 OK, let's talk about New Zealand. What made you go, I'm doing this? I'm going to walk from the bottom of, how do you pronounce it? A teora? Tearoa. Tearoa, my God. I'm very curious about to kill me. It's a hard one, yep. Tearoa. Tearoa. Tearoa. And then you went to the top and you successfully did it. Why? Yeah, it's a long way, man. Yeah, I guess. How many kilometers? 3,000. Yep. Total steps. Jeez, it was like 70 days of 80,000 steps a day. 80,000 steps a day, holy shit. Hello. Welcome to the Sevo show. It is June 1st, 2023. Not many recordings have been uploading over the past month. It's been a busy month, but we're back. We're back in the studio and we are fortunate to have Cam Bostock in with us. He recently went on an expedition and that's an understatement. The man went from the bottom of New Zealand to the top of New Zealand on foot. And you can see this all on Instagram and all that. And the man's a God. And my feet are just hurting, talking about it. But thank you for being here. My pleasure, mate. Happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Excellent. So we have done an episode before. A while ago. A while ago. Yep. I think it's maybe close to two years now, I reckon. Yeah. What's changed in the last two years? Not much. I'm still hiking a lot. Clearly. It's just what I do. But yeah, doing it full time now. Comfortably, which is incredible. Yes. It's been progressing over the last couple of years and just going on crazier and crazier expeditions and hikes and that kind of thing. And lucky enough to be able to travel around the world a bit and around Australia a bit more. Whereas I think last time we chatted, I was mostly doing stuff here in Western Australia. I would have just come off the Bibbulmun track, which is the big hike here. But yeah, kind of reach it out a bit more now, which is it. Yeah, you were showing people where the rapids were. That kind of thing. You were going down to Albany to the, what's that one again? Bluffnull, Staling Rangers. Yes. Still doing all that as well, but luckily able to intertwine international travel as well. Yeah. So you did that. And I remember when we talked and the following soon after just went and exploded. I take no credit at all. But what was the big breakthrough for you for like social media? Yeah, man. Well, you've been an inspiration for me, man. Yes. I can take some credit. Since the short form content that you've been pushing out, which I've jumped on the last couple of years, TikTok and Reels. But yeah, just been consistently posting, trying to provide value and inspiration to the people that follow me. And the biggest thing for me is just building a community about what I'm doing. So that's been the journey of the last couple of years. And yeah, like you said, it's been a steady growth for a couple of years. And in the last year specifically, huge growth, which is. I remember. Incredible. I remember when you hit 20,000 followers on Instagram. And I was like, yes. And then it was that video. We talked about this off camera, the Google Earth thing. Yep. You did that like a couple of times. The trends, yeah, started growing. And I've done a few bigger trips over the last six months and just like experimenting with different types of content, more episodic, longer term content. And it's just been crazy, you know, 50, 100, 200,000 followers on Instagram and same on TikTok. So it's been a wild journey, but loving every second. And the best part is just being able to inspire and influence people as well through what I'm doing. And get people into the outdoors, which is the mission. And that was the forefront the whole time. It always has been and has not changed. Yeah. That's the key. Consistency and authenticity. 100%. Yeah. Yeah, I've always just, I mean, I just have experienced all the benefits that come with getting into the outdoors, pushing yourself both mental and physical. And so just trying to share that with the world and get people outside as well has been the goal. And somehow it's worked and been successful. And I'm reaching people and it's just the best feeling, eh? Yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that. So when you did start to exponentially grow on social media, what was your first kind of like offer? Did you start getting emails shortly after? Yeah. What was that like? It's a whole new world, I think, when you start, you know, that first, you know, spirit of growth coming from, you know, thinking maybe I could do this full time at some point. I don't know how I'd make that work to brands reaching out and offering to send you gear and to pay for you to use that gear and that kind of stuff. So, yeah, that's been happening a lot over the last year, which is it's a weird feeling, but something that I've been definitely intentionally working towards. Yeah. And so that's been a whole journey in itself, the behind the scenes business side of creating content and trying to make it financially viable. But been lucky enough to work with some of my favorite brands locally and nationwide as well on the expeditions I'm doing, which is a huge part to help make this financially viable because it's not free. Yeah. So how did you tackle that first influx of emails and offers? Did you have any like background and how to handle that? No background at all. Biggest thing for me was just trying to reach out and to talk to people who had done it before. So, you know, there's some downsides of social media, but there's some big upsides as well. And the collaboration and community you can have is incredible. So I was just reaching out to people who I didn't even know, who I knew were doing what I wanted to do and saying, you know, what are you charging for this? And how would I respond to this email? Yeah, I remember you asking me to. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I reached out to a bunch. Just trying to build my knowledge base and, you know, figure out, you know, what I'm worth, what my value is and how I can bring the most value to the brands that do want to work with me. So yeah, trial and error, a lot of undervaluing myself. I think every creator goes through that and just figuring out what works and what's attractive to a brand as well. Yeah. So did you get management offers or anything like that? Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Like social media agencies and management companies and individuals that transport in, which I've never really dumped out. I think I've got some advice from a bunch of people saying that if you can do it without that, you know, you can probably learn quicker and also, you know, don't have to give up part of what you're kind of, you know. And you can sustain it for longer. Yeah, I think so. And I found that I've been able to do it pretty successfully without any sort of oversight. Yeah, just you to sort of getting some knowledge from other people. What would you do differently knowing through going through that trial and error had you at the start, again, let's say you're back at the point of you're about to explode. Yeah. You're about to get these emails. What would you give the advice to yourself be? Definitely the best thing would be to just value myself more than I was. How do you measure that? Yeah, it's hard to measure that, I think. But, you know, you're only worth what someone's willing to pay for you and you can only find that out if you're willing to ask, you know, more than maybe you think you're worth. And so, you know, at the start I was just like super happy to get sent a $20 product or stoked. But looking back, I could have, you know, I was worth a lot more than that, which is, yeah, that's something that I'd bring back and probably capitalize on more, you know, not that I'm just trying to rake in the money from every deal. You know, there's a bunch of value that can come from, you know, getting products and just working with cool brands as well. That was definitely huge and something that I am able to help a lot of creators with now who've kind of reached out to me and ask, you know, what's my worth? What's my value? And I've been through every step of that journey up into where I am now. So it's cool to be able to give back a bit as well. All right, well, let's go through it. Three top tips on an adventurer to know their worth. Go. Yeah, I mean, for me, it's not only about your follower count and not even only about your engagement, but it's about the community of people that you kind of, with the people that are in your community because, you know, for me, the focus always has been to build relationships with individuals, provide value to individuals, not just the masses. And so, you know, when you have those people that have gotten a lot of value from you that you've responded to their messages and their comments and that kind of thing and directly answered their questions, they're more likely to stick around, support everything you do. And for me, I mean, for a brand who's looking at your page, that's super valuable. Having these people that are going to trust what you say, potentially purchase products that you share, that kind of thing is huge. So just building those true followers. Yeah, community over followers. Yeah, community just over the numbers. I reckon, you know, real relationships, providing real value to people for sure. That's the first one. That's the first one. Definitely, you want to build trust with the audience. Yeah. You know, you would have probably had this experience where a brand that has nothing to do with anything you do offers you a certain amount of money to promote their product. And if you were to push that, the audience would be like, is this promoting this or that kind of thing? And for me with my whole world's and my whole contents around the outdoors, you know, I get offers all the time for, you know, I don't know, like a skincare product or you know, something completely random and they offering me the money that, you know, my rate and I'm like, yeah, but if I was to share this, what kind of trust am I building with my audience that getting all this random information from me? Your skincare product, is that bottle bi-degradable and good for the environment? Yeah, it's got to do with hiking, which is why I follow you and that kind of thing. Yeah, very good. And also there's so many brands out there that are just pushing crap products that I just... Don't sell out. Yeah. So don't sell out, that's number two. Don't sell out. Yeah, you'll build trust with your audience. Okay. For sure. Number three? That's huge. And number three, I guess if you're a beginner, it's just to actually like do what I did, which is to reach out to people who are doing what you wanna do and learn from them because there is a lot to learn and there's definitely a value in having a go yourself and making mistakes and learning from that. But if you can reach out to people with a kind of three, four, five, 10 steps ahead of you and learn from their mistakes, get advice on your specific situation, it's just gonna jumpstart you. Absolutely. For sure, you're gonna skip a lot of stress and heartache. I would also add in that if they are, if it's a valuable asset that they're gonna give you, respect it if they charge you and invest in that education because investing in your own education through those people to get something of value in five minutes, but that five minutes took them five years to do. It's valuable stuff, it really is, yeah. I would pay five years of shortcuts in five minutes, absolutely. Yeah, some of the info that people have shared with me is worth money, like it's paid me money. So it's like looking back, I would have paid them whatever they asked for these tips that have kind of slingshot me ahead of where I would have been without it. I'll send in voices. So now that you're here and you're probably still getting quite a few emails, do you have like a dream brand that you wanna collaborate with, maybe be their ambassador of? There's a lot of big outdoor brands, yeah, there's some international brands like North Face, Patagonia, those huge brands that do crazy adventurous things that would be sick. But there's also some brands that I'm working with now that six months ago were those dream brands which is pretty damn cool. Go on, plug them away, they're your brands. Yeah, like I'm doing a bit of stuff with Cedar Summit at the moment which was started here in Perth, incredible brand, and using their gear. For the last few expeditions I've done, doing some stuff with Red Bull this year which is just crazy, you know, obviously. I love hiking but I'm also really into extreme sports and stuff, you know, the company for all that kind of stuff, Marketing Kings, so heading over to, yeah, competing at Red Bull event in Queensland later this year. Wow, what do you compete like? Hiking, professional hiking? It's close, it's an adventure race called Defiance. So yeah, Red Bull are flying me over to compete in this van, it's trail running, mountain biking, kayaking, rafting. Like hardcore triathlon? It's essentially a hardcore triathlon. Instead of swimming, it's kind of like rafting and kayaking down rivers and it's just in the middle of the forest and into the ocean and onto an island and all kinds of crazy stuff. That sounds a lot more fun than the traditional triathlon. Yeah, 100%. Yeah, that's what interests me is the wild adventures rather than just like sitting on a road on a bike for multiple hours, so I'm very excited about that. That's it. I mean, Red Bull doesn't really sell energy drinks, it sells adventure. Yeah, they sell... And you're selling adventure yourself, so collaboration makes sense. It's a perfect fit, it's a dream. Yeah, so hopefully we can keep doing some cool stuff. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I remember, okay, let's talk about New Zealand. What made you go, I'm doing this? I'm going to walk from the bottom of, how do you pronounce it? A teora? Tearoa. Tearoa, my God, I'm very curious about to kill me. It's a hard one, yeah. Tearoa, Tearoa. And then you went to the top and you successfully did it. Why? Yeah, it's a long way, man. Yeah, I guess... How many kilometers? 3,000, yeah. Total steps. Jeez, it was like 70 days of... 70 days? 80,000 steps a day. 80,000 steps a day, holy shit. A lot of walking. Did you know what you were in for? I was expecting it to be really hard and really beautiful and all of the above, but it was harder and more beautiful. How was it more harder? The terrain over there is just insane. And coming from Western Australia, where we barely have any mountains, it's just flat. And then diving into New Zealand's South Island, where it's mountains for days and just crazy backcountry, super remote. That was something I've never done before. So super challenging. And yeah, there were sections where you didn't see a road for five, seven days, and so you're kind of like in the middle of nowhere. The weather can change at any moment, you're thousands of meters up in these alpine regions of the remote backcountry, and it's just wild. You've got to kind of know what you're doing. So how did you prepare yourself for this? Yeah, there's a lot of logistics that go into a through hike. Tiara specifically. So a lot of research, a lot of spreadsheets and that kind of thing in the months leading up to sort of plan out all my food drops because you kind of, yeah, there's sections where you won't have access to food for a long time and so you want to post out food drops to certain locations. So that takes a lot of planning. Post out food drops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you just like rock up and go, hey, I'm Cam, this package that's been sitting here for a week is mine. 100%. So there's like, what? You know, the outdoor recreation centers or maybe like a really small town in the mountains and that kind of thing that you can post out food. What sort of food is this that you can do it with? Like sardine cans and stuff? Yeah, you want stuff that's going to last you can't put your food in there and stuff. Yeah, lots of canned food. So not canned food, canned food's heavy. Yeah, you don't want to carry metal around. True. Yeah, but dehydrated meals is like the go-to hiking meal, hiking food. So they're super light. Oh, there's a brand deal in there? Yeah, I worked with a company while I was over there which was Sick Radix. Yeah, Radix plug away, man. Yeah, Radix. Absolutely, Radix. They are amazing. Yeah. But yeah, you know, posts and lollies and music bars, that kind of thing as well. Yeah, get that energy up. Get to your food drop and you're all set. But yeah, a lot of planning, man. 3,000 kilometers is a long way. There's countless different trail sections, different conditions and you're going to kind of have to prepare for everything. What was the longest time you were isolated from any other human life? Yeah, there was a couple of like five-day sections. And I was hiking pretty quick, like faster than the average hiker. And so those sections usually would probably be like seven or eight days, but because I was kind of powering through five days was probably the longest I was between like sort of towns or roads. Still saw the odd person out in those sections because a lot of people do hike the same trails I was doing. So that was cool. Wow. Had a bit of company out there. Cool. But a lot of time by myself as well. And a lot of sketchy situations. So it was intense, but I'm the biggest introvert. For me, like being out in the wilderness by myself is a dream. So I frothed every second I was in Epic. And you took extra steps because you had to post up your phone to film yourself walking in the distance. And then come back. And I'm really glad you documented that part where you walked back to the camera to take. Yeah, I made a decision on episode one of my daily vlogs to include me walking back to the camera and just as like a running joke or something. And it worked because I got so many comments about it. Oh man, the first thing I noticed I was like. Yeah, because usually I'll just get me walking away and then you don't really think about the fact that I walked back to the camera to get it. No, and once you show people that, they're like, oh my God. Yeah, you end up doing a bunch of extra kilometers depending on how often you do it each day. And so every episode I'd include like one clip of me running back to the camera front and then picking it up and it became a pretty cool little Easter egg for each video. But yeah, yeah, filming the whole thing and adds a whole another dynamic to a hike like this. And when you got to the camp at the end of each day, that was editing time for you. Essentially, yeah. So like filming wasn't too hard because I just did everything on my phone and just whipped it out of my pocket when I saw a really cool view. And then occasionally I'd set the camera up and walk past it. But because I'm hiking 12 hours a day, you know, and I'm filming maybe 30 clips a day, it's actually not that often and it's not too hard to add in. But then the editing side of things was where it was really hard to kind of keep up with daily vlogs. And episode one just blew up on TikTok and Instagram. Oh, I'm in it now. I have to commit to this. Yeah, I was like, I post every day now. I'm not gonna miss a day. Well, it was better than it not landing. And then you're like, why am I on this walk? Nobody knows I'm doing it. What's the point? Yeah, that's right. I don't even walk it if people wouldn't say. My sponsors, they don't get anything out of it. Yeah, no, I was very lucky. It went really well. And so yeah, man, I just get to get to camp, set up the tent and I jump into my sleeping bag. And if it was quiet enough, it wasn't a revenue buy, I do my voiceovers and just edit together on CapCut and my phone. CapCut shout out. How many chains of clothes did you have? Just one, just none, no extra clothes. So one shirt, one pair of shorts, one pair of underwear. Okay. And I'd have some warm stuff to sleep in at night. Okay. Yeah, did PJs, okay. Yeah, just like some thermal stuff. Yeah, thermal. But I'd walk in the same clothes every day and they were disgusting. Like obviously you went into towns and you had a wash day, right? Yes, so every now and then I'd be able to walk into a bigger town and usually stay at like a holiday park, caravan park. So I'd set up the tent in a bit more of a civilized location and they'd usually have a shower and a washing machine which I'd take full advantage of. Yes. And I like how you kept the tent vibe because I can imagine you like halfway through the trip. You'd be like, you wake up, you're like, wait, where am I again? Do you feel like disoriented? