Outdoor social media channels worth a watch...

Outdoor activities from an overseas perspective...

My interest in the outdoors extends beyond just tramping, MTB riding and walking and includes camping, fishing and outdoor survival skills. While New Zealand is my focus I am also interested in what is happening in the outdoor world outside of this country.

New Zealand is not the sole focus of my outdoor interests...

One of the things I enjoy is locating outdoor themed blogs and vlogs to see what adventures people  in New Zealand and across the world are experiencing outdoors. Many people share their adventures online and it is fun and informative to see how other people enjoy interacting with nature. Sometimes you se beautiful places you may never visit, learn new skills, gain ideas for new trips or just get to say...I wouldn't do it that way...

I am interested in outdoor issues in the United Kingdom (UK)...

..the United States...

...Australia and around the world...

I thought I would showcase a few of my favorite outdoor sites and give you a bit of information about why I enjoy them. Here is a short list of some sites I follow...

Paul Messner: Camping, gear & hiking in the United Kingdom:

Paul Messner is a outdoor survival skills and wild camper from Birmingham in the United Kingdom. He has a variety of vlogs on his own You Tube channel and a web page although this has a supporting role only and has limited content. He also has Instagram and Facebook pages you can peruse. 

Paul Messner's outdoor website...support to his You Tube channel

I have only recently started following his adventures and am gradually working my way through the hundreds of videos he has posted over the last 5 odd years. His early videos mostly deal with outdoor survival skills and gear to support this but he is now predominately a wild camping enthusiast. Wild camping is the UK term for camping outside of established camp grounds on marginal land, reserves, National Parks and other public land. 

One of Paul Messner's early survival skills videos...

Content on his social media channels include wild camping, survival skills, gear reviews, hiking, photography and videography. Most of his trips are in the immediate vicinity of Birmingham but also the Peak District, the Lake District, Yorkshire and around Sherwood Forest. Production quality on his site is top notch and the videos are funny, informative and interesting. Updates and new videos are regular and tend to be posted on UK Sundays. 

A Paul Messner post about hiking in the Peaks District, UK

Outdoor pursuits in the United Kingdom has a number of challenges we don't face here in New Zealand. One is access to the land and the other is population pressure on wild places.

Paul Messner site has a variety of related outdoor playlists 

Most of the land in the UK is owned by someone as either a private farm, estate or rural-industrial area. Access to ramble across most land is assured by a law change back in the 1930's but the right to camp is not. To all practical purposes camping on freehold land and national parks is actually illegal although most UK authorities do not police this.  People camping often have to set up at last light to avoid drawing attention to themselves. That is why stealth camping or under cover camping deep in wood and forest is popular in the UK.

Paul Messner setting up camp in the Peak District at last light

The other major problems is numbers...there are nearly 70 million people in the UK which is actually smaller in land size than New Zealand. With the growing popularity of outdoor pursuits there are over crowding issues which you can see in some of his videos...crowds of people in the background. We have similar problems here in New Zealand except our crowds are tourists not locals.

Crowds of people climbing Helvelyn on a Paul Messner vlog...

One aspect of his vlog I like is his use of Leave No Trace (LNT) precepts...he often mentions LNT, explains how LNT fits with his outdoor pursuits and encourages others to follow the precepts themselves. This is to be praised especially in a country where population pressure can seriously degrade the environment. 

I rate his You Tube channel as 7-10...

Wintertrekker: Canadian winter skiing and canoe trips:

Wintertrekker is an outdoor enthusiast from Ontario in Canada which is one of the provinces of  Canada. His real name is Glen Hooper and he is a biologist from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. His vlog has been around since 2010 and has over 3.1 million views so he is well known in the vlogging community. He had an excellent website but this has now disappeared from view as I believe he is concentrating solely on the vlog. 

Wintertrekker on one of his canoe trips in northwestern Ontario, Canada

Ontario is bordered by the Great Lakes and the United States in the south and Hudson Bay in the north and is heavily forested with many small and larger lakes. The south of the province is more populous with several major cites while the northern half is less developed. Most of the forest is Crown owned land in the form of provincial parks and National Parks which require a permit to visit. 

Map: the provinces of Canada

The western and northern part of Ontario is covered in lakes and river systems of various sizes and their watersheds tend to flow to the north into Hudson Bay. It is a perfect area for canoe trips across watersheds crossing the land in between on historic portage trails. 

Map: Ontario Province, Canada....note all the lakes and rivers...

Wintertrekker's adventures have a particular Canadian flavor and feature a number of outdoor pursuits particular to that country. Canada has a lot of three things....lakes, forests and deep snow in the winter and his videos feature these elements in profusion. Canada is just so different than New Zealand...the scale, the type of forest, the profusion of lakes. I would love to go spend some time there...

The Wintertrekker vlog has 100's of videos....

