Tag Archives: Walking the Derwent

The last post?

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Whoopee! My walk from the mouth to the source of the Derwent River is complete, and the complete record of that walk has now been posted to this blog.

Undoubtedly information, ideas and events that relate to the Derwent River may attract my attention and leave me compelled to blog them. I expect to add very few new posts  but please, do not stop ‘following’ the blog just in case I find new aspects of the river from new angles and can show you more wonderful vistas which complement those previously posted.

STOP PRESS – I have been offered a ride along some TasNetworks tracks beside the Derwent upstream, and this trip will take place before Easter – more stories guaranteed.

Less exciting news: this blog will cease to exist in December 2017 despite the fact that I know it contains a wealth of useful information. The reason is simple. I cannot afford to continue it. When I started the blog I was happy to pay the tiny amount for an address that didn’t contain ‘wordpress’ within it but, after adding many hundreds if not thousands of photographs, I exceeded the 3GB limit and for the past two years have paid a larger amount to keep the blog in existence. The fee is due for renewal this December and I will not be paying it. On this basis I am assuming WordPress will prevent visibility and stop access.

Now what?

My next project is to create a small book using the material from the blog; online and in hard copy.  My goal is probably unrealistic. I aim to publish the book by the end of November this year.

But before I get involved on that serious business, I would like your feedback about the nature of the book.

  • Who do you think will be the most frequent type of reader; would it be a bushwalker, a tourist, a local, a historian or some other type of person?
  • What should be the style? A descriptive book, a how-to-do-it explanation for getting around the Greater Hobart Area,  a personalised story,  a humorous account, or should I take some other approach?  If so, what do you suggest?
  • What should be the content? For example, should it be about the mechanics of such a walk,  or about the personal development associated with such a walk, or about the history and use of the River, or about the land use either side of the River, or what?  Are there particular stories or parts of the River that you loved which you believe must be included?
  • Should the book contain photos? If so, should there be lots or a few?  What sort of photos do you think should be included?  Are you able to remember favourite photos that I simply ‘must’ use?
  • Should the book contain maps and diagrams?
  • What size do you prefer books to be?

Your ideas will help me as I compress and select from the 250,000 plus words and thousands of photographs.  With the sheer volume of information (and I have files of unwritten material as well) this book could take form in so many different ways.  At the moment I am torn between a few options so your thoughts will be useful to help me refine mine.

There are different ways you can offer your ideas.  You can add a comment directly onto this blog.  Alternatively you can email me at walkingthederwent@gmail.com.  If you view my blog on Twitter (named as walkingthederwent), Facebook  (named as Walking TheDerwent) or LinkedIn (named as Tasmanian Traveller) then comments or messages can be added on those sites.  I look forward to hearing your ideas.

Writing up the ‘gaps’ in my walk along the Derwent River

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The photo shows water entering the Derwent Basin from Lake St Clair.

Despite my excitement when I reached the source of the Derwent River, I recognised there were some kilometres not yet walked or which had not had their stories told in posts on this blog.  Despite earlier misgivings and qualms about walking some edges of the Derwent River, I renewed my commitment to complete 100% of the length from the mouth to the source, and to create a blog which tells the complete story.  My future posts detail those ‘gap’ walks to the extent that I can, considering the confidentiality requirements of some landowners.

For blog followers who recently linked to my site for the first time, you may not be aware that in the earlier stages of this ‘Walking the Derwent’ project, my walks were sequential.  That is, where I finished a walk I started the next walk. However, once I reached the town of Gretna, from then on as I walked inland, my walks occurred out of sequence depending on the weather, access to the land, and a driver to take me to the start of a walk or collect me from the end of a walk.  I imagine for most of my blog readers it has been difficult in the past months to understand to understand how far away from Hobart or from Lake St Clair each walk has been.  Once I have finished writing all the walk posts, I propose to create one post which describes the River in terms of moving from one end to the other sequentially.  Hopefully this will clear up any confusions or uncertainties.

Writing a blog helps to find others with similar interests

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The tags and categories, which I create each time I write a blog, help people during their internet searches to find my blogsite.  Another way in which people around the world find my blog is if they are already using WordPress for their blog. In addition, I have a specialised Facebook and Twitter account for this Walking the Derwent project, and my LinkedIn account also automatically receives the regular postings. So there have been many ways in which my blogs have been found by others and, in some cases, have been just what they wanted to read.

The surprise for me has been the interesting bloggers who have ‘liked’ or commented on my blogs.  When they do this I always check their blogsite and sometimes I become an avid follower because their blog preoccupation coincides with an interest of mine.

The latest great blog find is by Jean Béliveau who decided to walk around the world.  His blog can be examined at http://wwwalk.org/en.  Originally, this extraordinary man left Montreal in Canada and then took 11 years for his walk.

Jean Béliveau’s blog is very well organised so that you can find which towns he visited in each country.  Looking at his itinerary in specific counties, the towns and cities visited are eclectic and not always capital cities or key places. Of course, with a parochial interest, I searched and found where he walked in Tasmania. There was a great deal of my State which he didn’t walk on, but since (like me) he was making his own rules about where to walk, it does not matter. After all, he never said he was going to walk around each country and through each town or city.

Don’t miss his selfie photos on the left of his blogsite because they show his changing looks in each country; hair, skin colour etc.

Frequently asked questions

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After discovering how to add a new page to this blog, I created one with a list of questions and answers to explain what I am doing and where I have walked. As my walks continue, this page will be updated. In addition, as people ask further questions frequently, new questions and answers will be added.

Go to www.walkingthederwent.com and near the top are two headings: HOME and ABOUT ME. Hover your mouse cursor over ABOUT ME to see the drop down FAQ option. When you click on this, a new page packed with information appears.

If any reader has a question they want answered, please ask.