I’ve been investigating the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to access Johnny Boy’s Walkabout Blog.
There seems to be some advantages in using AI over the Search function of the blog.
To date I’ve used ChatGPT and Claude via an iOS smartphone and ChatGPT via a Windows 11 laptop.
ChatGPT seems to be the better. Note that this is a free version and you may run into resource limitations after heavy use and have to wait a period of time for resource limits to be reset.
Here’s a couple of example questions and responses:
- Q: “Find me a 2-3 hour easy walk in Canberra on Johnny boys walkabout blog”
R: “Yes. I found the Johnny Boy’s Walkabout Blog — it’s John Evans’s Canberra/ACT bushwalking blog, with a large collection of local walks.
For your 2–3 hour, easy-walk requirement, I’d suggest we look through Johnny Boy’s Canberra walks rather than just picking a generic Canberra track.
One promising area is Rob Roy Nature Reserve, but Johnny Boy’s Callaghan Hill walk is much longer and harder than you want (12.1 km, 795 m climb, 5 h 40 min), so I would not recommend that one.
I can search Johnny Boy’s blog specifically for 3–4 good easy walks around Canberra of roughly 2–3 hours, and give you the distance, climb, starting point and direct link to each blog entry.”
My R: “Yes”
R: “I’ve gone through Johnny Boy’s Walkabout Blog looking specifically for easy Canberra walks around 2–3 hours. These are the best matches I found:
- ⭐ Urambi Hills — my pick
Tuggeranong Hill Nature Reserve
4.5•Nature preserve•Open
Website•Directions•132281
Johnny Boy describes this as a short and quick 2-hour stroll. The actual walk was about 5.5 km, 125 m climb and 2 hr 10 min, graded S/E (Easy). It has good views towards the Bullen Range and Tidbinbilla Range.
Johnny Boy’s Urambi Hills walk
Verdict: 🥾 Best fit for what you’re asking for.
- ⭐ Mulligans Flat Woodland Reserve
Mulligans Flat Woodland Sanctuary
4.7•Nature preserve•Open
Website•Directions•(02) 6169 6835
This one is particularly appealing if you want something easy and relatively flat. Johnny Boy describes it as a “Short and Easy” stroll and allowed around 3 hours walking. The walk started at the Amy Ackman St entrance in Forde.
Johnny Boy’s Mulligans Flat walk
Verdict: 🥾 Best if you want an easy, relaxed woodland walk.
- Mt Painter → Black Mountain → Botanic Gardens
Mount Painter Nature Reserve
4.6•Nature preserve•Open
Website•Directions
This is a more substantial ~9.5 km / 3-hour walk through Mt Painter, Aranda Bushland and Black Mountain, finishing at the Botanic Gardens. However, Johnny Boy rates it S/M, rather than easy, because there are substantial climbs — about 340 m total.
Verdict: 🥾 Good walk, but probably a little harder than you’re after.
- Mt Ainslie Quarry & The Labyrinth
Mount Ainslie Nature Reserve
4.7•Nature preserve
Johnny Boy’s report gives 9.2 km, 450 m climb and 3 hr 25 min, graded M/M. It includes the interesting Labyrinth and Mt Ainslie, but I’d rule this out if your priority is easy.
My shortlist for you
| Walk | Time | Distance | Climb | Difficulty |
| Urambi Hills ⭐ | 2h 10m | 5.5 km | 125 m | Easy |
| Mulligans Flat ⭐ | ~3h | — | Low | Easy |
| Mt Painter → Black Mountain | ~3h | 9.5 km | ~340 m | Moderate |
| Mt Ainslie/Labyrinth | 3h 25m | 9.2 km | 450 m | Moderate |
I’d choose Urambi Hills for you. It is almost exactly what you asked for: about two hours, 5½ km, modest climb, easy grading, and good Canberra-area views.
If you’d like, I can also search Johnny Boy’s blog for another 5–10 walks that are 2–3 hours and specifically around the south side of Canberra/Tuggeranong, which might give you some less familiar options.”
- Q: “what’s the hardest walk on johnny boys walkabout blog”
R: “If by “hardest” you mean the toughest walk documented on Johnny Boy’s Walkabout Blog, I’d put The Paralyser / Guthega–Illawong area very high on the list — but there’s an even stronger candidate if we judge purely by difficulty.
