Australia - what’s your favourite walk?

 

So what’s your favourite walk? Is it a tour through the grungy laneways of inner city Melbourne or Sydney? Or might it be the Cape Byron walking track, past rainforest, beach and clifftops to the lighthouse that marks Australia’s most easterly point?

Don’t keep it to yourself, or even to your own Instagram buddies. Share it with us and our thousands of followers on the Heart Foundation Walking Facebook Page.

You might be a history and art lover, who needs every walk to include coffee and a stroll around an art gallery. Just head for a historic town and explore (and send us your pictures!) In Victoria’s Bendigo, you could do the “Rosalind Park discovery walk”. This starts in the Conservatory Gardens, takes you along the shores of the Bendigo Creek, and on to the Bendigo Art Gallery, one of Victoria’s oldest and most significant art galleries, with a regular schedule of exciting touring exhibitions and an important collection of 19th century European paintings. The walk finishes with a stroll around the Queen Victoria Gardens.

Or maybe you live in Canberra and like to spend Sunday afternoon doing the 5 kilometre round trip “two bridges walk” along the shores of Lake Burley Griffin. You loop around the Kings Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue bridges, with a stop for art and coffee at either the National Portrait Gallery or the National Gallery of Australia on the way back. Just don’t forget to share your pictures of your Yarra or Burley Griffin walk with us.

Or does your dream weekend mean a camping trip with mates and a hike to the splashiest water fall you can find?  In South Australia, you might be heading to the Deep Creek Waterfall on the Fleurieu Peninsula, a 12 kilometre hike with spectacular bush and ocean views. In Queensland you might be staying in Canungra’s Green Mountain Campground and taking a short late afternoon walk to Morans Falls, to sit and watch the sun set.

Or if all your favourite bush walk Instagram pics feature lakes, we’ll look forward to seeing your photos from Australia’s premier alpine walk: the 65 kilometre, six-day Cradle Mountain trek to Tasmania’s Lake St Clair National Park. Too hard? Perhaps we’ll see you on the lovely Dove Lake Circuit. The most accessible walk in the Cradle Mountain region it’s an easy -going six kilometre stretch of flat, gravel and duckboard track through terrain that includes scrubby grass,  sandy beaches, cascading streams and an enchanted-looking rainforest known as the Ballroom Forest.

Still, most Aussies are city dwellers. And what many of us like best is the walk that takes us into nature but keeps us within an hour or even less from the CBD.

Sydney’s Bondi to Coogee coastal walk passes four different beaches, and a collection of beautiful and different ocean pools.  Or drive only an hour north of Melbourne to the challenging and rugged 10.4 kilometre Werribee Gorge Circuit Walk, which includes climbs, river crossings and rock-hopping.

More than 3000 kilometres away in Perth, let’s see your shots from the walking trails of Kings Park, one of the largest inner city parks in the world. Or hop on the ferry to Rottnest Island, and do the 6kilometre Karlinyah Bidi trail, past long sandy beaches and calm swimming lagoons. Just don’t forget to take your “my favourite walk” pictures and share them on our Heart Foundation Walking Facebook page.