I am a Mont Ambassador, adventurer and wilderness and landscape photographer based in Tasmania, Australia.
Tasmania has some of the finest untouched wilderness landscapes on Earth.
I invite you to enter and see Tasmania and other places on this wonderful planet from my perspective.
As a Mont Outdoor Equipment Ambassador I love using their high quality outdoor gear. I sincerely believe it is some of the best designed and highest quality gear available in Australia. It never lets you down!
My next adventure.
Well, courtesy of Covid, the plans below needed a bit of revision. Feb 2021 came and went, and so will Feb 2022. Hopefully February 2023 will see me in Siberia. Just to add to the challenge I will be 67 then….
And then Putin made his move so now Lake Baikal is out for me. It was a brilliant idea but for an Australian to enter Russia now would be unwise in the extreme….
Sooo, being a pretty keen motorcycle rider, the next adventure is a semi circumnavigation of Australia. This will be 15,000kms of travelling through fascinating, vibrant, desolate and remote roads in central and western Australia. Always another adventure :)
"In February 2021 I am intending to fly to the middle of Siberia…in mid winter. My destination is the largest freshwater lake in the world, Lake Baikal. This lake holds over 20% of the world’s liquid freshwater and is almost 700kms long by 80kms wide at its widest point. In February the very low temperatures freeze the whole lake and my intention is to walk a western section of the lake before crossing to the eastern side, a total distance of approximately 150kms on ice, solo. Temperatures can go as low as -40˚C at this time of year so a different system from normal travel is required to survive.”
Soooo…..
Interruption….I just learnt about another lake that is essentially Lake Baikal’s “little sister”, Lake Khövsgöl in northern Mongolia. This lake is only a bit over 130kms long and looks just as spectaular as Lake Baikal. It’s an idea that is growing…..
So Lake Khövsgöl is looking like a successful idea. I will fly into Ulaanbaatar on the 1st March, get organised, travel to Khatgal 775kms away on the southern shore of the lake and hopefully be walking on the lake pulling a pulka (sled) on the 6th March. 9 days later, all being well, I will be back in Khatgal. This year temperatures were unusually low with -15º to -20ºC the norm at night. The coldest night at Khatgal this March was -27.6ºC which is a bit nippy :)
Well Mongolia really delivered! Apart from the most fantastic adventure walking on the frozen Lake Khovsgol, the depth of history and culture of this fabulous country is absolutely fascinating.
And the walk? I walked for 7 days on the ice altogether and covered 83kms. This was the most “out there” and fascinating adventure I have had and I loved it. Sleeping in my tent at temperatures down to -25ºC and on ice 1.1 metres thick is just so unique. And I had a dog walk with me for every one of the 7 days. Fabulous!
Moving right along, there are a couple of ideas for future trips. One is to complete the Tasmanian Trail (a 480km mixed road/cross country track) by pushbike and the other is to finish my ride around Australia on a motorcycle (15,000kms). Both are exciting prospects for the near future :)
Along with plenty of bushwalking in between.
Last week I cycled 391kms and 6,925 metres of vertical ascent of the Tasmania Trail, an excellent trip that I thoroughly enjoyed. I will complete the remainder in a couple of weeks.
Update. Today 12th May ’23 I completed the last 3 days of the Tasmania Trail. Some very tough tracks were ridden. Altogether from North to South I rode 493 kms and climbed (and descended) 9,517 vertical metres. It was definitely hard but it was very satisfying to complete.
August ’23 I finished my Central/West Australian motorcycle ride. 14,000kms over 35 days. A fabulous trip through a stunning landscape. Now I have pretty well circumnavigated Australia by motorcycle after the previous trip through Central/Eastern Australia in September/October ‘22, total 10,300kms.
2016 Sermiligaq to Lake Fjord, East Greenland.
Expedition successful!We reached Lake Fjord, East Greenland on 2nd August, 2016. This was only the 4th kayak expedition to reach this point in the last 84 years! A brilliant trip with many memorable moments.
2017 Enterprise Island to Winter Island, Antarctica.
In February of 2017, I fly to Ushuaia in Argentina to board the yacht Icebird and sail to the Antarctic Peninsula with a group of 6 other paddlers and the two crew to explore the Peninsula by kayak and yacht and retrace as much as we can the routes and explorations of John Rymill and his men in 1934-1937 during the British Graham Land Expedition (BGLE) . This will likely be a challenging trip, but at the same time extremely rewarding.
Rymill took over Gino Watkins expedition in East Greenland after Watkin’s unfortunate death so there is a close connection between our expedition to Lake Fjord in East Greenland and Graham Land in Antarctica.
Back home now after an excellent adventure in Antarctica. Stunning, remote, cold and essentially, a very dangerous place to kayak but an adventure worth doing!
The 2016 Gino Watkins Greenland Expedition went really well. An awesome experience, we reached our objective without major incident and paddled through some stunning Greenland landscapes to reach the British Arctic Air Route Expedition (BAARE) base.
In 2011 I led an expedition paddling sea kayaks across Bass Strait. I took a few photos along the way……
In August 2012 I joined a group of paddlers on an expedition in East Greenland.
A video from the trip can be seen here…
In September of 2013 I embarked on a 2 week solo paddle in the raw landscape that is East Greenland. The blog of this trip is here…
A Solo Sea Kayak Expedition in East Greenland's Ammassalik region
Here is a video of my solo trip to Greenland
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/geoff.murray.5955
