I remember hiking with my family in the Swiss Alps as a 5-year-old for wild mushrooms. In my teen years, I grew up on the coast in Rockingham, Western Australia, riding my bike 50 km to Jarrahdale to hike Kitty’s Gorge Trail and then camping there underneath the plantation pine at Gooralong Brook. When I became an adult, hiking stopped; you know the story, life responsibility. I had the opportunity to hike with an old close family friend in Zermatt, Switzerland when I returned to my homeland for a couple of years. Then came July 2015, the new, authentic journey that transformed me physically, mentally and emotionally. If you wish to read more about my journey, check out Meet Didier.
Since then, I have started an authentic hiking business, read blogs, listened to others’ journeys, watched hiking YouTube videos, and watched Movies like Wild. Most importantly, I have hiked over 3000 km, both solo and with others. It is when you hike solo that you have the opportunity to grow and surprise yourself truly. When anyone joins me on a hike, they can expect to learn how to hike their way, “hike their hike”. So if they choose to, they have the knowledge and confidence to solo hike.
Hiking is all about perspective; one person’s hike is a morning in the Perth hills, and another is 60 days on the Bibbulmun Track. Always hiking in a group, being led by a Guide, may be socially enjoyable if that’s the goal. But hiking with the purpose of growing, becoming more empowered and independent rather than disempowered and dependent. As you can see, I have some strong passions and views; life is self-empowerment and self-responsibility, your way.
I have observed my own social skills and confidence grow immensely while meeting other hikers and strangers. I have also witnessed this with teens, with whom I have gone multi-day hiking and my NDIS clients who suffer from anxiety during day hikes. Hiking slowly and nature