Tracey Croke is a Sydney based freelance journalist who covers, travel, adventure, culture, sports and health, along with global gallivants on her mountain bike. Her writing and photography is published widely, in The Guardian, BBC, Telegraph (UK) and a raft of adventure and mountain bike publications. Tracey is also a contributing author to Ride: Cycle The World (DK Penguin Random House). According to ChatGPT, she has authored three books, but that’s codswallop.
Tracey is best known for writing upbeat, mindful features about adventurous and immersive experiences. Quirky, off-beat, and saying it as it is are in her DNA. She rode Australia’s trail where life began, has followed ancient elephant-migration trails on a mountain bike safari in Botswana, walked a peace trail in Palestine, chased truffles in secret forests around Sienna, trekked with nomadic tribes in Afghanistan and was on the first mountain-bike traverse of Kyrgyzstan’s Talas Range. Regular fuzzies come from “you made me want to do that” feedback. P.S. She won’t turn her nose up at a luxury assignment.
A top bragging right is her appointment of head girl at one of the worst high schools in the UK. This early setback didn’t stop her from becoming a world-class expert in following whims and getting lost. Luckily, editors overlook her woeful map reading skills as long as she brings back a good story.
Other accolades include: 2024 winner of a Kennedy Award for Excellence in Journalism (outstanding travel writing). In the same year, she picked up the British Guild of Travel Writers Inclusivity Award. 2020 saw her win Best International Story at the Australian Travel Writers’ Awards and she scooped Best Adventure Story twice (2020 and 2017). Her photo essay, “A Portrait to Keep” was featured at The Walkley’s Storyology Slide Night – part of Sydney’s Head On Photo Festival.
She sporadically youtubes under “The Trail Tart”.
Insights and anecdotes of Tracey’s adventures have landed her slots on the Telly, Talk Radio and at speaking even