We had periods of rain, resulting in rapid increases in flow rate. By estimating the flow rate at each water source, you can guesstimate how well the next source will be flowing.
We also carried a compass and the relevant sections of Australian Alps Walking Track – Fifth Edition 2022 – John Chapman, Monica Chapman, John Siseman.
GURU MAPS PRO
Guru Maps Pro Review – Perplexity 2025
ELECTRICAL POWER – Anker PV panel and battery packs
We carried a lot of electrical equipment that needed to be kept charged. They were two iPhones, two GPS tracking watches, a Steripen (UV water treatment), a Sony RX100 M3 camera (plus spare battery), a GoPro Hero 13 (plus spare battery), two headlamps.
Recharging was done using an Anker PV panel and battery packs. Several inexpensive battery packs were placed at key food drops as a precaution in case the solar panels were unable to meet our demands.
RESUPPLIES – FOOD DROPS – 10 in all
Potential closures due to: standard, local winter closures, roadworks, fallen trees, flooding, snow, hazard reduction burning, and feral animal control.
Wet weather: slippery roads
COMMUNICATION
Phone: Telstra – multiple days with no reception, Optus was worse.
The iPhone SOS via Satellite feature is fully available in Australia for iPhone 14 models and newer, allowing users to contact emergency services like Triple Zero (000) when outside mobile and Wi-Fi coverage—including remote regions and up to 20 km offshore.
Satellite: Garmin Messenger: Two-way SMS texting, remote tracking, PLB with texting, weather forecast 2 days 2-hourly average wind, rain amount and chance, cloud. This is best used via the Garmin Messenger App.
Garmin Messenger – Perplexity Review 2025
CHALLENGES and HAZARDS
Falling trees, park closures (hazard reduction burns), snow, sleet, rain, mud, and pooling water.
Staying Dry: dew-covered / wet / frosty / snow-covered grass. Track hugging vegetation
Wet clothes: wring out socks, gloves inside clothing at camp or inside tent overnight
Frozen boots: gas stove
OTHER PAGES
Videos for each section we walked between food drops.
Click here to check out our AAWT expedition log, campsites, route maps, download gpx tracks and 400+ waypoints, checklists, equipment list, and food drop planning.
REFERENCES
Australian Alps Walking Track – Fifth Edition 2022 – John Chapman, Monica Chapman, John Siseman
Xtreme Gourmet – Sonya Muhlsimmer 2015
