“Our new walking year was intended to start on Thursday the 6 March with a nice, easy, introductory twilight walk around Winda Woppa, a relatively short walk of around 4km to get us started,” Thursday Walkers organiser Ray Hughes told News Of The Area.

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“However, intermittent rain and blustery winds saw us cancel both the walk and our planned picnic afterwards.”

The group usually meets early on Thursdays at the Tea Gardens Library before departing at 8:30am and car-pooling to the chosen destination.

On 13 March, they had better luck, setting out for Tilligerry Habitat, a flora and fauna reserve sitting on the edge of Tanilba Bay with easy pathways and boardwalks passing heath, grasslands, woodlands and wetlands.

From there they trekked up a headland, behind houses overlooking the bay, and into a couple of tracks through the forest before looping back.

Thursday 20 March took them to Blackbutt Nature Reserve.

“It really is something special; an oasis of green in the middle of Newcastle and a fantastic place for kids of all ages,” Ray said.

“We passed animal enclosures, wandered through forested areas, parklands and rainforest… and finished with a tour of some more animal enclosures before settling down for lunch in a really nice picnic park area.”

The Walkers then embarked on their four-day Autumn Camp in Belmont.

“We explored a mix of walks in the area, including the new extension to the Fernleigh track – locally termed the Fernleigh Awabakal Shared Track – from Belmont to Blacksmiths.

“There was a visit to the sea caves at Caves Beach, the Belmont Wetlands State Park and Wallarah National Park.”

The Walkers topped each day off with a social get together each evening.

Ray said, “Our April schedule will take us to Pindimar (North and South), Bather’s Way (Queen’s Wharf to Merewether), Smiths Lake and Neranie, and Fingal Bay to Fingal Spit to Fingal Island (if the weather and the seas are kind to us).”

By Thomas O’KEEFE