10 Articles From 10 Years of We Are Explorers That Capture What We’re All About

We Are Explorer is ten! To celebrate, the team hand-picked ten of their favourite articles that showcase what we’re all about.

We Are Explorers recently celebrated an entire decade of sharing the power of the outdoors with Australians (and an increasing international fanbase, hi!). The site’s been in existence for ten whole years, and in that time we’ve seen it transform from a blog where Henry shared his weekend adventures in the spare hours around his full-time job, to a multi-award winning digital publication, with ten full-time staff and hundreds of contributors from around the country (and once again, the world, heya!). 

That’s us at our 10 year party! | @eandrewsphoto

In that time, the homepage has been graced with some seriously special stories and snaps. Not only have we shared the power of the outdoors, we’ve also been inspired, motivated into action, and moved by the power of words and storytelling. 

I recently asked the We Are Explorers crew which articles from the last ten years have influenced them in a big way. Once I narrowed down the extensive list, I realised each article remaining represented a different aspect we try to bring to the stories we share. 

It’s tricky to sum up everything that We Are Explorers has grown to become and the depth and breadth of stories we try to tell, but this list has a crack. 

First and foremost: 

We Encourage Adventure in Whatever Form Works for You

We Are Explorers was built on the 5pm-9am microadventure. Sure, staggering summits, new thru-hikes, and unmatched feats of human endurance are gobsmacking and inspiring, but they’re not accessible for the regular Explorer who just wants to rub their bare feet in the grass a little more often. 

That’s why homegrown adventures that fit around your life are golden – like the time Henry and two mates set out from Sydney with little more than their bikes and a train ticket to ride to the Wollemi Glow Worm Tunnel.

And it’s even better when they’re a little quirky, like the time Talia switched up her daily commute and decided to rollerblade there instead. 

The opportunity for adventure is all around us, sometimes you’ve just gotta get creative.

We Unpack the Nuances of Adventure & the Outdoors

Despite more people wanting to simplify their life with more time outdoors, the nuances that come with exploring a land like Australia are anything but simple.

We don’t shy away from addressing the big questions that pop into your brain while sitting around a crackling fire or ogling at a smorgasbord of constellations.

Questions like, Are We Explorers? Something Rach Lewis has pondered during her time in the bush.

And ‘Who would you rather run into in the woods? A man or a bear?’. Brooke unpacked how the issues behind this question have unfolded for women in real life and, quite literally, in the woods.

We Work at Making the Outdoors a Place for Everyone

Traditionally, the outdoor and adventure scene is pretty white, masculine, able-bodied, and hetero-normative.

But it absolutely shouldn’t be. If there’s anywhere in this world that’s for everyone, it’s nature.

Making sure everyone has equal access to and comfort in nature isn’t a simple task, but one we strive to make happen by sharing the stories of people who are getting out there, despite the outdoors not being the most welcoming place for them.

People like Sarah Larcombe, a competing adaptive climber who’s paving the way for other people living with disabilities to embrace the sport of climbing and join the ever-growing adaptive climbing community.

We Have a Bit of Fun

Of course, amongst all the philosophising, we still want to have a bit of fun. Some of our silliest ideas have come straight from the folks who know the We Are Explorers voice best – our editorial team!

Jono cooked up a list of the best outdoor dunnies in Australia and New Zealand, ya know, for shits and gigs.

We Elevate Life-Changing Adventures

Every Explorer has an adventure story and we could spend a lifetime listening to them. But every now and again, you catch wind of an adventure story of a lifetime. 

Like Jess and Bijmin, who, while riding horses through New Zealand’s South Island backcountry, emerged from weeks in the bush into the midst of a global pandemic. 

And of course, the story of Jezza, who survived a life-changing canyoning accident to become a tetraplegic paraglider and founder of Making Trax New Zealand. A survivor and Explorer through and through. (Is it a coincidence both of these unreal stories happened in New Zealand? Just sayin’.)

We Encourage Protection of the Natural World

Although we love adventure, it’s nature that’s the true North Star. Without a well-loved and protected natural world, our opportunities for adventure, good mental health, and connections to Country and each other suffer.

Protecting the natural world is paramount at We Are Explorers, and one of the first articles we wrote about it, Tim’s deep dive into keeping our wild places clean, is still one of our favourites to this day.

We Analyse the Tools We Use to Get Out There

It’s safe to say, we wouldn’t get very far without our gear (or we’d at least have a much more miserable time, not to mention barely anything to talk about).

One of our most-read articles in ten years of publishing is Saphira’s extensive review of Aldi’s hiking gear range. Gear + meme brand + real world experience = something every Explorer wants to read about.

We couldn’t be prouder of how far We Are Explorers has come in ten years. A huge thanks to everyone who’s shared their stories, from writers, to photographers, and Explorers we’ve chatted to, and of course to all of our readers and the community we’ve built, we’re stoked to have you along for the ride.

Here’s to another ten years of storytelling!

Feature photo by @claire__dalton