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. You wake up and you're in a caravan pack. I'm like, oh cool, I can go to Maccas or something right now. Yeah, 100%. But the crazy thing about New Zealand is they have these back country hearts all through the wilderness. They actually have thousands of them over the whole country. Wafway, Charger. They don't usually have that kind of stuff unfortunately, but they'll have a long drop toilet. They have water tanks and a fully enclosed sort of room with bunks and a lot of them had mattresses in New Zealand which is incredible. Mattresses. Yeah, it's wild. Like we have some huts here in WA on the Bibelman track but they're open air, you know, hard bunks but it was luxury in New Zealand. So a lot of the nights I'd be in huts which is sick and then a lot of nights in the tent as well. How did you keep your phone charged? Yeah, just lugging around battery packs because I had a small DSLR with me. I had my phone, my watch, my personal locator beak and my headlamp. A lot of things to charge and I was using my phone a lot so I'd train the battery. Yeah, I was carrying like two big bulky battery packs which was heavy. They need to invent something for hikers that you can get something with your shoes the more you walk. Well, there's like solar charged ones but I mean there was barely any sun when I was in New Zealand it rained a lot so not super useful but yeah, those two battery packs got into the job and then when I'd get to a town I'd either charge them at the holiday park or go to Mackers and charge them in one of the ports. Just like a whole set up. Yeah. What, you mentioned sketchy. What was the most sketchiest part and why? Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of sketchy trail mostly in the South Island but throughout the whole track there's some really crazy sections. The weather is also what tends to make the trail sketchy because it's really unpredictable and I started quite late into the hiking season over there so I started at the end of summer whereas usually people will start hiking at the beginning and so it was a lot colder than usual and I had a couple of days where like blizzards roll in snow and everything. So there was one day which was maybe like three weeks in towards the north of the South Island. There's this national park called Nelson Lakes National Park widely considered to be like the most beautiful area of Tiadaroa. I mean, every hiker I talked to said that was the highlight of people coming the other direction so I always had that to look forward to but there's one pass that you cross called Waiupass which is notorious for being like the toughest day on the entire trail. Lot of bodies. There's been a few bodies. Oh. Yeah. And it's a spot where the weather can get crazy and if it is crazy like people say just stay in the heart and you waited out kind of thing. But anyway, I got to this hut which was just before the pass, arrived there and kind of got a weather forecast on my satellite GPS device thing and it was like snow tomorrow. I was like crap. What timing? I haven't seen snow for like two weeks and there's no tomorrow. It's about 2000 meters high so running about like sort of 20Ks to get over it but I don't 20Ks, no worries. Jesus. But really technical, really steep kind of mountain. Absolutely stunning. But I made it to this hut, got the forecast and there was another hiker there who had waited out like two days worth of snow and he was like, I'm going up tomorrow because I'm running out of food kind of thing we're in the middle of nowhere and I didn't have much food left either because it was sort of towards the end of this section and so we decided to just go for it the next day and hike up and yeah, work up in the morning to like a foot of snow on the ground. I come from WA like I've barely ever seen snow so it was pretty cool. And yeah, we went up and hiked this mountain and it was absolutely crazy. We couldn't find the trail and so the whole way up, it was just kind of like scrambling up this rocky mountain face in knee-waste deep snow, just trying to make our way to this spot. We had like GPS coordinates on our phone, just a wild, wild day and we finally reached the top, took us like five hours to walk like five k's up this thing and then like at the top there was like these crazy blizzards like windy as probably about negative 20 degrees just super cold, neither of us had snow gear. Going around was not an option? Going around is not an option. We had the option to turn back and potentially a couple of days back the way we came but that was not an option in my mind either. I couldn't let your followers and sponsors down. I couldn't do it. At least you had that, right? Yeah, yeah, that's right. Did you know who you were? No, no, no, but we ended up becoming good friends after that and we walked for about 10 days together so it was sick and we made it over. It was sketchy but we did it and it was wild and then posting the vlog of that day I got a lot of comments of people saying like how stupid it was to do that and people died doing that all the time. Well, you had someone else with you. Do you reckon you could have done it by yourself? I think I would have been screwed if I went by myself and I don't think I would have done it so it was kind of like the fact that we had each other was gave us a bit of confidence and we both really experienced psychers. But yeah, we got some wild video because I was trying to vlog the day while like in this crazy situation and I'm glad I did because it's a pretty epic vlog but crazy day man. That's crazy. Yeah, wild, wild day. So that was the hardest it got for you? Yeah, that was probably the hardest day, the sketchiest day. There was a lot of hard days. I had a few injuries throughout the track and so like being in the middle of nowhere with a bung knee or an inflamed tendon sucks, painful. How did you get through that? Like again, this is for the viewers. I'm hiking, I have a bung knee or tendons a sore. I'm in the middle of nowhere, let's say food's running out, let's go with like worst case. Yeah. What do you do? Yeah, that definitely happened to me. Okay. Shit. And you're, I mean, if you're in a situation like on a long distance hike, you hopefully have a PLB, a personal locator beacon. And if you're in real bad strife, you pop that and emergency services will come and get you. So that's the first point. I'm really stubborn. And so if I can help it, I would never ever pop that. I'll try and get out myself. And so there's a few situations where I was in bad shape and I had a few days to walk, smash some Ibuprofen, strap it up. Like I had a big tendon issue on my left leg at one point. So I just like had my bandages strapped it up, pops my Ibuprofen to keep it swelling down and just hold it up. Jesus. Well, it's tough, man. It can be really dangerous hiking these kinds of trails and you gotta kind of take all the precautions going into it. Extra food is always smart. Having a fully stocked first aid kit makes sure people know you're out there. The basics, the common sense. How did you get to that point for that injury? Just overuse. I was just walking big days and probably ignored the early signs of it coming on. Just kept pushing. Do you reckon you could have done the trek quicker had you allocated more rest? Yeah, it's a good question. I think so, yeah. Because I had this, the main injury I had on my tibialis anterior tendon, I ended up having like a four day rest when I got really bad. And if I had taken two days to rest it a week earlier, I would have never had a problem. So it's a bit of my stubbornness of trying to push through it and thinking, yeah, she'll be right kind of thing. If it was a bit smarter, I could have, yeah, definitely gone quicker with less pain. But, you know, you're living alone. Yeah, I mean, my gnarliest hikes have been only about four or five, maybe six hours long in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan, geez. Yeah, but