The Young and the Restless | Escaping flat Earth a worthy exercise

These days I prefer to exercise outside when I can.

That possibly stems from being time poor primarily, and because of that, always trying to kill multiple metaphorical birds with one metaphorical stone.

I can fill my lungs with clean air, walk the dog, talk with the kids about their days as they walk or scoot next to me and, if it’s early morning or at night, I usually get to witness a sunrise or a sunset too, which happens to be one of my favourite pastimes.

I can also kind of forget I’m actually exercising.

Often it’s a walk or a run along the river, sometimes with a weight vest on, sometimes stopping for push-ups on the path or step-ups on a park bench.

In winter, in particular (because I’m terrified of the snakes there in summer so far from hospital), I like to hike in the hills.

There is nothing like uphill walking to set your lungs on fire with cardio engagement and give your legs and butt that sought-after burn that leaves no doubt you’ve been working.

If you want the upper body training in there too, just hit the ground for some push-ups every once in a while, curl some fallen logs or do some pull-ups on a tree branch and voila, full body workout done!

The problem with living in one of the flattest towns in the universe is that you’ve often got to spend travel time and fuel money to get to a hilly landscape.

I wrote about visiting Hanging Rock a few months ago, where it felt like there were more people than trees.

But more flies than anything.

When you’re gasping for air on dusty trails and sweating your butt off in Aussie bushland, the flies are enough irritation without adding bustling human traffic to the mix.

Sure, it was a great walk and a pretty view, but we can get just as much exercise and just as pretty a view, with a lot less fuel cost (and completely free parking) if we head just 30km out the road to Mt Major at Dookie.

Last week we visited after school and work mid-week and got to the top in time to watch the sun set on a day the sky was gently dappled with a good spattering of small feathery clouds (those ones make for the best sunsets).

I drove to the visitor car park on the Dookie township side of the mountain where the (relatively new) Mulana nin iyoga walking trail begins.

We took a swig of water from our drink bottles, grabbed our cameras (aka phones), locked the car, pocketed the keys and hit the trail.

We had packed head torches for the hike back down in the dark, but absent-mindedly left them in the car where they were of no use to us at all, right next to the beanie that I also would have liked on my head at the top.

The views in all directions on this walking trail are amazing — it doesn’t matter if you’re looking back towards town, out towards farmland or staring at the rising track in front of you alongside the sheep and kangaroos, it’s all visually appealing.

Before this trail opened up, I had no idea the mountain was home to Precious Springs, which cascades down the rocks in a tranquil water feature to rock-hop at.

We had never explored this side of the mountain before, usually just walking up the sealed road to the top on the other side, then returning the way we came.

The new walking trail side is also home to some small caves (not signposted, and a little off the path), as well as trail markers, information boards and viewing/resting platforms.

It’s a gem of a local spot that is completely free to visit and mostly free of other human traffic, if you like your hikes less people-y, like I do.

Head out there on a weekday afternoon in winter, and, like us, you might not even pass a single other soul.

We had the entire mountain to ourselves under a breathtaking sky awash with the most stunning amber hues as the sun set on another winter’s day, edging us ever so slightly closer to spring.

There were a lot of metaphorical birds killed that day, but watching that killer sunset and spending time with my boys (and not even having to open my purse once), were my favourites to hurl that stone at.

And the kicker? The exercise came incidentally.

Multi-tasking 101.