Ruth (4 years old) crossing the Mersey River on her “initiation” walk to Lees Paddocks

From just a few months old, our kids became familiar with sleeping in tents on car camping trips in the bush, at the beach, in isolated locations and in caravan parks. But it wasn’t until they were four years old that they combined overnight bushwalking and sleeping in a tent.

Each of them had their own turn the summer after they turned four. I made a big deal of taking just one four-year-old with me on a proper overnight, sleeping-in-a-tent, bushwalk. I guess it was a bit like an initiation, complete with the ritual of buying and bestowing a head torch and whistle for the walk. On each of the two occasions that I did this (for each of our two kids) they were looking forward to the bushwalk eagerly because of their previous trips. They felt that they knew what was involved and so they were not concerned at all. On the other hand, I was quite apprehensive. I knew that with nobody but me there with them, there was much more potential for them to get bored or to lose motivation. This frightened me much more than any other factor.

Again, I chose what could have been done as an easy day walk for an adult, and made

an overnight walk out of it. It had to be long enough so that it felt to the child as though she had been walking most of the day to get there, but I deliberately chose a walk where I knew there were many places along the way that we could stop and camp if it turned out that we’d bitten off more than we could chew. We walked into Lees Paddocks, which is about 2.5 hours each way for an adult. The first of these initiation walks, with my eldest, took about 5.5 hours each way and two years later, with my youngest it took us about 4 hours each way.

It turned out to be great quality one-on-one time with each of my daughters in their turn. I learned quite a lot about my kids on these walks and what makes them tick. You may think that on the slower trip, Sophie must have been dragging her heels, and at first that’s how I felt too, and I began to get frustrated and tried every trick in my book to get her to pick up her pace while keeping my cool. It was infuriating at times, just how slow we were going. I found that the only way to get her to walk at a normal four-year-old pace was to hold her hand. So I ended up doing this a lot, which meant that I was either walking off the side of the track, or walking sideways, neither of which made it very easy for me. I thought at first that the reason this helped was that it gave her confidence

Ruth (3 years old) ascending Mt Direction

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100 year forest, Nature Reserve, PembertonCredit: Tourism WA

about walking on the rough ground without worrying about tripping or stumbling. But it wasn’t until later that I realised that the main reason she was walking slow was because she was being acutely observant of everything around her. Indeed, once I began to appreciate this, my own experience of the walk was dramatically heightened. As I observed what she observed and engaged in her conversation, I discovered fungi, and insects that I’d never noticed in my previous decades of bushwalking. It was such an eye opener for me!

So while holding my hand, she was able to watch everything around her while she walked, without worrying about watching where she was putting her feet, and trusting me to make sure that she wouldn’t fall.

Of course, observations aren’t the only thing that will slow down a young walker. It’s not until you see all the ferns whacking your kid in the face that you realise just how many there are, at exactly the wrong height for them. They are about thigh height for most adults, and you don’t even notice that you’re scraping through them. And the logs that we don’t notice stepping over require children to climb over, and occasionally they may need to be lifted over. As if that wasn’t enough reasons

for them to walk slowly, there is also the natural collector side of every child’s brain. They want to pick up every leaf, stone, stick and berry and carry it all with them. Of course, you have to let them do this to some extent, as it’s an important part of the experience to them. However, there’s got to be a limit to this in order to avoid weighing them down too much, and to avoid spending so much time stopping to pick things up. It’s quite a balancing act to get this right.

The greatest hindrance for the speed of the young bushwalker (and perhaps for the mature bushwalker also) is energy, both physical and psychological - but they are closely linked. Keeping the kids motivated can be a serious challenge if they don’t feel like walking any more. There are two keys here, I found: Food and Distraction.

