The Two Valley Trail

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If you live in inner Sydney and love getting back to nature with your children - but don't feel like driving to the outskirts of the city in traffic to find a great kid-friendly bushwalk - then look no further. The Two Valley Trails are free, fresh and friendly for little ones, and they're right on your doorstep.

is actually a pair of trails, one of which connects Tempe with Bexley North. The trails in total cover a meandering 13km of creekside natural splendour, full of birds, small animals and insects to discover.

If 13km sounds like a tall order for your shortie - it definitely would be for mine, aged 5 and 2.5 - then hiking the small section between Turella and Bardwell Park might be perfect for you.

The walk begins at Turella Reserve, which can be easily reached from Wolli Creek Train Station. It's not well sign-posted, so you'll need to look out for a small 'TWT' marker and a trail entry on the southern side of the park. Once you enter through this small gap, you're instantly immersed in beautiful Australian bush - twisted towering red gum trees, banksias and native figs line the path while birds and insects scream raucously from every branch.

The trail slopes gently up and down, following the path of Wolli Creek, but at no point was it too hilly or rocky for our 2.5 year old to walk or scramble along himself with a little help. Due to the thick growth of trees, the trail is very shaded so on a sunny day it's an opportunity to be partially protected from the sun, and if it's lightly sprinkling - as it was when we went recently - very few drops make it through the leaf cover so you stay pretty dry.



The thing which thrilled our kids the most, though, was encountering the enormous fruit bat colony which lives in the trees lining the creek in one section of the walk. About 10 or 20 trees were absolutely dense with bats, which hung like large seed pods from every square centimetre of branch. Some were sleeping but enough were screeching, scratching, fighting and grooming to make it a fascinating discovery for all of us. They do stink though, and the ground is littered with sizable bat poo at some points, so we didn't hang around in this section of the trail for too long.

We completed our little hike at Girrahween Park, a large flat grassy area where we ate our snacks and drank our water before turning around and heading back. The children were pretty tired by the end but they loved the experience and especially the bats, so we will definitely be back!

#inner_west
#kids
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%wnsydney