Johnny Boy’s blog covers a lot of off-track Namadgi and ACT high-country walks, and some are considerably harder than ordinary graded bushwalks. His ACT “Percies” material specifically notes that difficulty is influenced by scrub, lack of tracks, terrain, distance and amount of climbing.
One particularly tough category is the off-track ascents of Mt Namadgi and the surrounding high country. A description of one of Johnny Boy’s Mt Namadgi trips calls the climb from the trailhead “relentless”, with difficult scrub once leaving the defined track.
And that’s really the key: Johnny Boy’s hardest walks aren’t necessarily the longest ones—they’re the off-track ones where you have to fight through scrub and steep, rough country.
If you want, I can search Johnny Boy’s blog systematically and identify his top 5 hardest walks, comparing distance, vertical climb, grading and off-track difficulty. That would give us a much more definite answer.
My R: “Yes”
R: (this took a few minutes searching the 1000+ WordPress posts and pages on the blog and the older html entries that make up more than 1750 trip reports) “I’ve gone through Johnny Boy’s blog and, if we judge “hardest” by a combination of distance, climbing, off-track terrain, scrub, scrambling and the actual comments in the trip reports, I’d revise my earlier answer.
My top 5 hardest Johnny Boy walks
| Rank | Walk | Distance | Climb | Why it’s tough |
| 1 | Mt Namadgi via Middle Creek / Worn Boot Bash | ~30 km | ~800 m | Very long, off-track, remote and slow country |
| 2 | West of Orroral Hill – Granite Tors | 14.5 km | 950 m | Steep, scrubby, rocky, scrambling and narrow squeezes |
| 3 | The Pimple & Tidbinbilla Ridge | 16 km | 1,060 m | Huge vertical gain, rough ridge, scrub and scrambling |
| 4 | Ridge West of Bushfold Flats | 13.2 km | 700–750 m | Described explicitly as a hard walk in very steep, scrubby terrain |
| 5 | Yankee Hat Slabs & Middle Creek | ~14 km | ~600 m | Described as a difficult off-track walk, with thick scrub and steep rocky slopes |
🥇 My pick: Mt Namadgi via Middle Creek
This is the one I’d call Johnny Boy’s toughest overall walk, rather than simply the walk with the steepest section.
The blog describes the 2014 version as a “very long and hard trip for quick and competent walkers”, around 30 km, 800 m of climbing and 13 hours walking.
And there’s a good reason. Johnny Boy’s own notes on Namadgi point out that some off-track walking there can be less than 1 km/hr because of the scrub.
🥈 But the nastiest day walk may be West of Orroral Hill
This one really stands out. The planned route was 14 km and 950 m ascent, mostly through steep, scrubby and rocky terrain, with steep rock scrambles and narrow squeezes. The actual walk came in at 14.5 km and 950 m, taking 8¾ hours.
That’s an enormous amount of climbing for only 14.5 km.
🥉 The Pimple is another monster
The Pimple/Tidbinbilla Ridge trip managed 16 km and 1,060 m of climbing, taking 8 hours 10 minutes. Johnny Boy’s own description says, “A cracker of a day, which I (just) survived.”
That’s probably the hardest purely by climbing intensity of the ones I’ve found.
One interesting contender: Tinderry
There’s also an older Tinderry Exploration on the original Johnny Evans site: about 18 km, including 8 km off-track, with 1,000+ m of climbing. It was explicitly described as Hard, with scrub, rock outcrops and a long day expected.
So if we include the old pre-WordPress Johnny Boy material, Tinderry probably pushes into the top three.
Bottom line:
🏆 Hardest overall: Mt Namadgi via Middle Creek / Worn Boot Bash
💪 Hardest short-ish day: The Pimple & Tidbinbilla Ridge
🌿 Hardest bush-bashing: West of Orroral Hill / Granite Tors
⛰️ Hardest old-school exploration: Tinderry Exploration
Johnny Boy’s Walkabout Blog ”
At the moment the AI help is external to the blog. Looks like AI WordPress plugins may be too costly for my budget.
I’d be interested to hear about your experiences and whether the AI searches are useful.