Going into the outdoors in some of these northern areas is true wilderness...no people, basic or no facilities, difficult access, harsh weather and dangerous animals including Caribou, Moose, Wolves and Bears. You would need to be totally self sufficient to a degree unknown to most trampers here in New Zealand. The closest we would have would be trips to the Olivine Wilderness or trackless areas of Fiordland and Rakuira. 

Typical Borral forest in Ontario Canada...

In the winter he does a lot of cross country trekking with a hot tent. A hot tent is a heavy duty canvas tent with a portable wood stove to enable people to survive in the harsh conditions. This is a traditional method of travel in Canada and is a popular pastime for many Canadians to this day. Using a toboggan and snow shoes/skis people haul their gear out into the forest set up camp and stay for a number of days. 

A traditional Canadian pursuit...winter sledding...Wintertrekker

A hot tent set up for use from the Wintertrekker vlog

His other main activity is solo canoe trips on the multiple lake systems which exist in the region of Canada he lives in. He is an adept canoeist and this is the main topic of his various videos. These are usually undertaken on lakes and rivers in northern Ontario and feature canoe trips, using/maintaining portages (traditional forest trails around dangerous rapids, waterfalls etc.), camping, lake fishing and outdoor survival skills. 

Wintertrekker on a canoe trip in Northwest Ontario, Canada

Wintertrekker undertaking a portage carry in Ontario, Canada

He has some excellent skills based videos about fire making, firewood production & axe and saw skills. I learnt a lot of useful fire craft skills from these videos and highly recommend them to anyone who likes to set fires.  The skills he shows are useful in many situations including here in New Zealand. 

There are some great fire craft videos on the Wintertrekker vlog

He also discusses campsite selection, camp set up and camp cookery using fire grill, gas canister and Trangia style cooking options. I am a fairly experienced outdoor person and watching his camping videos really tightened up my procedures for when I need to organise a campsite.

Wintertrekker cooks dinner on a Trangia stove...

Wintertrekker is an advocate of fires for food preparation...

His posts are interesting, fun to watch and feature excellent skills based learning so I have no hesitation in giving the vlog a 9/10. I would give it a 10/10 but the volume of posts have diminished in recent years as Glen is not as active as he once was. Re-watching the videos is awesome...you keep catching points you missed the first time around. 

Recommended watching...one of my favorite vlogs!!! 

Dori's Hiking Adventures:

I have been following a new outdoor social media channel recently...it is called Doris Hiking Adventures. Dorien Leirens is originally from Luxembourg but is now living in Perth, Western Australia and her adventures are mostly based there. She is also a frequent visitor to New Zealand so her You Tube channel has a real Trans-Tasman feel to it. Dori also has a complimentary website called My Hiking Adventures with a lot of useful information about the tracks she has visited. 

Dori's Hiking Adventures...a YouTube vlog

There are a number of posts related to tracks she has walked including the Cape to Cape Track and Bibbulmann tracks in Australia. She has also posted about several European trails like the Pennine Way and some tracks in Sweden, the UK, Slovenia, Germany and Luxembourg. 

Dori on the Cape to Cape Track in Western Australia

There are further posts about the Travers-Sabine, Abel Tasman, Old Ghost Road, Queen Charlotte and Heaphy Tracks here in Kiwiland. A lot of Australians come over the ditch for an adventure...they are our largest source of tourists. We have different scenery like big mountains, snowfields and podocarp forest they dont really have. 

It usually costs about $700 for a return ticket Australia-New Zealand and with our track and hut network it makes for a relatively cheap overseas holiday. Except the Great Walks...they get gouged like all the other internationals on those!!!

On the Old Ghost Road on the West Coast of the South Island in May 2020....

The second area of interest on her site is outdoor skills and she has a growing list of vlogs about various aspects of outdoor adventuring such as trip planning, gear selection, food and tramping etiquette. She has some great hiking tips which would be very useful for those just starting out as trampers.  

One of Dori's tramping food vlogs...

Dori only started her vlog in 2019 but it is already full of excellent content...I am enjoying making my way through her videos. It is great to have another female voice talking about the outdoors as men seem to fill every corner of this space. I am all for more women and different ethnic groups excelling outdoors..this is not some white male preserve after all. 

Dori's tips for campsite selection

I am sure this is going to develop into a truly  excellent site and I really look forward to seeing what adventures she gets up to going into the future. A strong 9/10 for her affability, content and the quality of her production values. 

Homemade Wanderlust: Long trail trekker:

Homemade Wanderlust is the media channel of Jessica Mills aka 'Dixie". She is an American long trail trekker from Alabama in the United States of America. Dixie is the nickname she acquired when walking the CDT trail several years ago...nicknames are common within the American long trail community usually given to you by some other trekker. She has a classic Southern accent so I can see why she acquired the nickname.....

Jessica 'Dixie' Mills site Homemade Wanderlust...

Dixie has walked a number of the medium-long trails within the US and is a Triple Crown holder which means she has walked the big three long trails in that country. These are the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) and the Appalachian Trail (AT). The Triple Crown is the gold standard for long trek enthusiasts....

