One of my fondest memories of Townsville is Castle Hill. Towering over the centre of the North Queensland city, Castle Hill provides great challenges for fitness enthusiasts to get their heart rates up. The hill is criss-crossed with walking, running and mountain biking trails.
Today we walked up the Cudtheringa Track. This is a 1.1km trail that traverses the Northeast face of Castle Hill and meets Castle Hill Drive about 100 metres from the carpark at the top of the hill. The track climbs about 200 metres over 1.2 kilometres. In places it is quite steep, especially the last stretch up to the road; all stairs, that “The Go Townsville” website rates as an extra “puff” on their ‘puffometer’. For a track with an average 1 in 6 incline, Cudtheringa does, of course, require a reasonable fitness level, but it is short, so the effort required is not sustained over a long period.
The views out over North Ward, the CBD, and Magnetic Island are worth the extra puff. The track is very popular; we passed many people both running and walking to and from the summit. It is not surprising that it is popular. It is a very pleasant climb, with some of Northern Australia’s unique flora and fauna including Kapok trees and Green Ant nests.
When up at the top, there are a number of viewing options giving 360o panoramic views of Townsville. It’s worth the effort to walk up to the highest points, both on the eastern side of the carpark as well as the 260-metre summit circuit with excellent views over to the west.
We chose to descend via Castle Hill Road. I usually don’t like to talk about the descent (walking uphill is so much easier than downhill), but the vehicle road is a popular choice for cyclists and walkers as well as motorised traffic. It is about 2.6 kilometres back down to the car park adjacent to the entrance of the Cudtheringa track, and it is a good option, if only to add variety and some extra distance to the walk.
When visiting Townsville, Castle Hill is an absolute MUST DO. If you aren’t up to the walk, then get in a car and drive to the top. The breezes are cooling in the hot North Queensland summer, and the views are spectacular.
Next time, I think I’ll combine a few of the 15 or so walking tracks to make half day of it.
Useful Links:
This is a great site showing all the walking tracks in Castle Hill. Unfortunately it is no longer maintained, but until it falls over completely, it is a good source of information.
https://thegotownsville.com.au/castle-hill/
Here’s my GPS track:
http://www.walkwithjan.com/download/cudtheringa-track/
And here are my piccies from out walk:
