10,000 steps to WESTERN

Grab your walking shoes and head into the city of for an urban walk turned nature wonderland. Suitable for people with moderate fitness levels (due to some steep sections), there are endless options to be added or changed to suit The iconic Blue Boat your preference. Let’s get walking! House 10,000 steps

LEFT: Elizabeth Quay. BELOW: DNA Tower, Kings Park.

LEFT: Treetop walk along the Lotterywest Federation Walkway. RIGHT: Bell Tower.

Start your journey at one return, supplying the tin and of the largest musical copper required to create instruments on Earth, Perth’s new bells for St Martins. iconic Bell Tower. Accompanying these and were once etched into more WHAT ELSE Encompassing 18 bells in total, extraordinary bells are six than 2300 tiles around the tower. the tower is home to 12 ancient additional modern bells. If Today, they are on copper plates TO DO IN bells – paid for in the early 1700s possible, try to time the start that link to form a bronze ring. by the then Prince of Wales, later of your walk with the ringing of Following the quay inland Kings Park? King George II – from St Martin- these bells (check times on the towards the city, you will turn left Take the remaining walk down in-the-Fields, which is in Trafalgar website: thebelltower.com.au). onto , walking to Matilda Bay on another day, or Square in London. While here, explore Perth’s past the convention centre to come back for a day of exploring. Over time the heavy movement waterfront precinct Elizabeth Cliff Street, where you’ll find the Climb the spiralling steps of of this large set of bells caused Quay, admiring (or crossing) the Health Freak Cafe at the foot of the DNA Tower, or discover the the small bell tower in England 20-metre-high suspension bridge Kings Park. Stop here to enjoy state’s native flora in the Western to sway, causing damage. So in and visiting the Signature Ring, a meal, before continuing on Park Authority continues to and Pool. Note that this is the Australian Botanic Garden. There 1987, it was decided they would featuring more than 200,000 through the park. preserve the area, ensuring the shortest route. are several trails you can explore be melted down and recast into students’ signatures from across With more than 400 hectares sacred place and culture • The third option: and the varying in length and terrain. new ones. However, bell ringers the state. The signatures were of cultivated gardens and associated with the local most challenging (only follow this Most are on pavement, however, in Australia made a deal, saving collected in 1999 to untamed bushland, there is so Aborigines is maintained. route if you want more of a some trail out onto soft ground. the old bells for a new tower in support the opening much to see and do in Kings To get into this park, we challenge than the second To ensure the track you select Perth – celebrating the nation’s of the tower, and Park. Home to an present you with three optional option). Leaving the cafe, turn is suitable for your mobility and 1988 bicentenary – and, in the millennium, incredibly diverse display routes from the cafe: right onto Mounts Bay Road. fitness level, visit the Visitor Centre of native wildflowers • The first option: head back, Following the road alongside the or bgpa.wa.gov.au/kings-park. Kings Park – most of them not turning left, onto Mounts Bay Swan River, you will come across with Perth found anywhere else in Road. Then turn left onto Spring Kennedy’s Fountain – a small CBD skyline. the world – Kings Park Street (this street has an incline), stone structure, built in 1861, features remarkable and left once again onto Bellevue which provided Perth with its views of the city skyline Terrace. This route will take you first public water supply. If you and the Swan River. into Kings Park to the Flame of have reached The Old Brewery Although previously explored, Remembrance and Pool of and Riverside Brewhouse, you it wasn’t until 1872 that a section Reflection. have gone too far! Heading up the of the land was reserved as a • The second option: head up steps here into Kings Park, you public park. In 1895, it was the steps of Jacob’s Ladder, near will find yourself following the named ‘The Perth Park’, but upon the cafe. Well known to fitness Kokoda Walk Trail. This path the turn of the millennium and fanatics, climb the 242 concrete consists of 150 steep steps that honouring the crowning of King steps (making sure you stick to will take you up 62 metres. To Edward VII, the park was the left to allow people to pass continue with the walk, turn renamed Kings Park in 1901. you in either direction) into Kings right onto the footpath at the Today, the Botanic Gardens and Park, continuing to the Flame top to then make your way

diabetic living MAY/JUNE 2019 129 10,000 steps

to the Flame and Pool. The Flame of Remembrance (a symbol of honour and respect, with a continuously burning flame from the Canberra War Memorial) and Pool of Reflection (holding water from the LEFT: Gija world’s five oceans) are Jumulu part of the State War (boab tree). Memorial near the Top Tip ABOVE: Flame of Cenotaph, where Not sure which path to Remembrance and Cenotaph. locals and visitors take? Head to the Visitor pay their respects. Information Centre (near the Flame) for a map of Kings While here, take a Park. Alternatively, visit bridge elevated the Crawley Edge Boatshed. Built moment to yourself, bgpa.wa.gov.au for a 16m above the in the 1930s it has been made before admiring the digital version of ground and famous by photographers and view across the city and the map. opening up to a Instagrammers alike; and you will Swan River. breathtaking view likely see people taking photos! Follow Hacketts Path to the across a canopy of tall eucalypts If you have completed your step 36-tonne living boab tree that is (sadly, you won’t spot any koalas). count by now, congratulations! named Gija Jumulu, after the Once you’ve completed this To head back to Elizabeth Quay, traditional owners (the Gija walk, continue along the urban walk to the bus stop on the people) of the land where it bushland trail named Law Walk, opposite side of the road to the originates from – in Warmun, until you hit the Crawley Steps, Blue Boat House. Bus 107 will East Kimberley. This tree is more which you will climb down until take you there directly – easy! than 750 years old, stands 14 you reach Mounts Bay Road. If not, or you want to carry metres tall, and travelled 3200km Want to avoid the steps? Follow on from the boatshed, you can from Warmun to its new home in the walk to Park Avenue, turning continue past, crossing the road Kings Park in July 2008. left onto Kings Park Avenue (this to explore the grounds of the After visiting this gentle giant, is a steep hill), or to Crawley University of continue onto the Lotterywest Avenue onto Mounts Bay Road. (UWA), or follow the waters along Federation Walkway, which will From the steps you will find Matilda Bay, finding a nice spot take you into the treetop walk, yourself at the iconic Blue Boat to sit down and celebrate the including a glass and steel arched House, more formally known as accomplishment of your day. ■ GETTY IMAGES ELLIE GRIFFITHS PHOTOGRAPHY WORDS

130 MAY/JUNE 2019 diabetic living