About Me


The Long Way's Better is a adventure/travel blog by Donovan de Souza, documenting adventures one can have exploring the world on foot via tracks and trails - i.e. the Long Way. Although not limited to the West Coast, living in Perth and travelling regularly to the South West inevitably means a strong focus on the Bibbulmun Track and other walks in Western Australia, with expeditions further afield whenever the opportunity arises.

I have been bushwalking for over a decade, having caught the walking bug after tackling the Walpole to Denmark section of the Bibbulmun Track in 2003 - although my love of nature and travelling in regional WA goes back to my childhood in the '90s. In 2010, I began regularly trying out the day walks in the Perth area, and found information at the time fairly scant apart from the Top Trails website, informative but somewhat outdated CALM bushwalking books and directly contacting National Park regional offices. Although I documented some of these walks in 2010, they sat mainly as photos on a hard drive or as forgotten albums on Facebook.

In 2015, my wife Alissa and I began a mission to walk the Bibbulmun Track in sections before the 20th anniversary of the Track's current alignment, documenting every section along the way. This served as the impetus behind starting The Long Way's Better in 2016 as I again found myself with folders of photos piling up on my computer. Having the experience of also being the blogger behind The Ministry of Gluttony, an online blog seemed to be the best way to get these photographs and information out into the world.

Compared to 2010, there is a lot more information available for walkers looking to discover interesting trails, and the Trails WA website is a significant improvement to the more limited Top Trails site. There are also many other bloggers and online forums filled with experienced walkers sharing their knowledge - a resource that has grown exponentially even over the last 6 years.

I hope to be able to contribute in my own way, by providing a photographic narrative of each of the trails we walk, while also giving a detailed breakdown of the track's grading under the Australian Walking Track Grading System. I hope this information will be useful for those looking to start their own adventures in the great outdoors. 

5 comments:

  1. Hi Donovan - I'm sitting here at William Bay Hut, solo, and just read your entry of 4 June in the red book. Picked up the blog from there. Very professional, organised and informative.

    A work colleague suggested I do a blog, this being my second E2E. Mine is christopherdionblog.wordpress.com and being a rank newbie to blogging it is not a patch on yours. However, baby steps as they say. Broadly, my aim is to post a photo and some description about the walk that day, on a daily basis as long as I can get a signal. That's it!

    Thanks for popping that entry in the red book.

    Now, time for that sleeping bag.

    Kind Regards - Chris

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    Replies
    1. Hi Chris,
      Thanks for checking out the blog and you kind words.

      Totally jealous that you're doing your second E2E - my wife and I would love to do it all at once, but just don't have the time to spare.

      I'll be following your progress on your blog - we were lucky in the sense that Parry Inlet was not open when we were there just a few weeks ago - looks like it was a bit tough going! I know the experience of crossing an inlet though - we did Albany to Denmark in Winter and had to wade a chest deep Torbay Inlet.

      My wife and I are doing Balingup to Pemberton from 3rd - 11th July. Hope we cross paths. Look out for a guy with a green Aarn Bodypack!

      Regards,

      Donovan

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  2. Hi Donovan, so happy to have found your blog today. There are some amazing walk trails and places to visit in Western Australia. Happy walking the long way round! Jill, Life Images by Jill on blogspot.

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