A herd of cows, hitherto nonchalantly chewing on their cud in the adjacent paddock momentarily lift their heads to see what all the fuss is about. They’re the lucky ones - if Sarah has her way, I’ll be party to similar clamorous celebrations for the next 99 Saturdays.

Allow me to explain. It all started when Walking Canberra: 101 Ways to See Australia’s National Capital on Foot, the latest offering from prolific Canberra author Graeme Barrow, arrived hot off-the-press at Yowie Central two weeks ago, and the ever inquisitive Sarah started to flick through it.

To help her comprehend how long it would take to do 101 walks, I half-joked that if we ticked-off one walk every Saturday for the next two years, we’d only just manage to finish all the walks in the book. Sarah took my explanation literally and immediately started to pick out her wish list of weekly excursions based on the photos accompanying each walk’s informative description.

Getting out and about and exploring a new place every Saturday has got to be better for a six-year-old than being cooped up in her bedroom glued to her iPad, doesn’t it? So, I went along with it. Surely after a week or so the novelty would wear off? But no, after choosing the National Arboretum for week one (she liked the look of the eagle sculpture at Dairy Farmers Hill), she continued to plan walks, including today’s scramble up One Tree Hill.

Barrow’s idea for his 17th bushwalking book since 1977 wasn’t inspired by the proliferation of “101 ways to…” publications being touted on bookshop shelves, rather the age of the city he has called home for the past 45 years. “I was originally planning to publish a book of 100 walks to coincide with Canberra’s Centenary year, however due to other commitments [and the installation of a pacemaker], the book was delayed,” explains Barrow, who adds, “a friend suggested I simply add another walk and publish it out one year later”. In retrospect it was a masterstroke, because Walking Canberra which would have been easily lost among the flood of other local and historical texts that were released last year.

When I caught up with Barrow striding out along the Civic Art Trail earlier this week he revealed that he never really set out to establish a publishing empire, and further, that he hasn’t always been a keen bushwalker. “I only really got into walking when we moved from New Zealand to Hobart in 1963 and I joined the local bushwalking club and explored a bit of the wilds of Mount Wellington and surrounds,” Barrow says.

With his newfound love of bushwalking, after moving to Canberra in 1969, Barrow joined the Canberra Family Bushwalking Club, but it was a chance comment by his tutor at the Canberra College of Advanced Education sent him on the publishing path. While undertaking a professional writing unit, Barrow’s class was tasked with a major assignment of writing a significant novel, poem, or piece of non-fiction. Barrow decided to turn some of the rough notes he’d scrawled during family-oriented walks with the bushwalking club into a manuscript and after he passed the unit with flying colours one of his tutors convinced him to consider publishing it.

“At the time there was a complete dearth of material on walking around Canberra,” Barrow says, “so after much consideration I decided to gamble the family’s silver and had 500 copies of 25 Family Bushwalks in and around Canberra printed.”

Not everyone was as optimistic that Barrow’s book would sell, “When I took some copies to the scout shop in Civic with a price of $2.95 labelled on it, I was told it was too much, and no one would buy them,” Barrow says.

However, to the surprise of everyone, especially Barrow, “they sold out that morning” and Barrow earned an immediate commission for another 1000 copies (all pre-paid). “I recall thinking, 'This is a great lark, this publishing business is like printing money',” muses Barrow, who at 78, admits he is now starting to slow down and that his latest offering might be his last.

Although Barrow initially intended Walking Canberra to focus purely on urban walks, he fell about a dozen walks short of the target of 101, so added a number of treks on our rural fringe, including his favourite all-time Canberra walk – Gibraltar Peak in Tidbinbilla.

“It’s so much better than when I first walked to the peak decades ago on a dry open fire trail, now it’s on a purpose-built walking trail that winds through the bush and with lovely lookout points,” Barrow says of the 6.6-kilometre return hike. While the new Gibraltar Peak has been lauded by many (including this column) some of the other entries in his top 10 are unexpected, such as the little-known West Belconnen Pond circuit. “Until researching for the book, I’d never been there before and was quite take by how beautiful it was,” Barrow says.

But it’s not only the natural features that are highlighted in Barrow’s book. There’s also a number of art trails, including one around Lake Ginninderra that features Dancers on a Lakefront – those clusters of tall, swaying rods inspired by the reeds and rushes along the edge of Lake Ginninderra outside the Belconnen Arts Centre.

