I always need a challenge and what you can fit into seven days
just one week, to me is always amazing.
You take a country as big as Australia
and you figure what can I do in seven days?
so I set myself the challenge to find the best eight trails in Australia,
and not go and hike them, nope, we we're going to run them.
Race them, see how quick we could go and do them
and in true Australian style. The challenges that get thrown up;
The wildlife, the climate, you’ve got beaches, you’ve got desert,
you’ve got snow, you’ve got rainforest. This country,
it’s one hell of a place and it’s just truely amazing.
So day one. Kings Canyon.
Central Australia, Alice Springs is probably one of the
most picturesque places in Australia.
Four hour drive out of Alice Springs and it’s
a fun little drive out on the dirt, you know
you’ll need to take a four wheel drive out with you.
This is the jewel of central Australia, Kings Canyon.
So it’s like Australia’s little Grand Canyon.
To run over it the rocks like really grippy
and it’s great trail running, it’s rocky, but it’s a lot of fun to run,
you’re going over bridges, you’ve got 200m drops while you’re running
next to the cliffs and you know it’s one of
the best hiking trails in Australia but
if you’re a runner, it’s definitely a
place I’d go out to visit and if
you’re really keen, go for two laps.
That’s it, that’s the loop of Kings Canyon,
oops I better stop my watch.
32 minutes including the Garden of Eden,
to be honest it’s a short run but this could
be possibly, like I said, one of the greatest runs in Australia.
That’s Alice Springs done, off to Adelaide.
So down to South Australia we flew into Adelaide
and this was the big drive.
So it was about five hours driving up to the Pound,
up into the northern Flinders Ranges and ah,
that’s when the trouble started
So obviously not real smart driving at night
but we didn’t really have a choice so,
driving along and there was just roos
coming out of everywhere.
I’d never seen anything like it, I thought Canberra was bad,
but I’ve never seen anything like it.
Eventually it was like Russian roulette,
and eventually we hit one you know,
he wasn’t huge, but a pretty decent size eastern grey
came out and whacked the four wheel drive.
We hit a roo last night,
lucky they gave us a car with a bull bar.
Yeah, that was kind of the first real (deep breath) moment
but we got to the Pound and I got up, because of timing
I had to get up first thing and run in the dark.
5:30am, we got in late last night out of Adelaide,
a five hour drive and I’m in the Flinders Ranges so this is it.
The actual formation of The Pound itself is something really to look at,
and to be up there running on it and look out along
kind of the ridge line, second day I’m thinking this is even better
than Kings Canyon and then probably one of the
nicest trail runs I’ve had coming home,
coming down back into the resort there at The Pound.
Just magic running, I was just smiling to myself
thinking this is life for me, I’m happy, really happy.
That was the end, I mean that trail,
that loop was amazing! That’s one of the best trails
I’ve run anywhere full stop.
So we’ve got to drive back to Adelaide now
which is a long haul, it’s about a five hour drive
and then jump on a plane to Perth and
ah no rest for the wicked.
So we were five hours back to Adelaide and then next stop was Perth.
Third try lucky.
Story of my life checking into hotels.
Good morning from WA,
we got in in the dark last night and we’ve got
another cracker day in the sun
but we’re just down the road from Busselton,
which is about two and a half hours south of Perth.
Originally we’d planned to run what I thought
would be the jewel of the running week
was the Sterling Ranges, which is down the south of WA.
Unfortunately it had bushfire damage,
but like the whole week went, I think it was actually
for the better because we ended up
picking the Cape to Cape track,
started down in Yallingup down
in the Margaret river area of WA, and it delivered.
I mean the weather was absolutely amazing and look at the water,
how blue it is and the actual first, probably half
of the running trail was as good as any I’ve run on.
Now we’re talking!
I mean it was enjoyable, it was fast running, the scene,
you know the scenic area we’re running was just amazing.
Then the hiking track started so it was soft sand and tough going
it was a hard run. And then the second hiccup
of the week happened, where ah,
Shane lost the keys to the car.
Just got a message on my sat tracker,
Shane’s actually lost, he’s lost the key to the car.
Went looking for Courtney, I don’t know where he was,
hopefully fingers crossed they’ve got my key.
I’m out of water a long time ago and ah
I’ve got to work out what’s the easiest way for me to
get out of here at the moment to get picked up so.
As you could imagine, it’s not only stressful on me
it’s stressful on everyone who’s actually trying to help me do this as well.
At that stage, I got a message on my tracker.
This is the best message I’ve got all day,
have a look at this. I’ve found the car key,
I’ll meet you at Moses Rock. We’re not derailed yet!
Eventually after two hours a local guy on the beach
had found the keys and the way Shane explains it,
you know a little, a little bit of the tag sticking out of the sand,
they found it and enough people on the beach knew
that Shane was looking for the keys that ah yeah,
we got them back.
Back driving, Courtney’s at Moses Rock
so I’m on my way to go pick him up, he’d be very dehydrated by now.
I’ve never been so glad to see anyone in my life.
I was dehydrated. At the end of it I was pretty smashed
you know it was 30km.
Three hours , the second half of the run was pretty much in soft sand
four wheel drive tracks, which really isn’t that enjoyable.
So, if I recommended someone who wanted to run it
to go down there I’d actually just do the run from
the top of the Cape to Yallingup.
I mean that was probably 12km or so and it was
probably some of the nicest run trails.
Like we said, we went there looking for the best run trails
and I’d go as far as saying it’s some of the best
run trails in the country that first part.
