Mowser's ON THE MARCH 🥾

👋 Hey there !

Mowser here, welcoming you to this month's newsletter!

Every month, I send this short newsletter that spills the beans on my latest adventures as well as discoveries that have caught my eye. Let's dive in!

On the track

As you read this, I am out in the middle of the Tasmanian wilderness in some untracked terrain tackling a group of mountains called The Eldon Range.

This trip has been a long time coming - I've had an itinerary ready, in one form or another, for six years or more! My core group of hiking buddies and I just haven't been able to get our dates to line up to make this 10 day odyssey work for all of us. After months of planning we are now out there and I am sure we are loving it.

To say I'm excited is an understatement - I will be climbing peaks on this walk that I have gazed upon for years, often from Tasmania's Overland Track, where I used to be a hiking guide, so it's going to be amazing to stand atop some of them, not to mention the solitude we'll experience in such a remote part of the state.

I've created a full series of videos on various aspects of my preparation for this hike and ​you can view the first one here​, the rest are coming out weekly every Friday.

Stay tuned for a trip report in the next newsletter! AND stay tuned on the ​YouTube Channel​ for a video of the trip itself in coming months. Make sure you are ​subscribed​ if you're not already.

New planning tool I'm using

In a recent video I gave access to a spreadsheet that I have developed to plan my meals and food for multi day hikes. After spending nearly 30 years of using a new basic spreadsheet for each trip, I developed this tool to make my life a bit easier when planning food for my long trips. It allows me to track total food weight as well as calories consumed while out on the trail. For my current trip I wanted a minimum of 3000 calories per day and the spreadsheet has allowed me to easily calculate this.

I'm pretty happy with it so if you'd like to use the tool for yourself feel free to access it for free at the link below.

Piece of Gear I am excited to test!

I recently celebrated a birthday and for it I put in a rare request for a present from my loving wife and kids. Well, my new ​Nike Ultrafly trail shoes​ showed up last week and after only a few days I am loving them. I am a big fan of Nike Trail shoes but have always found their soles to be lacking with grip. The Ultraflys have a ​Vibram​ sole, so when I saw these released last year I knew I wanted to get a pair at some stage.

Vibram soles are a basic pre-requisite for any hiking boots that I wear. Vibram's grip and 'stickiness' are second to none and I haven't found anything in a shoe or boot sole that compares (in my opinion). These shoes were expensive (which is why i asked for them as a present 😜), but I'm super excited to be testing them out this year as I get back into trail running which will include a return to some of my favourite Tasmanian Trail races. Stay tuned for a detailed review later in the year!

Podcast I've been listening to

In February I discovered a podcast called ​'How to take over the world'​, it's tagline - Learn From History's Greatest Leaders.

I have always had an interest in history (​Dan Carlin's Hardcore History​ is one of my absolute favourite podcasts) and I discovered 'How to take over the world' after ​watching an episode​ with the world's biggest YouTuber, Mr Beast.

I started off with a two episode history of Napoleon Bonaparte. It was a fantastic listen and as a result I'm now reading Andrew Robert's biography of Napoleon called '​Napoleon the Great​' which is already shaping up as a great book. The life of Napoleon is absolutely fascinating.

If you like podcasts and history then this one is a no brainer to ​sign up to​. Thus far I'm also really enjoying ​the book​ too and have it on my phone to read during my walk!

In case you missed it on the YouTube Channel in February

That's all for this month! If you enjoyed the newsletter then share it with your friends! If you aren't yet signed up then you can subscribe by clicking on the button below. I'll be back next month with more.

Have any topics you want me to cover? Then feel free to let me know. Drop a comment in one of ​my videos​, or on ​Instagram.

See you Soon!

Cheers,

Mowser