the mountains weren't treacherous. It was summer and I was just doing my thing from my home land. And I walked, I was like 14Ks in one afternoon, just for bants. I wanted to get to the waterfall, but yeah, my story's shit compared to the New Zealand one. But yeah, like I can walk for days. I can walk and walk for days. Going up a hill, going up a mountain, I've got some skills. Nice. Holy shit. The long legs would help. Yeah, quads start burning, the calves start, you know, giving you a bit of a stitch up. And then the night, you like sit down, you lay down, you're like, oh, but then you're like so sore. And then the next morning, you're like, oh, fuck, I have to do this again. Doing that for 90 days with a few rest days in between. What was the, we talked about the physical, what was the mental like? You talked about stubbornness, how else did that feel? Yeah, mentally really challenging. Actually probably the most mentally challenging hike I've done. And I've done a lot of hard stuff, but it definitely pushed me. Hey, because like I said earlier, it was a lot harder than I expected. I'd come off some big hikes in the months leading up to the trek. So I had a lot of confidence, like I hadn't really fit at the moment, like I'll smash it. And I always have such high expectations of myself. So like pushing and hiking all day rather than sitting around. And yeah, there were some tough days where I felt pretty down and pretty like crap. Like I'm not hiking as far as I wanted to today. And this is way harder than I thought. And I'm just, you know, there's always thoughts of like, you know, I'm supposed to be like posting a video today. I'm gonna let people down if I don't get to where I said I was gonna get to and all this kind of stuff. So that was, that was hard, man. And I had some down days, but I do proud myself and be pretty resilient mentally. And I can usually pick myself up, I'm a bootstraps and kind of to keep on going. But I had to learn to sort of actually rest a little bit when I needed to and be okay with not hitting every goal that I might have set out to hit and give myself a bit of leeway as well. Especially, you know, keeping up with the videos and the posting and that kind of thing. Didn't want to stress myself out too much. So I did end up slowing down a bit on my sort of intended pace to accommodate all that. Wow. And where do you think you got that mental kind of strength from? Yeah, I just really love doing hard things. And for the only reason is to just build to build the mental strength, right? So when you do hard stuff and you get through it, the next hard thing you're gonna do is gonna be a bit easier. And so I'm always seeking out a challenge. When I'm doing a hike, I'm not aiming to do it as fast or slow as anyone else does it. I wanna do it faster. I wanna be a faster than average. I'm always trying to push myself a little bit, even from the first hike I did here in Western Australia on the Bibelman track, just trying to push myself. And I think I've built up mental resilience from doing that over and over and over again and intentionally putting myself in really challenging situations. Because I wanna do even crazier stuff in the future. So I know that if I wanna do the thing that I dream of doing in 10 years, I'm gonna have to do increasingly harder things. Yeah, you gotta build up to it. Then I can do it kind of thing. And so that's been the journey of the last few years as well. Just doing longer hikes and harder hikes and slowly kind of building up that mental resilience because it's a mental game just as much. It is a physical as well, yeah, for sure. Yeah, you've banked up that experience and you're ready for the next step. You're a married man. I am, yeah. How did you convince your wife that this was a good idea? Yeah, it's always a challenge, especially now that I'm traveling quite a bit more than I used to. But luckily for me, these kind of hikes are basically a work trip. So it's a tax-aductible work trip and... Can you believe it? I'm like, sorry, babe, I've gotta go to work. But she's the biggest support for what I do. And yeah, Karis actually came over to New Zealand as well for sort of the second half of my hike which was incredible. Awesome post-nut clarity for you. It was good, mate, it was very good. We hadn't seen each other for about a month before she came over, so it was good too. That first week after that, that hike would have been amazing. You would have ran the whole time. Absolutely, yep, that's it. That's good. But yeah, she's incredible, mate. Like, you know, traveling quite a bit next year and stuff and got her full support, which is necessary. So you also conquered Kilimanjaro. Yeah, Kelly. That was this year as well, which is crazy. On a scale of, oh, how do I do this? One to New Zealand. How hard was Kilimanjaro? Kilimanjaro was hard in quite a different way. The altitude is what got me in Kilimanjaro. It was actually quite easy, like physically. Not too technical on the way up. And because we climbed pretty slowly to try and acclimatise, we weren't doing more than 10 to 15k a day, so pretty casual. But yeah, I got smashed by altitude sickness. What's that like? Yeah, it's brutal, hey? Like, living at sea level, living in Perth, we're at zero metres elevation, so 100% oxygen. Can't relate. Yeah, you're a few metres higher. But yeah, Kilimanjaro was just under 6,000 metres and you have about 50% oxygen up that high. And so the brain and body just, yeah, they get cooked. They get starved. And so, yeah, obviously you want to acclimatise. So we took about, was it, seven days to climb up, just taking it real slow and kind of going up 500 or 800 metres a day, just letting the body sort of get used to it. But my body didn't really get used to it, hey? So summer day was brutal, absolutely brutal. Yeah, full on altitude sickness, heavy nausea, crazy migraines, just full body of fatigue. I was puking my guts up at the summit. Geez. Brutal. I don't know how I made it. It was a hard, hard day climbing up to the summit. But luckily it did make it. And like, our guides kind of rushed me down off the mountain not long after we had to the summit, just for safety reasons, getting me down to a safer level. But Kelly was incredible, man. Like, yeah, Kelly and New Zealand, two best trips I've ever done. First half of 2023, it started well. So, yeah, yeah. Went over with a really good group of guys. We had like some epic local Tanzanian porters and guides that let us off, just had like parties every day at camp. Oh, cool. Such a vibe, such a beautiful mountain, such epic people over there. And yeah, despite summer day being miserable, it was probably the most epic day of my life. It was just incredible getting up to the top of Africa, sunrise, epic crew. Yeah, Bluff Knoll got nothing on it. I love Bluff Knoll, man, but yeah, it's such a baby. Yeah. Yeah, it's so sad. Yeah, I need to do a Bluff Knoll trip. I said this to you a few months, probably years ago now. Yeah. It's one of those things. When's the best time to go for Bluff Knoll? Probably summer, but you can do it anytime. Yeah, you're just probably more likely to get some crappy