Bald Hill - 2nd August 2014

I haven't been doing much walking lately, but with the weather looking slightly promising this afternoon I thought I could head down the road and do a short walk on the Mornington Peninsula. I chose a walk in the Bald Hill Nature Conservation Reserve, thirty minutes from home. I'd never checked this little park out so was interested to see what it offered.

Heading into the park.

After finding a small spot to park the ute I headed into the park. My plan was to basically circumnavigate the park on tracks and fire trails. Just inside the gate I took a left fork and headed to the highest point on the walk, the sun was shining and the weather looked like it was going to co operate for a while so all was good! The views along this section of track included Safety Beach, Mount Martha and Arthurs Seat however the sun made getting a decent photo hard.

Safety Beach and Mount Martha in the distance.

Reaching an old trig I turned down the hill and descended reasonably steeply along a grassy firebreak towards the the boundary fence at the bottom of the park. Now my notes said " the track descends fairly steeply to a boundary fence and continues in a westerly direction until the climb commences", well the bit about the descent was right but the track didn't "continue until it began to climb", so I found myself making my way along kangaroo pads (of which there were many) through the scrub looking to pick up the track back to the top.

The old trig.

Heading down the grassy track past a mob of roo's.

Arthurs Seat in the distance.

I normally don't mind a bit of off-piste action but as I'd thought that today's stroll was all on track I hadn't really come prepared for any bush bashing, not wanting to appear like a bushwalking wanker by wearing my gaiters on an easy walk in an almost suburban park. So my shins copped a bit of a hiding as I pushed through the scrub until I eventually intersected the track back up to the ute.

Heading off-piste on kangaroo pads.

The clouds added a bit of interest.

I eventually intersected with this grassy fire break and followed it back up to the finish.

The climb back up was enlivened by a flock of Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos, I tried to get a half decent photo of these beautiful birds but the results were fairly underwhelming. Less than an hour after starting I was taking of my boots enjoying the relaxing drive home.

Yellow Tail Black Cockatoos.

The problem with the DSLR is that I always seem to have the wrong lens at the wrong time

The Dirt.
I walked 2.7 kilometres and climbed 132 metres on this easy walk. I used the notes from Walks on the Mornington Peninsula by Ken Martin, its walk # 6 in his book. It was interesting to visit a place so close to home that I had never explored before, just be prepared to push through some light scrub. The park is also home to a large mob of kangaroos.

Back at the start.