We’re proud to be the official provider of Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney 2013 training walks. Come prepared to hike and meet your fellow teams as you train for the ultimate endurance challenge! But hurry, places are strictly limited to 30 per training walk.

Trailwalker Sydney Training Walks

Click on “Book Now” below to read more information about each walk, including start times and public transport options. Any questions? Call Tara 0410 532 995

Day: Saturday 18th May 27km: Brooklyn – Cowan (14km) – Berowra 13km

Night: Friday 24th May 12km: Manly – North Head loop, 6:00pm-10:15pm

Day: Saturday 15th June 32km: Berowra – Bobbin Head (16km) – St Ives (16km)

Night: Friday 21st June 10km: Waterfall – Heathcote, 4 hours

Overnight: Saturday 6th July – Sunday 7th July: Crosslands – 3 hour late afternoon walk, 3 hour night walk, optional 2 hour morning walk

Day: Saturday 27th July 23km: St Ives – Davidson Park, Forestville

Night: Saturday 27th July 19km: Davidson Park, Forestville – Mosman ** UPDATE 24/5/13 ** This walk is now FULL. Please email us to be added to the wait list.

Note as this is a group walking exercise, these Oxfam training walks are not suitable for runners.

Cost

Day / night walks – free for registered Trailwalker participants; $55 for friends and family (includes $20 for Oxfam)

Overnight (2 day hike/camp) – $55 for registered Trailwalker participants; $110 for friends and family (includes $20 for Oxfam); $35 for friends/family camping only

Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney 2013 Training

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Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney 2013 Royal National Park Cabins Open Day 2013 Redeeming Living Social Vouchers

Have you ever wanted to know more about the Royal National Park cabins? On 21st April as part of an annual open day, you have the opportunity to hear directly from members of the shack communities for the 2013 National Trust Festival.

You’ll hear about how the cabins have been built and maintained by generations of local families away from all the mod cons of 21st century life. If you like a cuppa made the old fashioned way you can enjoy one made with tank water on a kerosene stove.

Everything you see had to be carried in by hand, meaning the shacks have become an excellent preservation of early Australian holiday cabins, built prior to that part of the park being incorporated into Royal National Park.

The RNP Coastal Cabins Protection League is hosting three free guided walking tours setting out from two locations at 10 am on Sunday 21st April 2013.

• From Garie Beach Surf Club a short walk approximately 15 minutes on level track to visit Little Garie community.
• From the Garrawarra Car Park a 2.5 km walk down steep bush track to visit Era or Burning Palms communities.

Selected shacks will be open, and a gold coin donation BBQ lunch provided. Guides will take walkers to meet the locals and hear the stories of how the shacks came to be there and how these places have survived.

Bookings are essential. The event is free but please note the standard Royal National Park entry fee of $11 per car applies.

• For the Era Beach walk, contact Jill on 0400 993 699
• For the Garie walk, contact Kerry on 0417 448 392. Note we visit Kerry’s family shack regularly on the Wattamolla Tour (2 day Coast Track hike). Tell Kerry we sent you (and g’day from all of us!).
• For the Burning Palms walk, contact Margaret on 0418 441 866

Bring walking shoes, swimming gear, water and sunscreen.

See photos from the 2012 Royal National park cabins Open Day.

Royal National Park Cabins Open Day 2013

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It took nine months and 50km of rough ocean travelling before guests Phil and Emma found the message in a bottle. It was washed up on Bundeena’s Shelley Beach in Royal National Park during their Jibbon Aboriginal Tour last week.

The letter, dated June 2012, reads;

Hello,

My name is Lakelan and my brother’s name is Jyedon. We are 8 and 6 years old. We live in Cowra NSW Australia. We live on a farm and my Dad flies aeroplanes and builds them. If you find this note please post a letter or email my family at [deleted].

Thank you. Lakelan and Jyedon Gourd

For Phil, it was an extra special find on his first visit to Australia with his girlfriend’s family. He told the St George & Sutherland Shire Leader, “It was the end of the tour when we spotted a bottle on the sand. I thought it was rubbish and went to pick it up and saw that there was a message inside.”

“It had done well to stay in one piece. The beach is mostly rocks and it had washed over them in heavy surf without getting broken.”

“We were excited. The tour guide said he had been waiting all his life to find a message in a bottle.”

That’s right Phil! Guide Ian has walked the mostly deserted Royal National Park beaches hundreds of times, always searching for anything interesting the ocean may throw back. We’re so pleased Phil was the lucky one who, after a bit of wrestling to get the cork out, found the boys message.