conditions in winter. You can snow on Bluff Knoll occasionally. I've seen that, yeah. Which is unique. I'd rather it be pretty cold. Yeah, I'd rather it be not super hot because I don't like the hot. But yeah, I'm keen for the challenge. It'll be fun. So you haven't done Bluff before? No, I haven't really done much exploring of the wilderness in my own backyard. Right. Yeah, there's plenty to do here. I've lived in Calgary for a bit. I was living near a hole, literally. Yeah. Going out bush and things and camping, and that was it. I've always loved the outdoors. I've always loved the wilderness as well. Yeah. Give me a chance to make a fire, and I'll do it. Better than I can't fire. I love that shit. And I love fishing, you know? That's where I grew up in, you know? And post-apocalyptic world, I'm sorted. But having to hike, you know, a country? Yeah, it's not for everyone. Not for everyone. Yeah, I have to speak to you or John. John Elliott, shout out. Yeah, so let's talk about shoes. Now, what are the best shoes to wear when you're hiking? Yeah, it's a bit of a debate in the hiking world, especially through hiking, long-distance hiking of hiking boots versus trail running shoes. I think it's probably split 50-50 of what people prefer. I'm definitely in the trail runners camp. So don't usually hike in big hiking boots. Like, you'd typically see most people hiking. I'd go for trail runners. They're a lot lighter. Drain water a lot better and dry out a lot quicker, which especially for Tiara was huge. There was so many river crossings. So the feet were always wet. I had weeks on end that my feet didn't dry. Except at night, when you're at camp, you can kind of dry them out and then you put your wet shoes back on in the morning. It's brutal. But the downside, I guess, with trail runners is you don't get the support that you would with a hiking boot. So if you're prone to roiling your ankles and stuff like that, trail runners are a no-go, most likely. But yeah, I'm a trail runner. Team trail runner, for sure. Trail runner, OK. I mean, I had timberlands, but they're definitely not the right choice. No, probably not. They're good waterproof shoes, but definitely not the long hike or trail run. The thing with hiking boots, you know, they're waterproof, which is good a lot of the time. So like a bit of rain's all good. But when you cross on rivers, no matter what, you're going to get the boot submerged. And then once they get wet, they're just never going to dry. Yeah, it's tough. Have you ever, like, gone across anything on horseback for a long distance? Horseback? No. Yeah. I haven't. Have you? Yeah. Have you? Kyrgyzstan. Kyrgyzstan. Just travel via horse, eh? Yeah. Yeah. Like, when I went there last year to visit, yeah, they gave me this horse, and I was like, this horse is too small. Yes. It wasn't a pony, but it was like... You need a big boy. I needed something twice the size. Yeah, right. I needed more horsepower in this horse. Geez. I had about 0.8 horsepower. I needed, like, 1.2 horsepower. It was a joke in there terribly, but I'm glad that I enjoyed it. I follow this one account on Instagram who they're currently riding the entirety of Australia doing a full lap on horseback, which is pretty sick. Yeah, a lap of Australia. Yeah. And they're, like, going through the desert, and, like, I think they're, like, in Central Australia or something right now, and it's pretty cool to watch, but no, I've never even been on a horse. I've ridden my bike long distances, which... Yeah. You're off your feet, I guess, the same thing. I mean, I would probably enjoy a ride more because then you can coast and still cover a long distance. Yeah. You know? That's the benefit with riding. It's like a reward. Whereas trail riding and hiking, your reward is asleep, you know? The thing is, though, I think with hiking, the biggest thing is you're going to get to places that you couldn't with a bike. Yeah, yeah, very true. And you definitely couldn't with a car, which is the biggest draw to me, like hiking out to some super remote mountain top or waterfall that... There's no way you could ride a bike through these rugged, off-beaten, like, off-beaten tracks. Yeah. You're definitely not going to get a car out there. And not many people have actually had the privilege to see it with their own eyes. Yeah, but I think anyone's ever been there. Yeah. It's a pretty cool feeling to be able to say, like, geez, I just got here with my own two legs and carried everything I needed to survive out here. I freaking love that, eh? Yeah. Yeah. How many years you reckon you're away from tackling the big boy, Everest? Everest. Yeah. Yeah. About a year ago, I thought I would never do Everest. It didn't interest me. Yeah. But after doing Kilimanjaro, which is... It's one of the seven summits, so there's seven... The tallest mountain in each continent. Mm-hmm. I'm like, damn, maybe I should tick off the other six. Everest, I'm receiving the tallest in Asia. Oh, you got the drug. So, we'll see. I'm looking at actually going into Nepal this year. Yep. Not to do Everest, but potentially Everest Base Camp and a few of the other smaller, but massive mountains. So that might give me a taste. And I think if I'm looking at Everest every day on that hike, I'll probably get the urge to go climb it at some point. Yeah. Yeah. So, what do you stand for, like, US? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's a bit of a misconception, actually. Like, the Sherpas do a lot for you, but you can't just walk off Everest. It's insane. Like, yeah, even if you have a full team, it's going to be one of the hardest things anyone can ever do. But I'm definitely interested in doing a lot more of the work myself. I'd love to be able to get up there, carrying most of my own gear and that kind of thing. You feel more of a man. Yeah. I mean, on Kilimanjaro, we had Sherpas, we had porters, carried most of our gear up. And I was like, damn, I wish, like, I had, like, looking back, I wish I kind of got up there myself and did it. So, yeah. Everest would be the last of the seven summits I do most likely, because it's the hardest and the biggest. Yeah. It's the Everest of mountain climbing. Yeah. It's the summit of the seven summits. Yeah. So I think in the lead-up to the other big ones around the world, I'll try and kind of lean in towards more doing it with everything on my back and as self-sustaining as possible. Yeah. That's awesome. Have you been to the States? Never. Definitely. Like Yosemite. I mean, I didn't do the trails there. Yeah. I was there as a tourist, like a basic one. But when I went to Yosemite National Park, oh, my God, it's a bucket list. I mean, Yosemite is a bucket list for any outdoor lover, I think. Yeah. There's a big, big trail, the Pacific Crest Trail over in the US that is like the pinnacle of through hiking, which I'm thinking of maybe doing next year. Bears. Bears. Bears, that blows my mind that you have to think about bears over there. Because, yeah, it's crazy. Like coming from Australia, we think about snakes when you're out in the trail, spiders maybe. Yeah. And I see them a lot. And it's definitely like a danger, but