Most of the photos are also Barrow's, and one of the most memorable moments researching Walking Canberra occurred in March this year when Barrow came face-to-face with a wedge-tailed eagle at Rendezvous Creek. “Nora my wife saw it first and as I approached it from 50m thinking it would eventually fly away, but it didn’t, and I got within 10m of it and managed to take a close-up of it without the zoom,” Barrow says.

Thankfully, not all the walks are as long as the 9km Hall Village to One Tree Hill return (phew!), and most are much shorter. I wish I could tell you more about the walks featured in the book, but Sarah has fleeced my copy and hidden it in her bedroom somewhere under a pile of barbie dolls, crayons and that wretched iPad.

However, what I can tell you is that Barrow’s book, which fits easily into the car glove box or back pack, is a must-have for anyone wanting to explore Canberra and is an ideal tool for families wanting to lure the kids into our great outdoors.

Oh, and if anyone has any tips of how I should best inform a good friend of mine that I can’t make his wedding next month because Sarah demands I do walk #7 on the Saturday of his wedding, then please let me know.

The book: Walking Canberra: 101 Ways to See Australia’s National Capital on Foot (Graeme Barrow, Dagraja Press, Canberra 2014) is now available at most good bookstores, RRP: $29.95.

Did you know? Many readers of his books have quizzed Barrow regarding the meaning of ‘Dagraja’, with many assuming it must be an Aboriginal word. “Far from it,” says Barrow, who decided to name his publishing business “after the first letters of the names of each of his three children: David, Grant and Jane”.

Graeme Barrow’s top 10:

Gibraltar Peak, Tidbinbilla: beaut new trail, giant tors
Civic Art Trail : engrossing, sometimes baffling art works
Mount Taylor Zigzag: unusual walk, grand views
West Belconnen Pond: beauty across water
Dickson Wetland: astounding human creation
Mount Painter: city, mountain scenes
Gungaderra Creek Circuit, Gungahlin: lovely water views
‘Kokoda Trail’, Mt Ainslie: lest we forget
Parliament House: one of the wonders of Australia
Tuggeranong Stone Wall: how pioneers used what was at hand

A crossing too far

After first being reported in these pages on 17 May this year, the directional sign on Uriarra Road near the entrance to Stromlo Park continues to mislead drivers and cyclists. Julian Robinson has a theory as to why the over-sized sign incorrectly states that it is 25km to Uriarra Crossing when in fact it’s only about 13km. “The 25km is correct if you turn around and go via the Cotter and not in the direction the sign is pointing,” explains Julian who suggests the distance may have been measured using google maps without ground-truthing it. C’mon TAMS, how hard is it to change the 25 to 13?

This column continues to receive an avalanche of photos showing this year’s epic snow season. This week’s pick is Judy Goggin’s haunting image of the old abattoir at Nimmitabel after a dusting of snow. In the latest batch of correspondence about the abandoned meat factory which first appeared in this column on May 17, Colin of Acton reports that “it was ill-conceived from the outset, and the refrigeration power was inadequate, despite the massive ammonia compressor that remains on site to this day. In desperation they tried to super-insulate the building with double layers of thick corkboard sheets, which have since been removed, though you can still find remnants if you look.” To demonstrate his point, Colin even submitted a photo which clearly shows “the double-layers of corkboard, and the black bituminous paint used to stick it all together”. Little wonder it was doomed to failure.

Contact Tim: Email: timtheyowieman@bigpond.com or Twitter: @TimYowie or write to me c/o The Canberra Times 9 Pirie St, Fyshwick. A selection of past columns is available at: canberratimes.com.au/travel/by/Tim-the-Yowie-Man.

Clue: Now surrounded by a fence
Degree of difficulty: Medium

Last week: Hearty congratulations to Charles Ledger of Yarralumla who was the first of only a handful of readers to correctly identify last week’s photo (inset) as “the remains of the old saw mill just past the Stromlo Park, heading towards Uriarra Crossing”. It proved the most difficult photo quiz for months, with Charles’s winning email not lobbing into my inbox until about 5pm last Saturday evening. The photo was sent in by Brian Black who “has driven and walked through the area for over 30 years” but only recently noticed the rusting relic. “It must have been hidden by scrub until road works began in the area last year,” writes Brian who, like me, was unaware of its purpose until Charles’s explanation.

How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to timtheyowieman@bigpond.com. The first email sent after 10am August 9 with the correct answer wins a double pass to Dendy cinemas.