Are we hiking or bushwalk?

[slparker]

I bushwalk on a track, not hike on a trail but I go trail running on a track.

Ever gone off-track on the Heysen Trail?

[corvus]

I just go walking or what !!

[walkon]

I was recently reading someone's unpublished, very detailed and lengthy history of bushwalking in a given location in Australia and not once does he use the term 'bushwalking' but sticks exclusively to 'hiking'. This seemed odd to me as, over the years, I can't recall any of my associates ever talked of going 'hiking'. To me, hiking conjures up pictures of scouts and guide girls walking along pretty English country lanes and rights-of-way and only out for the day or overnight and I have hiked in England. Just on checking this forum, I see that while a search for 'hiking' brings up 170 pages of posts, 'bushwalking' brings up 262 pages so the latter is in more common usage. I also suspect that the 'hiking' may get more used in print than spoken because it's a much shorter word to type. The Kiwis tramp and that's it. Do any of you talk about going for a six day hike or going hiking?

If ever there was a thread that I wanted taken out the back and put down this is it!
So I went back to the original op ready to vent, here I discovered that it was written beautifully and asks the question innocently. In my mind it's sort of like a fresh little puppy looking up at you with those big cute eyes begging for a bit of love. Nearly made me feel guilty for aiming between the eyes and letting loose.

Who cares or should care really. It's not something that anyone I know who does actually go out Bush brings up. I hike, walk, go bush, bushwalk, go for a stroll, hoof it, leg it, go walkabout or anything else that comes up in my lexicon.
Just get out there it's good #funfact

[neil_fahey]

Who cares or should care really. It's not something that anyone I know who does actually go out Bush brings up. I hike, walk, go bush, bushwalk, go for a stroll, hoof it, leg it, go walkabout or anything else that comes up in my lexicon.
Just get out there it's good #funfact

Amen.

[mikethepike]

mikethepike wrote:
I was recently reading someone's unpublished, very detailed and lengthy history of bushwalking in a given location in Australia and not once does he use the term 'bushwalking' but sticks exclusively to 'hiking'. This seemed odd to me as, over the years, I can't recall any of my associates ever talked of going 'hiking'. To me, hiking conjures up pictures of scouts and guide girls walking along pretty English country lanes and rights-of-way and only out for the day or overnight and I have hiked in England. Just on checking this forum, I see that while a search for 'hiking' brings up 170 pages of posts, 'bushwalking' brings up 262 pages so the latter is in more common usage. I also suspect that the 'hiking' may get more used in print than spoken because it's a much shorter word to type. The Kiwis tramp and that's it. Do any of you talk about going for a six day hike or going hiking?

If ever there was a thread that I wanted taken out the back and put down this is it!
So I went back to the original op ready to vent, here I discovered that it was written beautifully and asks the question innocently. In my mind it's sort of like a fresh little puppy looking up at you with those big cute eyes begging for a bit of love. Nearly made me feel guilty for aiming between the eyes and letting loose.

Woof! Woof!

[paul_gee]

I picked up on this discussion over at Neil's blog. As I wrote there, from my perspective as a copywriter for an outdoor retailer (see my signature if you want to know which one), which term to use matters a lot. I wrote there, based on my Google Keyword Tool:

"Trek trumps hike. Hiking beats trekking. Bushwalking is more popular than trekking. And you’re more likely to be a hiker than a trekker."

[Nungulba]

Who cares whether you go hiking or bushwalking , tramping or trekking; I still feel bushed at the end of it...?

[beardless]

It has probably been said before but you cannot underestimate the effect of the name of this site in continuing to retain the term bushwalking in Australia.

[gbedford]

I agree, the main thing is to get out in the bush. However if we were discussing this in the terms of the change in the culture of a non-Western country everybody would be up in arms about the destruction of that culture. All the comments about how I like this term and I use this etc. just reflects our loss of contact with our cultural heritage. The same thing happened with rock climbing. Today it is just a little clone of the U.S. scene. Australian climbers from the mid 7's onwards just dumped what had developed and aped the booming American climbing culture.

[north-north-west]

The same thing happened with rock climbing. Today it is just a little clone of the U.S. scene. Australian climbers from the mid 7's onwards just dumped what had developed and aped the booming American climbing culture.

Same thing's been happening within cave diving circles for the last 15 - 20 years. Started slowly but it's become more and more widespread (and contributed to at least one death).

[Franco]

Something that I find peculiar but have noticed several times in the forums (not just backpacking (!) forums) is how some find it really hard to understand that terms vary in the way they are used according to the country they come from.
So, as much as a lot of walking in the UK is on the hills (hillwalking) here tends to be in the bush so bushwalking but American have forests so they are foresting (or not...)

At home in Italy , because we were already at 1000 m, we referred to a day or 3 walk as "going up" (andar su) as in "tomorrow we are going up" and that was understood to mean we were going up the mountain.
Incidentally because we were going from the bush to above the bush , using the Italian equivalent for bushwalking (camminare nel bosco) would have meant there to go and collect mushrooms or some fruit, leaves or wood.

[sim1oz]

Franco, interesting background! The play of language provides wonderful insights into context and culture.

I generally say I am going walking (not much trail running happening after my knee op) which speaks to my gait rather than the surrounds. I do love to bushwalk, but also I love being above the tree line and it doesn't really 'feel' like bushwalking in those surrounds. I've just come back from two weeks of tramping in New Zealand, and I'm more than happy to adopt the local lingo and terminology.