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| Looking over Port Phillip Bay towards the distant Melbourne CBD, from the grassy verges of Arthurs Seat Road. |
As I've mentioned a bit recently I haven't had a lot of spare time to either head out on a walk or write one up and last Saturday was no exception. By the time I was able to head out the door it was already getting late in the afternoon so another stroll on the Mornington Peninsula was going to be the order of the day today. OT Dam is a spot that I've visited a few times over the years and I figured that I could combine that walk with an extension out to Eatons Cutting this afternoon to make up a reasonable length walk. After parking the ute beside Arthurs Seat Road I immediately walked past a veritable forest of sign posts, since I've walked here last the
Red Hill Riders Mountain Bike Club has done a lot of work with Parks Vic developing a great network of mountain bike tracks, and a lot of these sign posts were aimed at the mountain bikers, walking on the other hand is decidedly low key in this section of the park.
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| There was no shortage of information at the start of todays stroll. |
Heading north down the wide gravel fire track I soon arrived at the turn off to OT Dam and a few minutes later I arrived at the western end of the small dam. OT Dam is a little bit of a hidden gem I reckon, perched high up in the native forest on the side of Main Ridge it's a little bit of an incongruous site, this isn't the spot we're you'd expect to come across a dam. You can circumnavigate the little lake easily enough but today I just headed around the south side on a series of boardwalks and steps, eventually arriving at the old spillway. From what I can work out OT Dam used to supply water to a Jam making industry back in ye olde days, today it's a nice spot for a bit bird watching, maybe a swim in summer or just to sit and contemplate life.
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The fire track down off the ridge to the turn off to OT Dam makes for easy side by side walking.....which would be great if only I had any friends:)
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OT Dam maybe wasn't at her best on this overcast day.
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After crossing the old spillway I headed away from the dam in the direction of Eatons Cutting, the track along here basically stays high up on Main Ridge close to the fence lines of the huge properties that line Arthurs Seat Road. Its always been pretty informal along here, basically I normally follow the highest pad which after a few ups and downs across some steep gullies eventually spits me out onto Eatons Cutting Road. Now that's all well and good but today I had a little problem, climbing out of one of the steep gullies I could see a shiny new sign on a tree, on closer inspection it appeared that a quarry owns this bit of Main Ridge and the shiny sign was there to warn people that to venture any further would invite prosecution, hmmm. So being a law abiding citizen I skipped over this section and my waffle will begin again on Eatons Cutting Road. I have a friend who has walked through here recently though and he told me that the go is to stay high and ignore any pads to the left, he also told me that the only evidence of the quarry that he came across were the new signposts, he mentioned that judging by the tracks along here it appears every man and his mountain biking mate is going through.
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The old spillway for OT Dam.
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Pleasant walking, heading towards Eaton Cutting Road.
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| Hmmm....... |
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Resuming my stroll on the quiet Eatons Cutting Road I was soon back in the more welcoming surrounds of Arthurs Seat State Park. Eatons Cutting is a small patch of remnant bushland on Main Ridge and I was doing a small loop walk that starts and finishes from a quiet car park at the end of the access road. This short track does a loop around a bit of a high spot on the ridge and while the views down to Safety Beach are mostly obscured by the flora there are a couple of spots that I got views down to the blue waters of Port Phillip Bay through the trees. I walked the loop in a counter clockwise direction today which meant that I left a bit of a climb back up to the small car park for last, the climb is hardly epic though!
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The Eatons Cutting circuit is only short but it's really a nice walk.
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| The view down to Safety Beach and Mount Martha from the lookout on the Eatons Cutting loop. |
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Once I'd completed my Eatons Cutting Loop I still had to get back to the ute parked back near the OT Dam track, this meant a bit of road side walking. Road side walking on the Mornington Peninsula is generally not to bad though, most roads are fairly quiet or have good verges to walk on and the rolling bucolic countryside is pleasant on the eye. Today was no different, first up I climbed back up to the top of the ridge along the dirt Eatons Cutting Road before turning west and walking the grassy verges of Arthurs Seat Road. With Arthurs Seat Road more or less following the ridge top I had great views down over Port Phillip Bay and Safety Beach, the high rise buildings of the Melbourne CBD visible in the distance. I was now walking along the front fences of some of the flash properties that I'd walked along the back fences of a few hours earlier. All good things have to end eventually I guess and after half an hour or so admiring the vineyards and views along Arthurs Seat Road I arrived back at the ute. Throwing my boots in the back I was in the shower at home thirty minutes later, while today wasn't exactly hardcore it had got me off the couch for a few hours which is a good thing for my ever expanding fat guts!
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I'm not sure what the relevance of this sculpture is.....
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| The walk alongside Arthurs Seat Road was pretty good really. |
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The Dirt.
I walked 7.9 kilometres and climbed 246 metres on today's easy stroll. This walk is out of Ken Martin's book Walks of the Mornington Peninsula, the walk was actually a combination of two walks in the book, walk number 2 and walk number 18. There is a problem though, to actually complete the first walk involves crossing above a quarry and while the pit is miles away, judging by the signs the walk must still be on their property. So at the moment with the walk not legally doable you would have to retrace your outward route back up from OT Dam to Arthurs Seat Road and then walk both directions along the road, and while the road walk is pleasant enough as far as road walking goes I'd probably give this walk a miss. It would be great to see Parks Vic and the quarry owners come to some sort of access arrangement for walkers for what is a pretty good circuit, but I wouldn't be holding my breath.
Relevant Posts.
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| My last view out over Port Phillip Bay before arriving back at the ute and heading home. |
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