If Susie Youssef didn’t regularly take herself for a walk, usually from Bondi to Bronte, or by the bay in Drummoyne, she would be “about seven shades crazier”. Walking, says the Sydney comedian and actress, “keeps me sane”. That’s why she agreed, despite a delicate professional reservation, to join Alone Australia winner Gina Chick in becoming one of two extra presenters on the previously titled Great Australian Walks with Julia Zemiro , now Great Australian Walks .
Comedian Susie Youssef hits the road as part of the revamped Great Australian Walks. Zemiro has relinquished naming rights but introduces each self-contained episode and begins the season with a cape-to-cape trek in WA’s Margaret River region. Youssef initially wasn’t sure she was the right person to join the series.
“It was because of my deep love and admiration for Julia Zemiro,” Youssef explains. “Julia has this incredibly fast brain and this beautiful energy. I thought, having seen the first season, she’s just perfect.
It was a show built around her. But I was also thrilled because SBS was paying me to buy new running shoes and adventure around.” Youssef won’t speculate on why SBS expanded the presenting team.
Youssef (left) with Great Australian Walks co-presenters Julia Zemiro and Gina Chick. “I don’t know the official reason,” she says. “I can’t think of someone more wonderful than Gina Chick to do this, given that she comes to walking with a really different perspectiv.