Canberra Centenary Trail

[gang-gang]

The Canberra Centenary Trail, Australia's newest long distance walking track was officially opened on October 27 to celebrate Canberra's 100th birthday. It is 140 km long and showcases the urban-bush fringe as it circumnavigates the capital. The official website is http://www.act.gov.au/centenarytrail and has some useful information and maps. I recently walked it to pre-view the track and have written up a description with many photos on my walking website "Photodiary of a Nomad". This is presented in 3 linked pages, a [url http://www.gang-gang.net/nomad/urbanfringes/cctP.html ]prologue[/url], a page on the [url http://www.gang-gang.net/nomad/urbanfringes/cct01.html ]northern section[/url] and a page on the [url http://www.gang-gang.net/nomad/urbanfringes/cct02.html ]southern section[/url]. These pages also include links to download track files for GPS and track files that can be viewed on Google Earth.

It is different to the backpack bushwalk, but passes through a diversity of landscapes - bush, grasslands, ridges with panoramic views, river corridor, as well as a bit of suburbia, and you can lways get yourself a capuccino!

[kanangra]

Gang gang welcome to the site and thanks for the link. By the way I think your web site is great. I have really enjoyed reading about some of your exploits.

K.

[Onestepmore]

I just had a look at their website, and hopefully Gang Gang you can answer a few questions
I haven't read thorough your websites yet as our download is capped and things are very slow and gluggy (thanks to my kids!) so apologies if your answers are all there

Is it possible to do this as a week-long camping and walking trip?
The website only mentions two campsites - EPIC - Exhibition Park (which would be good on a Saturday because of the farmer's markets, or very bad, depending on your degree of dislike for crowds!) and one called the Northern Border campsite - when I click on this last one though it takes you to a description of general ACT campsites.
The website also says accommodaiton is available at the Aust Institute of Sport - but that is only 8 km away from the EPIC site, so not really suitable for someone wishing to walk the whole track from start to finish

Is the aim more to just encourage people to walk one section with transport via car and for people to stay in hotels (the website mentions a link for nearby mid and high range accommodation choices only), or can it be done as a circuit camping/walking trip?

Edit - I got some of yours to load (not very many of the pics, but those that I viewed showed it is very varied)
I see you aimed to reach the start of each bushwalking track (trailhead) via public transport
So I guess from what I can see then it's not suited for a walking/camping track. Maybe that's something they can consider for the future?

Looks like an interesting series of walks - many thanks!

[gang-gang]

[quote="Onestepmore"]Is it possible to do this as a week-long camping and walking trip? Is the aim more to just encourage people to walk one section with transport via car and for people to stay in hotels (the website mentions a link for nearby mid and high range accommodation choices only), or can it be done as a circuit camping/walking trip?

The track is a bit of a hybrid. There are only two camping options at the moment, the one at EPIC park with car access (but that is not really near any trailhead) and the Norther Borders one, which is a brand new walk-in camping area built for the track in some very pleasant bushland. Using it you could do an overnight pack walk of some interesting sections, but the rest is really a series of connecting daywalks with accommodation required in Canberra. This is why when I walked the track, I wanted to see if it could be done using public transport (and it can). It is best to think of it as a bit like the Sydney Coastal Walk, though with a lot more time in the bush and away from the city and the people than that one.

That said, the track (and its website) is still evolving (e.g. when I walked it a bit over a week ago there was no signage at all, but I'm told that has all been put up now) - I suspect that a southern camping area will be built should the track get good use. Hope that is helpful.

[Onestepmore]

Thanks, good, that was the conclusion I came to
Many thanks for letting us know about this new walking trail

[climberman]

gang gang we are throwing around the idea of doing this as a multi-family bike ride. We aren't CBR locals, but is it likely that we could do it with a bit of stopping at shops and the like for breaks or meals? One of the tribe is youngish and we'd need to be able to spread out a ride distance like that over a day, esp. day 2. Nice website, and your gpx file works for elevation as well, while the CANwalks one doesn't. Nice website too.

[gang-gang]

Hi, sorry to take so long but I didn't have the email notification activated, so just found this. The trail is really pitched at cyclists and all the new sections are mountain-bike friendly in terms of track surface and gradients, so it should be a relatively easy ride. The northern section is long, but has the new campsite (shelters, toilet, water-tanks) in it, so if you do cycle camping, it would be a great place to stay to split the northern section.
The map on the Canwalk site, which I think is the official guide map does show where shops are (and these would be at most half a kilometre from the track). It might be easier to just use googlemaps to locate shops more accurately. If you can do car-shuffles, it becomes easier again with no need to think about camping (e.g. in the northern section, you could easily ride from Forde to Hall or from Hackett to Forde). Hope that helps a bit.

[climberman]

Thanks gang-gang (I would make a gang-gang call but the sound of slow and painful death is hard to imitate!)

[gang-gang]

Probably true, but when you have a dozen of them sitting in your backyard, it becomes a symphony.

[climberman]

gang-gang, thanks for posting this info - my family and I are just home from a two day / overnighter trip from Forde to Hall, camping at the new northern border campground. Lots of fun, track is great (with some bedding in needed, but that will happen). Any trip that ends at a pub also gets bonus points. This was a hard but 'do-able' trip for the kids, (the 12 was ok, the 9 had some 'moments'). Great fun for adults. We enjoyed the campground, and had a fair bit of time there, playing cricket and reading some books. Lots of folks out Sat and Sun, especially riders. We took a BOB trailer for the extra gear which was fine on the track, but the gates! agghh the gates! Hard work for two with a trailer and bike and gear for four. The ridable fences near / on One Tree Hill were great. The couple of gates which could be opened were great too!

A wonderful addition to Canberra outdoors for residents and visitors alike. You should be both proud and happy for your part on it!