2014 in review ... what a year

In January Trevor and I spent just over a week in Tasmania. While in Hobart, before our Tasmanian Wilderness walk, we went up to the summit of Mt Wellington and I walked back into Hobart from the top. Walking down was fine. I don't think the same would have been said for walking up.

The Wilderness Walk was a great week and we saw a variety of country and quite a few waterfalls. The end of the week was spent in the Cradle Mountain area and I'm looking forward to returning to this area this January.

Cradle Mountain viewed across Dove Lake

I managed to do a number of long walks. I particularly like walking along the shores of Lake Burley Griffin and then home.

In February I was caught in a deluge on the way home from Woden. Definitely different.

The river that ran through Chifley

March saw me tackle a marathon - walking of course. I was pleased with how I went and fronted up the next day to do a further 20kms.

Walkers getting ready to head out on the marathon walk

During April I did quite a number of sections of the Canberra Centenary Trail. This proved to be a frustrating undertaking as the sections were not walker friendly and were obviously set up with drivers and car shuffles in mind.

There was also quite a bit of rain. Astrid enjoyed jumping in muddy puddles but walking on wet tracks was another thing altogether.

One of the Mt Taylor tracks. This track might be fine on a bike but not so great on foot

I tackled more sections of the Canberra Centenary Trail in May and also encountered some wonderful sunsets.

June saw me complete the section of teh East Gippsland Rail Trail from Bruthen to Bairnsdale. I thoroughly enjoyed this longish walk and one day I'll do the section from Bruthen to Nowa Nowa.

In the centre of Bruthen before heading off to Bairnsdale along the East Gippsland Rail Trail

July saw me attempting more sections of the Canberra Centenary Trail. With some gloriously sunny, if cool, days it was great to be out in the fresh air.

Looking down towards Parliament House from Red Hill on the last section of the Canberra Centenary Trail

In mid August we set off to the north east of the US and eastern Canada. We managed to do quite a bit of walking across the five weeks we were away.

Much of my walking at the end of the year was on local trails although I did manage to do the odd new one. The climb of Mt Tennent was a pleasant undertaking.

The towers at the top of Mt Tennent

At the start of 2014 I had set myself a number of challenges. I wanted to average 11km per day, climb 200m on average and do 20,000 step. As well as that I had put in some climb aims. Each week I need to climb a peak, at least something that had a trig point. Within any given month a climb could only count once so no matter how many times I climbed Mt Taylor in the month it could only be counted once.

How did I go?

There were times when I thought that I had set myself an impossible task but I did it. Here are the statistics:

Distance walked: 4,097km at an average of 11.22km per day
Metres climbed: 75,439m at an average of 207m per day
Steps: 8,316,074 at an average of 22,784 per day

Some months were light on in one area or another but overall I did achieve all the challenges I had set.

What are my challenges for 2015? Not sure yet ... will think about it as I walk through some spectacular scenery in Tasmania over the coming week.