Category: Nature

A walker stands on a mountain silhouetted by the sunset

5 things you need to know about the Grampians Peaks Trail loop

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1. Give me an overview of the trail

This is a two-night / three-day 36.6km circuit walk that can be shortened to an overnight walk by arranging transport from Borough Huts Campground back to Halls Gap. 

(Note: the full length of the Grampians Peaks Trail, a 160km 13-day walk, is now open).

For the three-day walk, we carried 2 days’ food by having breakfast at a cafe the day we started and arrived back in Halls Gap for a late lunch on day 3. Fuel stoves must be used at Hiker camps. Water tanks are located at each camp. Parks recommends treating the water.

A line of cliffs glow red in the early morning light

Day 1: Day 1: Halls Gap to Bugiga Hikers Camp: 8.6km. A well-made track that climbs nearly 500 mostly well-graded meters. It takes in some of the most popular sights in the Grampians including the Grand Canyon and the Pinnacle, so expect plenty of day-walkers in the Wonderland Carpark to Pinnacle section. The trail marking is very good but you’ll need to pay attention when leaving the Pinnacle as there are a few tracks and not every intersection is marked.

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A panoramic view from above Addiscot Beach on the Surf Coast Walk

Surf Coast Walk, Australia

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Back in March, when our knowledge of pandemics was, at best, naive, we picked up a map for the Surf Coast Walk, thinking to do it before winter closed in. But even as we cycled towards home, a tempest was whirling around us and uprooting normality. Borders were closing and Melbourne was going into lockdown. In July, a ‘ring of steel’ was imposed, prohibiting travel out of the city.

Melburnians, steadfast in adhering to the lockdown restrictions, were rewarded for their forbearance. In November 2020, with no COVID-19 cases for weeks, the ‘ring of steel’ that held us to within a few kilometres of home came down. Soon afterwards, we caught a train and bus to the coast, southwest of Melbourne, and breathed in deep draughts of wildness.

The Surf Coast Walk traverses the clifftops, beaches and Moonah woodlands that hug the coast between Fairhaven and Point Impossible. For almost 50 kilometres, over two days, we wandered along the edge of the continent, absorbing the intense blue of the sea and sky, the dusky green of the trees and the red and yellow ochres of the crumbling cliffs.

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Anna striding across a wide curving metal bridge

Walking in the Winter of Our Discontent

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Winter 2020 unfolds as a season of discontent. Borders are closed. The joy of walking long distances through unknown, beguiling lands is lost to us and, as the winter progresses, even the hope of a sojourn in tropical Queensland is extinguished. 

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Michael posing as a Climate Guardian against a backdrop of painted angel wings

Our Isolation Camino

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In Australia, in this time of isolation, all travel is banned. Marooned at home, we find ourselves yearning for the long-distance paths of Spain. Alluring, elusive, unattainable. Until a challenge goes out, to walk the Camino Inglés wherever you are in the world. A spark is ignited. We decide to walk it and transition, step by step, out of our state of restless confinement. 

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Anna & Michael beside a hilltop St Cuthbert's Way way marker

St Cuthbert’s Way, UK

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Symbol of Roman soldier's helmet and St Cuthbert's Way logo on a signpostSt Cuthbert’s Way is a beautiful and intriguing walk across borders and through centuries of history that have left an indelible imprint on the landscape. 