Lakelan and Jyedon holding the message in a bottle

The boy’s hometown of Cowra is 350km inland from Bundeena, so where was the bottle thrown overboard? Phil and Emma emailed the boys and received a happy response. And it seems, this is not the only letter the boys sent.

The boy’s grandfather, Tony Sandeberg, says it took some effort to throw them away, “We threw the bottles in from Bulli beach, north of Wollongong on two occasions but they kept coming back onto the sand. We then gave them to a fisherman who took them out to sea in his boat.”

Bottles? Yes, there were two thrown out to sea! So there is another message in a bottle floating out there somewhere…

Images courtesy Sydney Coast Walks, Tony Sandeberg, Fairfax Media © Lisa McMahon.

Have you ever found a message in a bottle? Or something else interesting washed up on shore while you’ve been out walking?

Message in a Bottle

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A Surprise for Locals Hiking from Bundeena to Otford Clean Up Australia Day 2013

Walking 100km of bush trail within 48 hours is not madness when it’s for a good cause. Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney is one of the toughest team challenges in the world, with teams of four using the hike to fundraise for Oxfam’s work overcoming poverty and injustice around the world.

Because we walk for a living, we’ve decided the best way to help is by pulling on a pair of boots and helping others do the same.

Founder and Chief Guide Ian Wells has teamed up with an enthusiastic crew to conquer the Trailwalker challenge. Whilst all have tackled the 100km before, only one can claim to have finished – it’s tough! This year, we’re upping training and preparation to ensure the entire team completes the course and close to their personal target of within 24 hours (the average is 29 hours).

How you can help

1. Donate to our team with funds going directly to Oxfam
2. Volunteer to support one of Sydney Coast Walks’ teams at an Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney 2013 checkpoint
3. Be an official member of Sydney Coast Walks’ second team entry. C’mon, what’s 100km between friends?

Interested in becoming a team member?

Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney 2013 will be held on 23-25 August with teams walking from Brooklyn on the Hawkesbury, following the well-known Great North Walk and Harbour to Hawkesbury Walking Tracks, before finally finishing at Georges Heights Oval in Mosman.

We need four people to form another team. It’s a personal challenge requiring plenty of training (including nights to get used to walking in the dark) but so worth it.

Sydney Coast Walks is providing:

• the $700 registration fee
• shirts
• training and motivation

You will have to provide

• commitment to fundraise a minimum $1000 with your other team members
• possible volunteers for support at designated stops along the route
• training and motivation

It is challenging, but with training and preparation anyone can do it! Team places are limited to 550 for 2013 so we’ll need to be quick to secure a spot.

For more information visit the Oxfam Trailwalker website. Still keen or have more questions? Drop us a line. Let’s make a difference together!

Oxfam Trailwalker Sydney 2013

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Visitors keen to explore the best of Sydney’s natural beauty can enjoy guided walks of the newly launched Sydney Harbour National Landscape with Sydney Coast Walks.

It’s the first time many of Sydney’s renowned walking trails have been offered as guided tours to international visitors and complements the efforts of the National Landscape program to boost nature-based tourism in Australia.

From the harbour vistas seen in Sydney Harbour National Park to the more secluded and wild Royal National Park, the new National Landscape encompasses some of the best walking sites in Australia’s largest city.

“Most visitors – and even some locals – don’t realize how much of the city’s coastline can be explored on foot. It’s still possible to be one of the few people out on the track on any given day,” says Sydney Coast Walks founder Ian Wells.

“Walking is genuinely low-impact on the environment and one of the most sustainable ways to get up close to nature. Hikers can discover aboriginal sites, taste native plants and spot animals that you simply can’t see from a bus window.”

Half-, one- and two-day guided walks depart year-round exploring South Head and North Head in Sydney Harbour National Park as well as Spit to Manly, and walking the iconic Coast Track in Royal National Park.

Sydney Harbour National Landscape is the 16th and final National Landscape launched as a joint venture between Tourism Australia and Parks Australia.

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It’s time to pull on the gloves again to clean up Wattamolla, our favourite patch of Royal National Park, for Clean Up Australia Day 2013 on Sunday 3rd March 2013.

We’ve been hosting this Clean Up site annually since founding Sydney Coast Walks in 2009. It’s our way of making sure that the reason we love National Parks remains – for its natural beauty, unmarred by rubbish and waste.

You can help keep Royal National Park pristine by joining us on Clean Up Australia Day 2013 at Wattamolla. We’ll have the gazebo set up in the grassy picnic area overlooking the lagoon, accessed from the bottom carpark at the end of Wattamolla Road.

You’re welcome to grab an empty rubbish bag and donate as much time and effort you can spare between 9am and 12:30pm.

