Our Resources
Posted by scribbly on Jan 04 2021 in Hiking
The Friends of The Heysen Trail have a huge amount of resources available, which we have obviously availed ourselves of quite liberally. I'll be updating this as required…
Trail Resources
- Heysen Trail Association Membership – Just do it… you know you should
- Official Heysen Trail Maps – These will be taken along with the GPS. Heysen Shop: Official Trail Maps.
- GPX File – Mapping files available in various formats (recently upgraded to version 4). Maps & Guidebooks.
Heysen Information
- Josh West VBlog – Josh hiked The Heysen End-to-End from North to South, in 2018 and video blogged his experience. Sandi and I watched his 59 short videos over a couple of sessions. We'd hoped that the videos would give us a bit of an introduction to the Trail, but by the end of the series it felt we'd gained a new friend. Trekking West Website.
- Walkers Follow Fence – Richard Savage has hiked The Heysen three times, and written a great book about his third end-to-end. Heysen Shop: Walkers Follow Fence.
- Heysen Highlights – Simon Cameron has written a wonderful book, detailing an amazing amount of The Heysen's backstory. We are of the habit, developed on The Bibbulmun Track, of reading details of the upcoming day from the walk notes, this book will be read a chapter at a time over the walk. Heysen Shop: Heysen Highlights.
- Bureau of Meteorology – The BOM has historic climate data for many locations along the Heysen, which we downloaded and graphed to assess likelihood of extremes (not totally bulletproof, but at least indicative).
Software Resources
- RouteConverter – This wonderful piece of software has been the backbone of our hiking preparations for years now. Free software, but worth every donation! RouteConverter Website.
- ToDoList – This has been the most wonderful piece of software as well for managing this project (albeit, in an ad hoc way). I've used ToDoList on and off for decades, it seems, but it has really come into its own on this project; again, well worth the donation. AbstractSpoon Website.
- GPS Visualizer – This site allows you to turn your GPS tracks into maps / elevation profiles / and lots of other outputs. I've used it extensively in the past for my web pages. All the mapping on these pages have been processed by GPS Visualizer: well worth the donation. GPS Visualizer.
- GPSBabel – This software, which GPS Visualizer also leverages, converts waypoints, tracks, and routes and has powerful manipulation tools… well worth the donation. GPSBabel Website.
- GIMP – GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows and more operating systems. I am in no way a GIMP expert, but I have used it for years, more so as my commercial software becomes abandonware. Official GIMP Website.
- Time & Date – Time & Date have the sun tables and moon tables for just about anywhere. I've put sunrise / sunset and moonrise, moonset & illumination into the Itinerary Spreadsheet. This helps with planning for any night walks we may like to undertake.
- Dark Sky – Dark Sky is a great resource for historical weather data as well as forecasting. I've used it extensively on the Heysen Trail: Where are we now? page. Before the hike it's a countdown timer, but afterward it will direct the user to the Dark Sky location based on our Itinerary.
Feeling for you with the border closure especially after so much planning. Hope that Sandi’s leave vs Sandi, falls into place (with Sandi n you just where you ought to be) ,,,, ^^
The software resources you have shared- amazing what is available- thank you for sharing
I didn’t realise just how many days you will be walking… wow… no wonder so much planning.
M xo