Wannarkladdin Wetlands Walk - April 2020

I was up early this morning, both for the sunrise and to beat the crowds of walkers.

Welcome to the first of my Corona Walks. If I'd have typed that previous sentence last year then odds on I would of been talking about a run to the Bottle Shop to grab some beers (although I'm more of a Crownie man really;). Now to qualify for a Corona Walk it needs to be a walk that I can do without the aid of public transport or my ute, yes this virus has kind of narrowed my world down a bit. Things could be a lot worse though, yes I could have the fucken virus or even worse someone that I love could have it, so all in all, having to do my walking from my back gate isn't the worst thing in the world at the moment.

The walk starts off heading west along the Patterson River Track.

Sam and I have lived here for a little over 10 years now and one of the reasons that we moved here was the amount of parkland around the area, well that and the fact that I could ride my MTB to work in Dandenong without having to ride on the road. While I've made full use of the bike tracks around the area I've only dabbled with the walking tracks, mostly preferring to head further afield to more exotic locations - hmm, it looks like that's about to change. Waking this morning I grabbed my camera and GPS and meandered my way up to the northern side of the old concrete bridge on Wells Road, I vaguely remember bumping my way over this old concrete bridge almost 50 years ago in primitive trucks with my old man, back in those days Wells Road ran straight down into Frankston, the freeway hadn't made it up as far as Patterson Lakes...actually Patto Lakes was still a glint in a white shoed developers eye at that stage too. Not only did the old bridge make for a good place to officially start my stroll but the bridge also made a good spot to try and photograph the sweet sunrise this morning.

Things looked pretty moody out to the east this morning.

After re-setting the GPS I set off down the shared use trail besides the Patterson River heading in the direction of Port Phillip Bay, the first 500 metres of the walk being the slowest of the days stroll as I stopped to try and eke something out of the sunrise with my camera. With the Wannarkladdin Wetlands coming into view on my right I stopped for a few minutes to take a photo looking north along the wetlands, if you squint from this spot you can see the high rise buildings in the Melbourne CBD in the distance, although in these grey and overcast conditions it required a lot of squinting!

Getting sick of staring at the sky I checked out the architecture.

One last look back up along the Patterson River.

The Wannarkladdin Wetlands from the Patterson River.

Squint and you might see Melbourne's CBD.

After getting a photo looking north along the wetlands I picked up the start of the Long Beach Trail and headed off in the direction of Mordialloc, heading along the edge of the Wannarkladdin Wetlands on another shared use track. Actually this whole walk is along crushed granite shared use paths so it pays to listen out for bikes coming up behind you and walk on the left hand side of the paths. Trekking my way north now I passed the deserted and dew covered greens of the Patterson Lakes Country Club, the salubrious Chelsea Holiday Park (it might be where I holiday if this bloody virus hangs around for too long!) and the deserted Chelsea Pony Club, the highlights were coming thick and fast now! Actually the Pony Club provided one of this mornings scenic highlights as I mucked around taking a few photos of the partially flooded paddocks - It's a cruel irony for me that just as the country is coming out of another long drought we are locked up at home and not allowed to head bush.

Patterson River Country Club.

The Chelsea Pony Club was a little on the damp side.

There has been some good rain over the last couple of months.

Passing by the still deserted Dog Park I was now walking though an area of suburban parkland, firstly passing by the Bonbeach Baseball Club and then the Chelsea Heights - Aspendale Gardens Cricket Club. This northern extremity of the walk could be a good spot for a picnic I suppose as apart from the open grassy areas there is also a fitness track and a skate park to keep the youngsters entertained. Swinging around the cricket oval I picked up yet another crushed granite shared path and started my walk back along the Wannarkladdin Wetlands towards the Patterson River.

Indeed...!

The northern section of this stroll is through suburban parkland.

At this early hour there was only one person out doing laps.

The walk back down the east side of Wannarkladdin Wetlands was arguably the best section of today's stroll. The track along here stays fairly close to the wetlands and there are a fair few native trees that the track passes though and while the flash houses are never too far away to the left you are walking their back fence line so it's not to bad. With sections of the Wannarkladdin Wetlands being fairly ephemeral these wetlands are best seen in the wetter months after rain I think, and like I mentioned earlier we've had some decent rain lately so all was sweet this morning.

I picked up this track heading back toward the Patterson River.

Wannarkladdin Wetlands - it mightn't be Monet but I still enjoyed it.

The path mostly follows the back fence line of the houses.

Getting out for a walk is definitely good for my mental health.

After watching some ducks out enjoying a bit of peace (before the dog walkers head out) I meandered my way back up to the Patterson River. Once back on the high levee bank of the tidal river I turned left and retraced my outward route back up to the Wells Road bridge. This section of the walk follows the very popular Patterson River Circuit and with the time now getting close to 9am things were starting to get fairly busy along here. Is it just me or does it seem that everybody is out and determined to make the most their rights when it comes to outdoor exercise - I've noticed on my bike commute that the tracks and trails seem to be full of a lot of punters that look to me like their normal exercise is walking from the couch to the fridge... I'm thinking that dogs are now cowering under the couches as they are threatened to be dragged out on another bloody walk while at the same time thinking to themselves WTF is wrong with these humans! But I digress (again!)

The dog walkers were just starting to emerge, the ducks were still pretty calm and unmolested.

Wannarkladdin Wetlands

Approaching the Patterson River again, the conditions had been grey and overcast for the whole walk.

Wannarkladdin Wetlands

Wannarkladdin Wetlands

The Dirt.
I walked around 6.5 kilometres and climbed 20 metres on this easy stroll, this walk should be suitable for stroller and wheelchairs. Now if there is anyone out there who drops by my blog for stories of exotic walks in far flung locations then the Wannarkladdin Wetlands probably aren't for you, however for me it was a great walk for my mental health this morning. I used my GPS maps for this walk, Melways or Google Maps are also enough to get you through. There is parking off the side of Wells Road just north of the bridge.

Relevant Posts.
Patterson River Walk, 2019.
Mordialloc & Carrum Walk, 2017.

Back on the river and heading towards the bridge, my morning's stroll was pretty well over.

Patterson River