not too bad. And then I went to New Zealand and there's there's there's zero wildlife concerns there. There's no snakes, no spiders, certainly no bears. Just like a formal ruins of the Lola Rings set up. That's right. Maybe some Nazgul or something. But it's super safe. And then, yeah, looking at hiking in the US potentially next year and having to carry bear spray and bear proof food bags. And I've heard some horror stories. I'm following this one chick who's hiking the Appalachian Trail, which is a 4000 kilometre hike on the east coast of the US at the moment. She posted a photo the other day of her like in one of the camping huts with like a picnic cable barricaded against the thing because there was bears roaming the camp and they were just like trying to not let them get into the hut. And stuff like that's a reality over there. So it'll be a whole new challenge. But yeah, Pacific Crest Trail, 4000 Ks west coast goes up through California up to Washington. Yeah. It starts in the Mexican US border, finished on the Canadian US border goals. I don't think you have any other hobbies, do you? I love everything outdoors. Yeah. Yeah. I mountain bike a lot. I love fishing, camping, but hiking. And I think specifically through hiking is my biggest love at the moment. Yeah. So I'm going to be walking a lot over the next few years. Yeah. Yeah. Social media wasn't around. Do you reckon you'd be doing it as much? I don't think I'd be doing it as much because I wouldn't be able to do it as a job necessarily. Isn't that interesting? Yeah, it's it's crazy to think about really. And I love I love editing and filming. Like that's another huge thing that I really enjoy, which I think you have to be a full time creator. But if I wasn't doing that, yeah, it'd be interesting to to see where I'd be and what I'd be doing. Because I've such a passion for being the outdoors that I'd have to make a way for it to be my life, I think, at some point or another. And what about like your general income now as a creator? Are you able to afford to purchase a house one day or how does that work? Yeah, I think it's just been trending in the right direction last few years, whereas to where at this point now, I'm just super comfortable with the income earning. My goal this year, or sort of the last 12 months, this financial year was to match my old full time salary that I earned when I was before I was doing this, which I've exceeded now, which is an incredible milestone. And so hopefully, yeah, one day I can go from sort of just matching that to really exceeding it and actually being able to do some crazy stuff, get a house and whatever else, a heart in the wilderness, probably is a bit more appealing to me. I think for you is a bit more of a tiny house. Like, have you seen the tiny house? I love the idea of a tiny house or a big property. It's such a sustainable thing. That's what my wife and I wanted to do. Homestead kind of thing. Yeah, that'd be sick. If you're going out all the time, when you're at your own base camp, your little home, you don't really need much. Yeah, especially if it's like a little bit isolated and got some natural beauty around it. That would be awesome. Where would your most ideal place to plop your tiny house be if you could be anywhere? I mean, there's so many cool places in the world, but let's go specifically Western Australia. I mean, even if I had the choice of the world, it would be in Western Australia. I think it'd be in Albany. Yeah, Albany is my favorite place in the world. So I plan to settle down there at some point. Being in Perth's a bit too convenient at the moment. So stay here for now. But yeah, Albany is incredible. Best clothesline in the world. It's got all the West Aussie mountains on its doorstep. I love that place, too. Awesome hiking. The place where you go out to like this kind of peninsula sort of mountain bit and you can have a camp there with the van ones. Not supposed to, but we did. And you go out to the end and it's just a whole almost 360 degree view and you can see the windmill farms there and the coastline there. So beautiful. It's ridiculous. Would you be the Bluff Knoll tour guide? Cam's tours? Oh, potentially. Yeah, I do run some tours with my Patreon community at the moment. Yeah, you're doing that. I really love hosting group trips. So I could definitely see myself doing more of that. Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. What about kids? Are you in the shooting range yet? Not just yet, but definitely on the cards. Yeah, I definitely want some little adventures running around at some point. So that'll be the best feeling. Yeah, we'll see what happens. I'd love to just like, yeah, travel around the world, yeah, get them onto the trails and experience everything even at a young age. Yeah, do it all first yourself. Yeah. And then once you've done it, you don't have that sense of having to collect the seven. Yes. And then once you have your kids, you're going to be a little bit more reserved, a little bit less risky because, you know... Of course. Kids, priorities will change a bit. But then you've got all the wisdom and... See this here? This is the trail. Let's go this way. Look at this. Open up the bushes and there's a view and it's like... The dream, mate. Oh, man knows some shit. That's the dream. Yeah. And then hopefully they can do some epic things on their own as well at some point. Amazing. Yeah. What are the other specific goals you have for your social media presence and quest? Yeah, I just want to keep growing the community, man. Yeah, like after New Zealand, you know, a whole bunch of new people from around the world jumped on board and followed along and just countless messages of people telling me how much that hike inspired them to get into the outdoors for the first time or try their first overnight hike and that kind of thing. And that's the only reason I'm posting. And so it just spurred me on to kind of keep growing it. I don't really have a numbered goal. Just want to reach more people. And yeah, I guess probably reach more people outside of Australia, because that's been my predominant follower base for the longest time. So now I've got the Kiwi follower base after New Zealand, maybe the US, North America next year. We'll see. We'll keep expanding and trying to reach as many people as possible. Who inspires you? There's so many cool adventurers that I look up to. There's this one guy called Beau Miles who's over East in Australia. And it's probably been my biggest inspiration. He's known as the Backyard Adventurer. He just makes an adventure out of anything. And he creates films and puts them on YouTube. Absolute legend of a bloke. Have you met him? I haven't. No, he's actually come on a Perth for a film tour soon. Oh, I'm going to definitely go out and see it and hopefully shake his head because he's an absolute legend. Does some sick stuff. I love it. Beau Miles. Oh, not before long. You'll be doing some stuff with him in collaboration. No doubt. It'll be epic. Yeah, yeah. Is there anyone else dead or alive that you'd love to have a hike with? Anybody. To have a hike with. Maybe someone like... He's like someone