The Walk The Yorke Trail is a 500km point to point trail, following the rugged yet beautiful coastline of the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia.
Over the 500km trail you'll experience various terrain and sights the whole way. Starting at the first WTY section information board at the caravan park in Pt Wakefield and finishing at the last WTY section information board at Moonta Bay, just past the jetty. You'll be waiting with anticipation to see what's around every next turn! Pt Wakefield to Moonta is the intended direction following the maps 1 through 10 and arguably the easier direction of travel but on this attempt we did in in reverse, starting in Moonta bay and finishing in Pt Wakefield.
From trail and gravel roads passing by crops and farmland as far as you can see to simply breathtaking single track along the limestone cliff tops, tracks through scrub land, saltpans, the streets of many local towns and plenty of soft sandy beach sections that vary depending on tide and weather.
Every section is different from the last, providing different sights and challenges. Along the way you'll come across information boards with interesting facts about the history of the Yorke Peninsula to get a deeper understanding of what the land has been and is being used for. Including info about the native flora and fauna throughout different sections.
There are also 10 topographical maps available for purchase from the Yorke Peninsula council that provide handy information and key points along the trail including things like camp sights, toilets and other things that will come in handy. I personally used these maps as my main way of navigation during my FKT and found them to be extremely helpful.
Luke and I set off on April 13th 2024 to be the first to Ruck, fully unsupported and set an Australian first record and to set the bar for anyone else game enough to take on this mammoth challenge. Starting with our rucks containing everything we would need for the 500km journey they weighed in close to 30kgs and finished about 20kgs. The path was far from smooth and we faced countless obstacles and challenges along the way but 9 days 9 hours and 34 mins later, on the 21st of April we crossed the finish line and achieved what no one else prior to us was able to do. Because it was an unsupported FKT the only thing we could utilize along the way was the water from the tanks supplied along the trail at the WTY shelters, other than that everything else such as, food, shelter, clothes etc.. we carried in our rucks from day 1.
For more information about the trail and surrounding areas I've put a link below to the Walk The Yorke website.
This trail was the most challenging and amazing journey I've ever done and would highly recommend anyone to go ruck, walk, run or cycle and explore what the trail has to offer!