For the weekender, business traveller or the Novocastrian they're no shortage of active outdoor pursuits in this Newcastle Lifestyle. We can't think of another regional Australian city is as blessed with as many stretches of beautiful beach as there is with the number of Yoga studios! So if you like to get active let's start by limbering up with some Janu Sirsasana!
I hit the wall and popped my head up out of the sensationally mild water of late summer- "How's the change of temperature between here and the end? Bit like Bass Strait down there?" I turned to see a gentlemen probably in his mid-seventies smiling at me. I dare say he'd done a few laps here. I'd rather be in here than Bass Strait I can assure you" I replied with a wink. An icon of the surf city. The Newcastle Ocean Baths are open year round. Built in 1922 the baths feature three pools and are walking distance from the CBD and also have ample (paid) parking. Walk under the Art Deco façade that fronts the carparks and discover three pools that are safe and protected from the beach. The canoe pool is shallow and great for little ones to wade in and for parents it has uninteruped views of the shoreline and the dramatic rocky outcrop that brings Newcastle Beach to a halt.
If the morning is crisp as it is in Autumn, you could almost imagine seeing the breath of these soldiers as the sun rises East from beyond the horizon that holds back the Pacific Ocean.
The Newcastle Memorial walk is an amazingly peaceful yet awe inspiring 160 metre cliff top bridge that allows walkers to reflect on the sacrifice of the 11,000 mean and women from the Hunter Valley who enlisted to serve in World War One. Their memory dramatically captured by rusted steel silhouettes bearing the names of all those who served.
Forming part of the incredible 6km stretch of the Bather's Way, this is a clifftop walk not to be missed. Views out over a Pacific often adorned with a regimented row of empty coal ships eager to fill their bellies at the Port of Newcastle. The walker that commenced at the beginning of the Bather's Way should at the end of the platform, pause and enjoy the variable drama occurring on the long stretch between Bar Beach and Merewether on any given day. Spectacular.
Beyond the war the walk also serves to commemorate the commencement of the production of steel in Newcastle and is bookended in it's Northern end by the Strzelecki Lookout. Sir Paul Edmund Strzelecki being the geologist and explorer who helped realise the potential of Newcastle for the extraction of Coal in the mid-19th century.
In the ANZAC Walk, Newcastle is, as ever, full of beauty and history.