Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Baldrys Circuit, Mornington Peninsula National Park - November 2016

Now we are living in the post truth Trump world (PTTW)I reckon blogging is going to get a lot easier. It now looks like opinion, if you say it often enough, becomes fact, well at least for a large section of the American (and our) population. So anyway here is the post truth start to this post.....cue the harp music......After parking the Ferrari Sam and I set off to walk the Baldry Circuit, dressed in our latest walking gear, incidentally all supplied gratis due to all the bushwalking shops now being so overjoyed when I darken their doorways that they give me free stuff. As is usual in the PTTW the track wasn't to crowded, in fact once again we were only sharing the walk with a group of nubile Swedish back packers who judging by their walking apparel must be sponsored by wicked weasel (google it if you dare), Sam seemed to be happy enough though maybe because it appeared that Magic Mike had been cloned and they were all jostling for position with my Swedish friends. With no insects or climate change to worry about in this PTTW we had no messy insect repellant or sunscreen to spoil our pristine skin today, and now that we both have finished the Hawaiian Ironman in record time our trim taught bodies didn't even raise a sweat today. Jumping back in the Ferrari after our walk Sam and I headed home via the chemist, who now dish out viagra instead of those glucose jelly beans, for a full debrief.....along with some Magic Mikes and a couple of Swedish back packers.......oh fuck there's that bloody harp music again.

Main Creek

Well what did you make of that first paragraph, this fiction stuff is fun! In the grey, dreary, Feral world (GDFW) though everything wasn't quite so awesome. We were actually meant to be doing a walk over in the wild west today but hit our first snag as we drove out the driveway, hearing that a truck had broken down in the tunnel that we need to take to get through the city meant that the plan was quickly changed and I turned south down Peninsula Link instead of north. With Melbourne's traffic worse than a lot of developing countries that I've travelled through (and way more ill tempered) it just wasn't worth rolling the dice trying to get through the city. The Mornington Peninsula was a good consolation prize though, and after consulting my guide book of choice today, the 2nd edition of Daywalks Around Melbourne by Glenn Tempest we headed down to Flinders to walk the Baldry Circuit. Quite appropriately in my GDFW we arrived at the car park to be greeted by grey skies and the occasional light shower scudding through.


As is common in my GDFW I have done this walk a few times before, probably at least ten times I would of thought, now you must be thinking that this must be a pretty good stroll, well actually there isn't a lot happening on this stroll. The real reason that I've walked it so often is that it's easy and it's close to home which means that if I'm looking for something to do for a couple of hours this spot is a go to place. Leaving the ute we headed off into the scrub, straight into the scenic highlight of the walk, the amble along Main Creek. With our wet spring Main Creek had a good flow today and I spent a bit of time scrambling around the slippery rocks trying to get a good photo, the good news there was that the many kangaroo trails made my off track excursions fairly easy.
Sam's striding ahead while I scan the scrub in the forlorn hope that a Swedish back backer might appear....
It was a real monochrome kind of day today.

After contouring along the hill for awhile above the creek we eventually arrived at an intersection, here we turned north along the long distance Two Bays Walking Track. With Sam setting a cracking pace (keen to get to Flinders for some retail therapy), I was dropping further and further behind as I mucked around trying to find something other than a grass tree to take a photo of. The Two Bays Walking Track section climbs easily for half a kilometre or so before coming to another intersection, it was now time to turn east and complete the circuit. Heading back towards the ute the route now crossed a couple of gullies which did at least allow me to photograph some ferns in the damper gullies. Ten minutes later and the sound of a car on Baldry Road signalled our imminent arrival back at the ute, our easy stroll was coming to it's end, oh yeah there were no Swedish back packers or Magic Mikes to come home for a debrief with us today so Sam and I settled for lunch in Flinders. I'm to old for all that other stuff anyway;)
I'm pretty happy with this, I managed to take this shot holding the DSLR in my left hand.
The wetter gullies had a few larger ferns.

The Dirt.
We walked 4.1 kilometres and climbed 144 metres on this easy stroll. Like I mentioned earlier we used Mr Tempest's notes out of his Daywalks Around Melbourne book, I've got a fair idea that this book is out of print now, Mr Tempest is now concentrating on smaller, more area specific guides I think. I took the piss out of this walk a bit but it's quite a pleasant little stroll really. This little patch of remnant bushland on the Mornington Peninsula provides a good spot to escape the summer crowds that flock down here, and after the stroll you can then go and join them in any number of great restaurants and cafes on the peninsula.
Relevant Posts.

The tracks here are all well signposted and marked.


I couldn't finish the post without another grass tree.

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