From the ruins of a 12th-century Cistercian Abbey in Scotland, up into the atmospherically foggy Eildon Hills, alongside the green verged, swift-flowing River Tweed and on to an ancient Roman Road, St Cuthbert’s Way climbs up through beechwoods and silver birch forests to the wild, sweeping Cheviots. After crossing the border it continues on through Weetwood Moor, past St Cuthbert’s Cave, across rolling fields to the coast and, on the low tide, to the mystery-shrouded Holy Island of Lindisfarne. From Lindisfarne, you can continue on up the Northumberland Coast to Berwick-upon-Tweed, the northernmost town in England. Read More

Looking over a misty Lot River on the Way of St James

The Way of St James, Chemin de St Jacques, Part 1

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A wooden pilgrim shell, Way of St James

Early each morning, as they have for centuries, pilgrims gather in the romanesque Cathédral Notre-Dame-du-Puy to be blessed before starting their journey on the Way of St James, the oldest Camino de Santiago route outside of Spain. Down a flight of 60 steps, pausing to take a last look back at the imposing white and black striped facade of the cathedral, reminiscent of the great mosque of Cordoba, and onto an ancient trail first walked by Bishop Godescacl in the winter of 951 AD. Read More

Anna waits while Canadian geese cross the Thames Path

Thames Path, England

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Mid Summer, 2019

Thames Path track markerThe Thames Path follows the river from its source in the rolling Cotswold hills, past historic sites and cities, in and out of quaint villages, wildflower meadows and beech woodlands and on through the heart of London to the futuristic Thames Barrier in Greenwich.

We walked the first 55 miles of the 185-mile Thames Path in 2018, following the river from its source to Oxford with our friend Geoff and his 11-year-old son Finn. This year, the four of us are walking from Oxford, the ‘City of Dreaming Spires’, to Henley-on-Thames, a journey of some 50 miles.  Read More

Landscape of patchwork green fields on the Burren Way

Walking the Burren Way, Ireland

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The Burren Way in Ireland is a 125-kilometre walking route from Lahinch on the wild west coast of County Clare. It follows ancient droving tracks, greenways and county byways through the heartland of the Burren to Corofin village. A five-day walk across the largest karst limestone landscape in Europe. It’s an immersion in Irish history and culture and an exploration of natural and archaeological riches including neolithic tombs, ring forts, early medieval castles and ancient centres of learning.

Burren comes from the Irish word, Boireann, a ‘rocky place’, a landscape of bare hills and lowlands. A tilted, folded, glaciated land of limestone pavements, hazel scrub, deciduous woodland, rare wildflowers, lakes, turloughs, springs, fens and grasslands. Its cliffs, escarpments and twisted hills are pale grey. On days when the sea and the sky have a shifting soft paleness, the landscape is more ethereal than existent. A subtle and abiding beauty.
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Riding down the Camels Hump with a tail wind and Burra in our sights on the Mawson Trail

Outback Odyssey: Riding the Mawson Trail

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The Mawson Trail is a 900-kilometre mountain bike ride from urbane Adelaide to remote Blinman, on the edge of the South Australian desert. Using unsealed back roads, farm access tracks, fire trails and old droving routes, the trail takes riders up through the Adelaide hills, traversing forests, historic towns, vineyards, sprawling farms and spent copper country, into the heart of the ruggedly beautiful Flinders Ranges. An odyssey to the outback, organised by Bike SA.

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Red rock escarpment and water hole on the Jatbula Trail

Jatbula Trail: Nitmiluk (Katherine Gorge) to Leliyn (Edith Falls), Northern Territory

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The Jatbula Trail is named after Peter Jatbula, a traditional Jawoyn elder pivotal in securing land rights for his people. The trail weaves its way across the western edge of the Arnhem Land escarpment, following ancient songlines walked by the Jawoyn for thousands of years. 

It is a five-day walk; not a long walk, just 60 kilometres from Nitmiluk Gorge to Leliyn, but a remote and entrancing walk through natural and cultural landscapes full of spiritual significance for the Jawoyn Traditional Owners. Dreaming beings in the form of humans, animals and plants brought this landscape to life by ‘putting themselves’ in the country. Their actions can be seen in features of the landscape and are kept alive in language, sacred songs, stories and dance. 

September is regarded as the ‘most heavenly month of the dry season’. This year though, it’s the hottest and driest on record and the midday heat is searing. We’ll need to set out each day at first light, walk slowly and cherish water.

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