Introducing Louise Southerden
Louise Southerden is an award-winning freelance travel writer and photographer based in Sydney. Her most recent Australian Society of Travel Writers awards include:
* Travel Writer of the Year - 2008 & 2009
* Best Responsible Tourism Story - 2006, 2008 & 2009
* Best Travel Journey - 2008.
Since beginning her freelance life 15 years ago, Louise has lived and worked in Japan, travelled all over the globe (and Australia), had two books published, and been an editor and acting editor of several magazines – which helps her see the writing equation from both sides of the desk, and understand editors’ needs for great stories, clean copy and quality images.
Louise's first book was "Japan, A Working Holiday Guide" (2nd edition, 2000, Global Exchange).
Her love of surfing and two years as editor of women’s surfing magazine "SurfGirl" led to her second book "Surf’s Up: The Girl’s Guide to Surfing" (2nd edition, 2008, Allen & Unwin).
Louise's two loves are water and writing, and when she's not sea kayaking, rafting, surfing, canoeing, and swimming in some of the world's wildest and most natural places, she can be found hiking or climbing in them.
She has also participated in, and written about, several conservation-related trips, and has an Honours degree in Psychology and Zoology - just for good measure!
Louise’s main areas of interest are active/adventure travel and sustainable or "green" travel.
Sample Work
The following articles are available here to read in full, so you can get a better idea of the authors style and substance...
Nepal | Himalayas | Asia | Trekking | Responsible Travel | Outdoors |
Mountains. That’s what generally lures trekkers to Nepal. Specifically the Himalaya, the greatest mountain range on Earth, which consists of impossibly high mountains that are impossible to resist, even when you’re there.But there's no missing the human inhabitants of Nepal's high places and a new way of trekking is promising to put them in the picture even more, through community-built, eco-friendly lodges.
Mongolia | Central Asia | Cities | Destinations | Off the Beaten Track |
Ulaanbaatar is a surprising place, a city of one million (half Mongolia’s population) where yesterday’s communism, in the form of Soviet-era buildings and military-parade squares, rubs shoulders with today’s consumerism, in the form of designer brands now taking their place under the Mongolian sun (a larger-than-life Sean Connery graced a billboard outside a new Louis Vuitton store when I was there). Although it’s one of the world’s coldest capitals, daytime temperatures can reach the mid-30s in summer, when you’re likely to see women in sexy sundresses, children playing in fountains and eating gelato, and policemen riding Segways to direct holiday traffic.
Canada | North America | Destinations | Nature | Off the Beaten Track |
You’d expect a country whose exports include kooky comedians Jim Carrey, Mike “Austin Powers” Myers and Leslie Nielson (of Flying High and Naked Gun fame) to have a unique take on a world-famous tourist attraction. Canada actually goes beyond the call of duty to exceed those expectations. In fact, ever since 63-year-old American schoolteacher Annie Taylor became the first person to ride a barrel over Niagara Falls, in October 1901 – accompanied by an anvil (for ballast) and her cat – this natural wonder has had an offbeat side. You don’t even have to step off the tourist-beaten path to find unusual offerings in Ontario’s Niagara region; most of them are right there in the brochure.
Malaysia | Borneo | Trekking | Adventure | Outdoors |
Think of Sabah, on the island of Borneo, and chances are that down jackets, beanies, woollen gloves and thermal leggings don’t immediately spring to mind. But that’s precisely what you’ll need – as well as a strong pair of legs and a healthy set of lungs – if you’re thinking of standing on top of one of Sabah’s main attractions, Mount Kinabalu.
New Zealand | Trekking | Adventure | Outdoors |
It’s hard not to feel high when you’re standing on a ridge it’s taken four hours to climb, surrounded by 3000-metre peaks and blue-tongued glaciers, breathing mountain-fresh air. It was day 3 of an eight-day “tramping” adventure in New Zealand’s Southern Alps, a kind of pocket-Himalayas just three hours from the east coast of Australia, but it wasn’t the exertion making me giddy. It was the fact that we hadn’t had to walk for days to experience some of the most ruggedly handsome mountains in the world.