Every year we’re dismayed by the rubbish visitor’s leave behind but finish with a sense of absolute satisfaction that, with your help, we’ve left the site in a far better condition than when we found it. Not only will you have our thanks, but we’re sure the native animals, plants, waterways and ecosystems will thank you too.

You can either register your attendance so we know to expect you, or simply turn up on Sunday 3rd March 2013 between 9am and 12:30pm.

Remember to wear a hat and sunscreen, have comfortable enclosed shoes and water to drink. There is no cafe or food available on site so bring snacks and lunch if you’d like to make a day of it. We look forward to seeing you at Wattamolla for Clean Up Australia Day 2013.

Please register here: http://www.cleanupaustraliaday.org.au/Wattamolla

Clean Up Australia Day 2013

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Clean Up Australia Day 2012 Message in a Bottle Hiking from Bundeena to Otford

Sydney Coast Walks is one of the youngest businesses to win a NSW Tourism Award by being recognized with Bronze in the Ecotourism category. We’re proud to be one of the NSW Tourism Awards 2012 winners.

The award acknowledges that Sydney Coast Walks is at the forefront of a growing demand for low-impact, highly sustainable and authentic travel experiences. The three-year-old family owned and operated Eco Accredited business was also finalists in both the Adventure Tourism and Tour Operator categories.

Walking tours are one of the most ecologically sustainable ways to experience natural areas. In addition, we choose to operate in a highly sustainable manner, such as designing all tours to be public transport accessible, composting catering scraps and educating guests on best environmental practice while in the bush.

Sydney Coast Walks pioneered guided walks in Royal National Park three years ago, being one of the first to receive a 10 year Premium EcoPass from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, and are now pioneering low-impact Sydney Harbour National Park experiences.

Founder Ian Wells says, “Our guided walks are unique to the marketplace and we love this niche because, like us, our guests genuinely care about the landscape they’re walking through.”

As walking tours have grown in popularity generally, Sydney Coast Walks has uniquely positioned itself as the experts, winning tourism awards at local, regional and now state level. We became one of the youngest finalists at last year’s 2011 NSW Tourism Awards (at just two years old) and won Ecotourism at the 2012 Greater Sydney Tourism Awards.

Check out more of Sydney Coast Walks’ tourism awards.

NSW Tourism Awards 2012 Winners

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By guest Cecilia Temperli, Sydney

I recently did the Wattamolla Hiking Tour (two days – Bundeena to Otford) with Sydney Coast Walks and it was my third walk with this tour operator. I was so impressed that I booked my fourth walk, a day-hike, a few days later.

The coast track runs just about the whole length of Royal National Park and is overlooking spectacular coastal scenery. Depending on whom you ask and small detours made, the track is between 26km and 31km long.

I decided to have the overnight luggage transported to the camp site and I was glad I did. For me, a lighter day-pack allowed an easier hike to enjoy the beautiful coastal scenery without being burdened by stuff I only needed for the night.

I found the first day quite easy and the walking pace just right. Carrol was a wonderful guide with plenty of stories to tell and great local knowledge. It was obvious that she too enjoyed the walk and this enthusiasm spread throughout the group, adding to a great shared experience.

Arriving at the Wattamolla campsite brought an immediate smile to my face; a marquee with a table and white table cloth awaited us and we enjoyed a pre-dinner glass of wine and nibblies. While the walkers were chatting Carrol prepared a delicious dinner, including a lovely dessert!

The tents were set up and, like in a good hotel; our over-night bag was neatly placed inside the tent. I am sure I fell asleep smiling! Once the park gates are locked and all day-visitors gone, Wattamolla becomes an exclusive camp site for this group only. What more could you want?

I found the second day also pretty easy; some sections of the track are on elevated steel grates. There are ascents and descents which some people may find a bit hard on knees and muscles, but the walking pace is such that they are manageable for reasonably fit people. The walk up to Otford is all uphill but, again, if you take it easy it is manageable.

For footwear I usually wear what the guides wear, hiking boots. The track is uneven and can be wet in some places. However, as mentioned on the website, trainers or joggers with a good sole are fine too. The Bundeena to Otford track is not a city stroll and if you have hiking boots I would suggest to wear them.

Don’t be discouraged or disappointed if rain is forecast. As on my first hike with Sydney Coast Walks, it rained on the first day. Bring a rain jacket and enjoy the difference. Listening to and watching huge waves thunder onto the beaches is an experience not to be missed and often only happens on or after rainy days.

I am looking forward to the next hike and will do this Bundeena to Otford hike again one day.

