Bay Of Fires Barnbougle Walk & Golf Is Back!
Bay Of Fires Signature Walk has joined with Barnbougle Golf Links once again to offer hikers their popular limited edition hike and golf walks in 2024, featuring two of northern Tasmania’s great outdoor experiences.
These special walks combine the full four day Bay of Fires Signature walk with two days golfing at nearby Barnbougle – one of Australia’s premier golf courses and one of the Great Golf Courses of Australia – including transfers and executive club hire.
Two exclusive departure dates are available, for up to 10 people per date.
January 13 – 18, 2024 | Price $3,595 per person
March 16 – 31, 2024 | Price: $3,595 per person
Book now or get more info on Bay Of Fires Signture Walk & Golf At Barnbougle
For those that have done Maria Island Walk, you’ll know your final pit-stop of historic Bernacchi House in Darlington is a much loved and welcomed place to spend your final night of this four day walk, with its comfortable lounges, lovely dining area, porch perfect for wine and cheese, and hot showers.
Part of the UNESCO World Heritage Listed area of Darlington, Bernacchi House recently received a beautiful and gentle heritage restoration by the Maria Island Walk/Wildbush Luxury team, bringing back much of the charm and sparkle of its former glory when it was one of the finest houses on the island.
Local Tasmanian designer Laura Stucken, also co-owner of Van Bone Restaurant, was in charge of redesign and choose a colour palette in warm natural earthy to breathe freshness into the homestead, which is a local landmark for her.
“As Van Bone looks out over Maria Island, I am very familiar with the landscape, environment, and the history of the island, and understand how important materials, furniture and finishing touches are to capturing the spirit of a place,” she said.
“I was delighted to work with the team on the re-design of Bernacchi House which now feels refreshed and sophisticated but still remains true to the building’s fabric and story.”
Local artisans were commissioned to design and make some new furniture, including Simon Ancher Studio’s beautiful sustainable Tasmanian timber beds and Scott Van Tuil’s sandstone tables, paying homage to the gorgeous Painted Cliffs on the island, much loved by the community.
Local potters Tim and Tammy Holmes also brought their work to ceramics through the house, and other furnishings and joinery was sourced from artisans and suppliers in the Hobart area.
To come and experience the revitalised beauty of Bernacchi, book the award-winning four day, three night Maria Island Walk today. Running from October to May each year, it celebrates fantastic walking (with optional climbs if you like), indigenous culture, settler history and wildlife galore, as Australia’s unofficial home of wombats and many other animals.
Book Maria Island Walk Now
“Flooding has many benefits for Murray River Walk.
The 2022 walking season has been the most challenging year for our Murray River Walk team, with constant route changes due to a rising river that is now covering the entire trail except for the cliff sections. It is spectacular when viewed from above the valley – akin to a vast inland lake.
We have not seen a flood of this magnitude since 1974.
Coincidentally, we launched our new luxury houseboat – High River – in May and the river has kept getting higher ever since!
Most importantly, there is no life in a river without floods. Floods are a trigger for breeding of fish, waterbirds, frogs, and reptiles because they also start production of their food — tiny drought resistant eggs and seeds that turn into zooplankton and phytoplankton at the base of the food chain.
Floods are also the cause of germination in our big trees, the redgums and black box eucalypts whose seeds only germinate on the recession of a flood, and hence their forests are an expression of former floods.
You can talk about this stuff in dry times, with box trees growing kilometers from the riverbank and cracked clay creek beds and it can be a hard concept to grasp. But in a flood, you can see it – shallow water that spreads across a river valley and spawns the life that makes this ecosystem thrive for years to come.
We anticipate that our walking trail will be ready for April, spectacular with flourishing forests, germinating seedlings and abundant birdlife that will have bred during this event.
I am so looking forward to seeing the results, the changes, the benefits of this once in a lifetime event – and the long-term benefits and how long they will persist.
We would love to invite you to come and see for yourself in 2023, and experience the Murray River Walk in this extraordinary, special part of Australia.”
Tony Sharley – Owner & Operator
Murray River Trails
If there’s one travel writer out there who knows her hikes, it’s Laura Waters! Laura has just released her new book ‘Ultimate Walks and Hikes Australia’ and we’re giving away three copies, just in time for the holidays.
Laura has hiked thousands of kilometres to put together this guide to 40 of the best walking tracks across Australia.