Firstly, it is critically important to keep feeding kids when they’re expending a lot of energy. If they start to run out of energy, they get grumpy and lose all motivation for anything, and if they also lose motivation to eat (which is ironically common when blood-sugars are low) turning this around can be very difficult indeed. Therefore be sure to keep a ready supply of nutritious snacks available. They don’t necessarily need to

Heidi, Sophie & Ruth at BP Lodge (Scout Hut) at Cradle Mountain - sticker book activities during rain periods

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have a snack every time they stop for a rest, but they should certainly be encouraged to have something to eat frequently - preferably before they show the need for it. If you start to see hints of tiredness or grumpiness, get food into them immediately - do not wait for the next great-looking comfortable rest spot. We’ve found the results of this to be outstanding. Personally, I would avoid using lollies or sugary snacks in order to avoid the resultant wild swings in blood sugars and all the complications that can go with that, but if they really do need an urgent and fast pick-me-up, then they can work wonders.

Distraction is a great tool for helping overcome kids’ lack of motivation at times, but it requires a lot of persistent mental energy on the part of the parent. Even when full of food, kids will get tired of walking. Keeping them motivated, while keeping yourself calm, can drive you nuts. On the second of my four-year-old walks, with Ruth, she walked somewhat faster than Sophie had two years earlier because she is more goal oriented and less distracted. However, when she began to get tired of the whole thing it meant that I could start pointing out to her all the interesting things around us and have “natural science” conversations about what we saw, and even blend in some of the faery stories we’d been reading, playing games about being in some magical or mysterious land.

And of course kids love songs. They love silly songs. They love made up songs. They love

songs about themselves and what they are doing. They don’t know or care if you sing like cat with its tail being nailed to the floor or if you are an appalling composer and lyricist. Sing with your kids, either songs they already know, or make up some songs. My daughter still remembers and loves the Pink Mountain Berries song that I made up with her on her “initiation” walk four years ago. We also made up our own bushwalking version of Flanders and Swan’s Hippopotamus Song aka, Mud, Mud, which was well suited to our environment.

Taking the kids one at a time on these “initiation” bushwalks was a great experience. They had dedicated Dad-and-daughter time, and felt like they achieved something extraodinary. They had some wonderful experiences and recognised the beauty of creation in everything from mountains to rainforests to insects. And yet the things that kids like most about an experience are as unpredictable as the kids that like the box the Christmas present came

Ruth loves man ferns - Liffey Falls Track

Heidi, Ruth (5 years old) & Sophie (7 years old) - Shadow Lake Circuit

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in more than the present itself. For Sophie, the concept of dipping a cup in the river in order to get a drink was so new and fun that she kept on telling me how thirsty she was, and making excuses to get another drink. She’d have a few sips then tip it out, only to go get more a minute later. Ruth spent about half an hour just throwing stones into the river. Those were probably the best parts of their respective initiation walks from their points of view at the time.

Since then, our whole family has done a few more day walks as well as several overnight and multi-day walks, staying in either huts or in tents. It’s not something we do frequently, but we really enjoy going bush as a family a couple of times each year.

Last year our family, together with another family, did a three day walk around the Freycinet Peninsula. Our kids, at ages five and seven, walked for 7.5 hours on the first day, and a similar time on the last day. Sure they did get very tired indeed and did complain occasionally, but for the most part they loved it and they have great memories of that holiday. Although to be honest, I think the great motivating factor there was having other kids present as well, so that they all talked, played, and encouraged each other much of the way.

Tips

Start by doing only the easiest and shortest walk you can find. When carrying kids, it will be substantially more difficult than you foresee. If it turns out to be too easy, you can do a harder one next time, and this time you can just get used to how to manage all the additional complications that comes with having kids on a bushwalk.

The recommended maximum is one baby to be carried between two adults. If you have two kids that need carrying, wait another year or so; taking older kids is easier if they can walk for themselves.

Make sure that there are camping options along the way so that the walk can be easily reduced if necessary. Better to cut the walk short before tempers are frayed and to enjoy the experience overall than to be forced well beyond the point of fun, with bad memories of the whole experience.

If the weather forecast is bad, don’t go. Bad weather may be acceptable for experienced bushwalkers, but it could turn kids off for life.

Keep snacks handy and feed the kids frequently. When kids run out of energy, they go downhill fast, and it can be very difficult to get them going again.

Nik, Heidi, Ruth and Sophie near Lady Lake

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