If you’d like to contribute your experience to Travel Tales, simply email us with a few words and pictures from your tour. Cheers, Tara.

Hiking from Bundeena to Otford

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By guest Ben Wood, Kirrawee (Sydney)

Just a quick note to say thank you to the team at Sydney Coast Walks. We were very surprised that the Jibbon Tour went ahead with only our party of four. To be honest this was an absolute blessing as John led us on a private tour. The four of us have lived in the Sutherland Shire our entire lives and between us have been to Bundeena and surrounds only a handful of times. My sister had never been!

The walk itself was very pleasant. It was not physically strenuous even for my 20 week pregnant sister. We covered 6km in three hours so there was plenty of time to stop and talk about the Aboriginal heritage of the area and to take in the amazing views.

Our tour was lead by John Bedwell, a retired teacher and avid bush walker. The knowledge of the area that flowed so effortlessly from his mouth was amazing. His knowledge of the Aboriginal heritage and Australia in general was inspiring. He even had a handle on some of the local language of the Dharawal people. We honestly had no idea about the Aboriginal heritage and rock carvings on our doorstep. Thinking about it, why wouldn’t the Aboriginal people love this area? It is amazingly beautiful. My images really do not do it justice.

I took many photos with my SLR and camera phone some of which you can see here. I can not recommend this enough to people. Locals in particular should get out and experience some of what Royal National Park has to offer. I am now looking at organising a corporate day to get everyone out of the office to recharge their mind and body.

Thanks again to everyone at Sydney Coast Walks for making our experience perfect. Such a great local business.

This is what my sister Lauren said about the day;

Very organised and friendly staff, with a guide whose knowledge made a familiar landscape and surrounds have new meaning and a rich history. I plan to take friends from overseas on this walk and have also recommended it to friends who live in the local area. A lovely day out and morning tea muffins were delish! Thanks JB, Tara and Ian!

Images by Ben Wood

Thank you Ben, really appreciate your local perspective! Oh, and in keeping with our small group philosophy, the Jibbon Aboriginal Tour goes ahead with only two people, limited to maximum 12 guests.

If you’d like to contribute your experience to Travel Tales, simply email us with a few words and pictures from your tour. Cheers, Tara.

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From its beaches to bays, there are plenty of things to do in Manly. The best way to discover the hidden gems of this popular seaside area is by walking. You’ll discover that while the locals love the cosmopolitan dining and shopping, it is Manly’s natural beauty that attracted them in the first place. So pull on your boots and let’s go exploring on a guided walking tour!

Catch a ferry from Circular Quay to Manly

The iconic Manly ferry departs Circular Quay in the centre of Sydney, cruising past scenic views of the harbour, magnificent homes and protected pockets of national park. You’ll see most of the coastal area you’ll be walking along. After the relaxing 30 minute trip, it’s easy to start exploring some of the best things to do in Manly if you’ve planned ahead.

North Head

Dock at Manly ferry wharf, see the bustle of the Corso, the towering pine trees of Manly Beach and sheltered Shelley Beach, then leave it all behind as you discover the pristine North Head Sanctuary. Full of wild flowers, forgotten military history and the hopes of early Settlers, it’s hard to believe this natural sanctuary with beautiful city views is so close to the hub of Manly. North Head Walking Tour: $125 includes ferry, lunch and more.

Spit to Manly (Manly Scenic Walkway)

Dobroyd Head with view of Manly, on the Spit to Manly walk

From a private water taxi ride to The Spit in Sydney’s Middle Harbour, follow the meandering Manly Scenic Walkway, discovering hidden beaches and a significant Aboriginal rock engraving site. After a gently paced walk, including yummy lunch on the trail, you arrive back in Manly in the early afternoon. You can either return to Circular Quay on the Manly ferry, or choose to stay on after the tour to explore more things to do in Manly, such as a swim at the beach, icecream on the Corso or find a cosy café. Spit to Manly Walking Tour: $159 includes private water taxi, ferry, lunch and more.

Q Station

Combine the best of both Manly walks on a two-day weekend escape, staying at the four star Q Station – Sydney’s beautifully renovated original Quarantine Station. Dine in style at the Boilerhouse Restaurant and revive the next morning with a sumptuous buffet breakfast, all included in your tour. Spit to North Head via Q Station weekend escape: $699 includes meals, twin share accommodation, private water taxi, luggage transfers and more.

To take part in a walking tour, you’ll need moderate fitness and a love of the outdoors. And your reward – discovering that the best things to do in Manly are often the most simple and surprising.

* Prices valid till March 31, 2014. Images: Destination NSW

Things to do in Manly

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