like Steve Owen. Oh, great answer. It's just the ultimate outdoorsy type. Loves the outdoors, love protecting it. Can you imagine if... Imagine going on a walk with Steve Owen. Crack it, I'd be sick. And like back before he passed away, like that we didn't have the camera phones. Exactly. Can you imagine him right now? Like, geez. Yeah, imagine him chucking up a story on Instagram. Oh, my God. He'd be, he'd have a couple of followers, I reckon. Oh, mate, he would be killing it. He should be on the $5 note. Yeah, I mean, his kids are killing it in the same way. Oh, yeah, Bindi and Bob, yeah. Yeah, that'd be sick. Yeah, yeah, they've got some good stories. I think, I think another one would be, I mean, a bit of a cliche, but Bear Girls would be interesting. Bear Girls, yeah, would a legend. I grew up watching men, it was wild. So I think he honestly was probably a big reason why I got into the outdoors, yeah. So he got me onto Pierce, it was great. Yeah, and he's still doing it, even though he's a bit older now. Loves drinking his own Pierce. Sterile, and he likes the taste. Yeah, into a snake first and then out of the snake. I saw that on one episode. Might have been the Aussie episode. What about the one where he put himself into like the carcass of the... Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah, there's some gross stuff, but I mean, sometimes that's the reality. Imagine the cameraman like, what the fuck do you want to do now? Oh, what am I watching? Yeah. You probably got used to it after a while. Yeah, 16th time he drank his own Pierce. Yeah, Bear's done it again. You're going to make a montage of this. Yeah, that's right. Unreal. I think the Dakota track. Pretty cool, yeah, following the footsteps of some people before. Yeah, absolutely. And what about any specific Asian countries like Vietnam or the Stans, Conker the Stans? Yeah, maybe you can give me some recommendations. I'd love to. Oh, mate, Silk Road. Silk Road, yeah. I mean, I haven't looked too much into all of that, but I have seen people that have explored in Middle East and then in Asia and there's some crazy, crazy places that would be pretty sick. I think the thing about that that really draws me in is that not that many people really go over there and get into the thick of it. Do that. It's not as popular as Europe and North America, right? There's all these untouched places that would be pretty cool to go experience. Yeah, it's wild. I think it was the other thing. The you have Silk Road and then you have what about Long Way Down, Long Way Around? Did you ever watch those shows with you and McGregor in that? No, I haven't. There's some good ones. So the Long Way Around, there was Ewan McGregor and his best mate. Forget who it was. It was on SBS when I was a young kid and the Long Way Down as well. I think it was from, was it Canada down to South America? I think, or was it Africa? I don't know, but it was, they were on motorbikes and it was cool. Oh, yeah, OK. And I think I've heard of that. And when I was in Kyrgyzstan as well, they had tours that they could do with the dirt bikes because they can kind of go around the terrain pretty well. There was like a landslide or something. If you're trying to get there with a car, you're stuffed. Yeah, that's as far as you go. So you jump on the dirt bikes and just off road it. Yeah, that sounds cool. Yeah, and then, I mean, we went to, we went up this one mountain and we were all going all the way to the lakes, like the icicle lakes. Wow. And I mean, I don't know how high the elevation was, but you can pick wild mushrooms. They were edible. And you wouldn't be tripping on them either. They were like real ready to go. Yeah, cool. And one of the bears, not that I saw, but they were like raspberries and strawberries or wild. You just... That sounds awesome. Yeah. And how many people have been out there from the west of the world right now in the era? You literally don't walk past anyone. Like there's this path, this kind of, yeah, there's this road that you go down. And if you're in the car, it's very bumpy, like non-stop bumpy. You just go on this. It's actually uncomfortable after a while. Yeah, right. And then... Super remote. And then you get to the end of the road and then all you have is immediately just mountain and then just the pine trees. You're going to make your way up there. You get the... If you get the horse, it's easier. But then when you get to the top and you see that view. Oh, it's all worth it. Yeah, and I did it six months post-ACL reconstruction. So there's my kind of difficulty rating there. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah, one final thing. And thank you for coming on again. My pleasure. If you would be able to give anyone advice about life and doing what they want to do. It's a kid out there who's not sure if they should start, whether it's hiking or whatever it is. What advice would you give them? I mean, give it a go. Yeah, I mean, I had a passion for the outdoors and creating content for ages, right? And I was working full-time and it's hard to make time for it. But if it's something that you're super passionate about, you've got to make time and jump into it. You know, stop procrastinating. Stop procrastinating starting it, right? There's a million excuses you can make, but have a go. Correct. And a bit of life advice in general is just go outside. Go outside. Even if you're not like the biggest outdoorsy type, sitting on your phone all day, sitting inside all day, whether it's on a desk or on your couch, it's terrible for you. So get outside. It's good for your physical health, your mental health. It's actually going to give you a lot of clarity in the things that you really do care about and want to do. I find that when I'm out in nature with no reception and no screens and a little bit uncomfortable, that's when I have the most clarity about what's really important and all these ideas pop into my head about things I really want to do and different directions I want to take. And so, yeah, I encourage everyone to go outside, see your backyard, turn the phone off, and just take it all in. Love that. I feel like I want to do a lap of the block now. Yes. Immediately after this. Under the park. Yeah, I will. Cam, how do we follow you on your adventure? Yeah, I'm on all social medias. Cam Bostock, C-A-M-B-O-S-T-O-C-K. TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. What else is there? Snapchat. All of the above. I'm not on Snapchat. No. But, yeah, I post on all my adventures all the time, so come join the community. Join his Patreon. He's got some peeps there. Yeah. Good community. Patreon community. Best community on the internet, I reckon. That's right. Here you go. Nickelflug. Oh, geez. And yeah, thanks to you for everybody to join in. And if you have any questions, you can hit up Cam on his Instagram that's probably flooded with the M's. Any time, any time. Please do, please do. There will be a comment, something you can comment in the Spotify version of this audio. There's also a YouTube version. You can comment below if you're watching from there. And yeah, thanks for tuning in, as always. Good thanks.