That night, I’m trying to get out of WA and I’m delayed now
until 1:45am which is actually 3:45am back where I’m going in Melbourne,
for a four hour flight so I know I’m going to cop it, I’m not going to get much sleep.
I arrive in Melbourne, get off the red eye only to find
my bag not come out on the conveyer belt, so I don’t have a bag.
So after all that, my bag is the one bag that hasn’t come.
So not only are we delayed but we are running short on time
and now my bag.
At the moment, we’re changing flights, we’re going to make the flight later,
decided to call it and make a whole day of it here in Melbourne
so I don’t know, we can go now enjoy the 12 Apostles.
So day four and we’re down on the Great Ocean Road,
two and a half hours outside of Melbourne and we’re running to the famous,
iconic 12 Apostles. See you at the other side.
First time at 12 Apostles and ah, yeah I mean the scale was grand,
it was bigger than I thought it’d be and ah definitely,
there’s a great run down there so if you’re a runner
and you’re visiting the place it’s a great place to go for a trail run.
I mean it is an enjoyable trail, you don’t get a lot of views
but it’s the highlight at the end when you get to
stand out there on the walk-way and see the famous landmark
that makes it all the worth while to go down and have a look.
You know, this is one to tick off, a bucket list place
because it is one of the true iconic locations here in our country.
Day five, again we’ve arrived in the middle of the night
so the next morning I get up and we are in Tassie.
Day…five, is it day five already or is it day four? Yeah day five,
so day five and we are down in Tasmania and going to
run around the Wine Glass Bay circuit and it’s actually quite nice.
So that little island down the south of Australia, Tasmania,
we’re down in Wine Glass Bay, we’re about 2-3 hours on the east coast
away from Launceston and this place is amazing.
Wine Glass Bay is the highlight, it’s probably one of the whitest beaches you’ll see
and crystal clear blue water next to it, but it’s all the
technical tramping to get up to Mount Graham to see the views
that really is the highlight of this loop and of this trail.
As far as a hike goes, it’s great, it’d be a great hike around there.
As far as a run goes, it’s a tough one,
I mean Mount Graham has quite a challenging little pinch up to it.
So next stop, or next photo opp, will be up on top of Mount Graham.
So I’ve booked the hotel for the wrong day, ah, non-refundable,
so first port of call is actually trying to find a new hotel - and being
our nation’s capital during the week,
it’s a nightmare to find accommodation.
We’re trying to work that out but at the same time I need to do a run that evening.
Decided just to come down and get this run done
so it’s 5km around Lake Burley Griffin
and we’ll see how quickly we can get around it.
So we’re running in the city centre around Lake Burley Griffin,
you have Parliament House as your backdrop, it’s a 5km track that’s actually
quite popular, so I’ve thrown my head lamp on in the freezing cold
in the middle of the night.
I’m running around Parliament House,
this circuit where Olympians, because of the Australian Institute of Sport
is in Canberra, you’ve got Olympians that have run the course before,
ah, it’s a popular lunchtime run but I’m running it in the middle
of the night with a head lamp on as quick as I can
and this is after running 30km in the morning down in Tassie.
I think that puts things into perspective,
how much I’m actually challenging myself on the running at each location,
you know I’m running at close to, you know full speed, racing speed at these locations.
Four hours sleep after running around Parliament House
last night and we’re on our way to, day six, Thredbo.
We’re up in the dark again and we’re on our way this time to Thredbo.
So down to the snowy mountains and the goal is,
in the middle of winter, to get to the highest peak in Australia.
Here we go! Kozi. Day…six.
So we’ve been up there on a previous project before,
in absolutely appalling conditions, in no snow, but appalling conditions.
This time I was just fingers crossed you know
with mountain weather in the middle of winter.
I was running pretty much in shin depth snow a lot of the time.
Here we go, so heading for ah Kosciuszko
Some good, some good running,
and then there’s some ah just shit.
Pretty soft old snow makes it pretty tough going.
So I’ve got up to the top of Kosciuszko and as we got there,
we’ve run up in white out pretty much the whole way and
then it just opened up like this, blue skies, sometimes you get lucky!
Sun’s been good to us all week,
Queensland tomorrow you better hold your own.
Instead of catching the lift down from up there at Eagles Nest
we jumped on the snowboard and had a bit of fun for the day,
kind of felt like I was on holiday for about all of an hour.
I’m up the top of Australia at midday,
flown into Townsville that night.
Arrived again midnight, so limited sleep,
and then first thing 7am in the morning, we are on a boat.
And we are off to Hinchinbrook Thornsborne trail,
is a good one to save for the end,
not only is it my home state, so probably a bit bias there.
Alright! here we go day seven, back home in Queensland,
Hinchinbrook Island, good to be back in Queensland!
Truly one of the most untouched environments left in Australia!
Talk about the wildlife, crocodiles, you know true tropical northern Queensland environments.
As an ambassador for Queensland Tourism,
I do a lot of stuff around Queensland, and this is one that I still hadn’t been
and I’m now going as far as saying that it rivals
anything that I’ve seen along the Queensland coast.
There’s days that I run and I catch myself smiling,
and today it’s one of those days.
Queensland, had a bit of everything on those trails; you’ve got beach,
you’re up in the jungle, it gets dry, rocky, water holes, waterfalls.
Good place to finish, I’m going to go and sleep for a few days.
A lot of time went into choosing what trails
I believed were the best in each state and territory in Australia,
and at the end of all this I don’t regret any of them;
I reckon I’ve made the right choice on all of them.
So where do I go from here, what’s next?
We will see where the next trip takes us.