Crossing the Mason-Dixon Line on the Appalachian Trail (AT) in 2015

Dixie on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) in 2017

At the start of the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) in 2018

Dixie walked most of the Camino de Santiago in 2019 across Portugal and Spain (she had to miss some sections due to injury. She was also scheduled to be walking the Te Araroa Trail starting the beginning of October 2020 but obviously that will not be happening due to our good ole buddy Covid-19. I believe she has plans to walk the TA next year (2021/2022) but once again much will depend on what happens with Covid over that period.

At the moment New Zealand is shut tight and I don't see that changing anytime soon...

Dixie on the Camino de Santiago in 2019....

Her YouTube channel takes the form of posts discussing various aspects of the track section she was walking that day. There is also a wealth of information about long trail etiquette, gear reviews, food preparation and what to expect when undertaking a long trail trek. She also has a website which has links to all of her vlogs from the various tracks she was walked.

The Homemade Wanderlust web-page...lots of links to her videos

Long trail trekking is a strange beast...I wouldn't call it an enjoyable experience more like a test of physical and mental strength. Imagine if you will walking 20-30 km's every day for 6-8 months with only the occasional break to resupply and clean yourself up. You will be wet, cold, tired, dirty, hungry, sore and discouraged a lot of the time.

A classic group of "Dirtbag" hikers on the Pacfic Crest Track (PCT)...

I know it doesn't sound very appealing but I can totally see why it is so popular with people. We need challenge in our increasingly constricted lives. I don't think it is the tracks that resonate but the camaraderie that captures people...long trail hikers are close the way families and military units are. They are sharing really intense and dramatic moments in their lives so it is not surprising. 

I thoroughly recommend Jessica's site if you are contemplating walking the Te Araroa Trail or any of the US long trails as you can get a first eye view of what you are letting yourself in for....a solid 7/10 from me. 

LotsaFreshAir: Caro Ryan, Australian bush walker:

LotsaFreshAir is the web-page of an Australian bush walker called Caro Ryan. Caro lives in the Blue Mountains just inland from Sydney,  New South Wales and makes her living as a TV/video producer, blogger and gear tester for outdoor companies like Kathmandu, Macpac and Backcountry. She got into the outdoors later in life as a way to improve her general health and well being and has now been an avid bushwalker for more than 20 years. 

Caro Ryan's web-page has links to her videos...

I have been following Caros website for nearly six years now, it started out as a part time site but is now much slicker and professional as you would expect from someone with a background in TV/Video production and marketing. Her main interest is bush walking which to those of us outside of Australia is known as either tramping, rambling or hiking. She is also a member of a Fire Search and Rescue (SAR) team and a member of a well known bushwalking club. 

She travels across Australia to undertake treks..Tasmania, Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. She has walked the Larapinta and Jatbaru Tracks which are the Australian equivalent of our Great Walks as well as most of the South Coastal Path in Tasmania and sections of the Bibbulman Trail.

A post on LotsaFreshAir about the Larapinta Track

She has also visited other countries to hike including New Caledonia, Peru, Vietnam & New Zealand (as most Australians hikers eventually do...) but the focus of her trips are in the immediate area where she lives. This is the Blue Mountain region of New South Wales, Australia. The Blue Mountains are stunning...they have thick forest, deep sandstone canyons and several larger rivers systems.The area is ripe with good tramping destinations as I know from personal experience as I have visited it twice now.

View of the Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia

Caro's site also features a lot of information for newbie hikers or those getting back into the outdoors with posts about food, gear reviews, instructional information about various aspects of the sport. They are well made and provide good information that would be valuable to those who have never ventured into the bush before.

One of Caro's how to pages on her website LotsaFreshAir...

The website is a complete destination in its own right with links to videos she has made as well as the more usual text rich pages. She also has a Facebook, Instagram and YouTube pages with nearly 100 videos and the content is growing all the time. Her social media pages are the most professional of those I have discussed here they are certainly very well produced with good videography, sound and editing.

The LotsaFreshAir web-page is slick with high production levels....

Australia is an interesting country when it comes to hiking...most of the continent is desert with a thin green strip along the eastern coast and more extensive forests and arable land in the north, in Victoria and South Australia. Australia is actually bigger than the lower 48 states in the US but has much less habitable land. It is super dry..all of Australia has been suffering under a multi decade long drought. They are so close to New Zealand (our closest neighbor both physically and historically) but different in so many ways...

Map: Australia showing state boundaries

Map: Australia, terrain types...note all the central desert areas

If you are into desert areas then you will be happy in Aussie. What you wont see is big mountain ranges, lakes and evergreen forests like those of us who live in in New Zealand, the United States and the United Kingdom. Still....Australia is awesomely beautiful in its own way and I can see why Aussies love their country so much.

Caro's social media platform gets a 8/10 from me for content so check out her pages to see what bush walking in Australia is all about.

So there a couple of my favorite outdoor themed social media channels...try them out and see what you think...