Ultimate Walks And Hikes Australia is a fantastic read and inspirational for all walkers, whether you’re interested in multi-day walks like the Great Walks Of Australia or short walks.
To win a copy, email us by 6pm December 24, 2022 with ‘Win Ultimate Walks & Hikes’ in the subject line. We have three to give away!
*Winners will be chosen at random and notified by email.
Celebrate the winter solstice in 2023 in Tasmania with a twist! ‘Restaurant At The Edge of The World’ returns to Three Capes Lodge Walk in June, and is one not to be missed.
Featuring the full four day walk, guests will experience a special winter inspired gourmet feast by local chef Luke Burgess (Garagistes, Noma), utilising delicious local Tasmanian produce, each course paired with the perfect wines.
But there are more twists on this special edition walk too: storytelling and some live performances make for a very unique adventure!
Get more info on Three Capes Lodge Walk or book this special edition gourmet walk here.
It’s a four day journey through one of the most extraordinarily beautiful parts of Australia, and in 2022, Freycinet Experience Walk in Tasmania – one of Australia’s original and premier eco-tourism experiences and multi-day guided hikes, turns 30.
Founded by Joan Masterman in 1992, Freycinet Experience Walk remains grounded in their family ethos. In 2019, Joan was awarded an Order of Australia for her contribution to tourism in Tasmania and her commitment to protecting and preserving the environment. Joan’s family continue to run the walk to this day and champion her legacy.
“Joan’s legacy is that the quality of ecotourism can be expressed through architecture, culture, and long-lasting relationships. In Freycinet Experience Walk, there’s a deep passion and care for Tasmania and for the experience that we have of Tasmania,” describes former Friendly Beaches Lodge Host, Dan McMahon.
Across the four-day walk, guests walk the entirety of Freycinet Peninsula including Wineglass Bay. On the trail they are immersed in indigenous stories; the area once a rich food bowl for local first nations people. Rare and endemic flora and fauna abounds throughout the beaches and forests you walk through, from the diverse bird life and numerous marsupials, to ancient grass trees and stunning wild orchids. There’s literally something fascinating nature has on show to see around every corner.
Then there’s the accommodation. For many, Friendly Beaches Lodge is a place hard to forget. Lightly floating on the landscape on the stumps of old Fishermans shacks, surrounded by 130 hectares of nature sanctuary, you won’t be alone in finding it hard to tear yourself away from this beautiful, deeply relaxing place.
Used exclusively by hikers on the walk, the lodge set a new standard for sustainable, environmentally focused tourism. Designed by Ken Latona and built out of sustainable Tasmanian wood, it continues to impress walkers with its functionality and classic minimalist lines, as well as its welcoming, relaxed feel. Plus a new refreshed menu launched by David Quon, highlighting the ‘bush tucker’ influence of the surrounding landscape, is a new addition to staples such as the freshly caught flat-head hikers bring home for dinner.
Always adapting and evolving, in 2023 the award-winning Freycinet Experience Walk will launch an Artists in Residence Program. Artists will be housed in a space separate from the walkers, and will be site responsive environmental / ephemeral artists. Artists will leave something of their process, and some written documentation of their experience of Friendly Beaches and the peninsula that future guests can experience – a nod to the family’s appreciation of the arts.
A chance to escape urban life and reconnect in sweet relaxed bliss with nature, the Freycinet Experience Walk is one worth celebrating.
Get more info on Freycinet Experience Walk and book here
“If asked by the right person to nominate one of my favourite spots on Earth, I would pause, and in my mind’s eye, take a breath of sea air from a long, deserted beach on the Freycinet Peninsula. I would try to describe a walk on white sand, past a lagoon flecked with black swans, along a wattle-shaded track impressed by wombats and devils, to a lodge concealed in the trees.” Nicholas Shakespeare, Author
“Friendly Beaches Lodge is one of those places you never want to leave, and one of those places you always long to return to.” David Handley, Sculpture by the Sea
“Freycinet Experience Walk is a bushwalking experience…but it’s about far more than the bushwalking.” Reuben Wells, Former Freycinet Experience Walk guide
“Never underestimate the restorative power of the Australian bush.” Joan Masterman
“I haven’t met many people who are so in love with Tasmania as a place, but who also realise that that love is as much about people as it is about the landscape itself. That’s the main impression I have of Joan – that to her, the place is people.” Richard Wastell, artist
