Cherry Lake Walk, Cherry Lake Reserve - March 2020

Its wasn't all water side views this morning.

Last time I walked the Cherry Lake Circuit was on a stinking hot afternoon in the middle of summer, many many years ago. After dragging Sam around the lake, through parched grassland all the while battling a million flies I came away thinking that my shadow would never darken the Cherry Lake carpark again. Years later as my blog morphed into existence I realised that, seeing that I had nothing but memories of my earlier walk, I really should head back to Cherry Lake to check things out again. Now I'm not totally silly (if I keep saying that maybe it'll come true) so I changed things up a little for this visit. The first change I made was heading over to Altona at dawn, the second change was that I left Sam at home in bed (with a 6am start Sam wasn't too shattered to be left behind), and the third thing was that I visited in some cooler weather.

It was another early start this morning.

Setting off this morning from the almost deserted car park off Millers Road the sun still hadn't quite shown itself over the eastern horizon, perfect timing for me really. After walking 50 metres on my clockwise circumnavigation of the lake I left the track and walked out onto the lake along an overgrown boardwalk. It looks like this little side trip is a little un-loved as the reeds had almost completely reclaimed the boardwalk, still I was able to get a bit of a view over the reeds of the lake and the nearby petrochemical plant if I stood on top of the bench seat. Returning to the lake side circuit I continued my way west, stopping fairly frequently to get yet another photo of the nice sunrise.

Checking out the Altona skyline from the overgrown boardwalk.

The benefit of having a dodgy back means that I'm generally out of and about early now days as my back gets too sore to stay in bed.

Dawn on Cherry Lake.

Heading west the shared use track sticks fairly close to the water line, passing through mostly manicured parkland which was all but deserted at this early hour. This parkland would be a nice spot for a picnic I guess although I was only sharing it with a personal trainer and his victim today. Apparently Cherry Lake is named after the Cherry family who used to farm the area however farming isn't really what Altona is known for, it's heavy industry that comes to mind when I think of visiting Altona. Now I'm not going to bullshit anyone and say that the heavy industry is fairly unobtrusive, it's not really - it's all there to see (albeit in the middle distance) however for me it actually adds to the charm of the walk. Having said that I've spent most of my life working in these kind of places so maybe I'm not normal (no shit! says Sam).

Initially my route passed through mostly manicured park land.

The sunrise was still giving me something to look at.

Looking across Cherry Lake to the distant Melbourne CBD.

The suburban parkland wasn't without its charms.

Water birds are a feature of Cherry Lake.

The Altona skyline.

Approaching the western end of the lake the track passes out of the manicured parkland and enters a more natural environment, well natural is maybe a little bit of an exaggeration but it's definitely not a suburban park anymore. After crossing Cherry Creek and checking out the small wetlands I took a short side trip to climb Mt Cherry (er, Mt Cherry may be a Feral Fact). Mt Cherry is a big earth wall that looks like it has been put there to screen some off the less photogenic aspects of the area, however it also is the only spot on the stroll that I could look down on Cherry Lake from any height, so I was happy I'd taken a little time to climb it and check things out.

Mt Cherry has just come into view.

Cherry Lake - it looks like the sun is about to rise above the Dandenong Ranges.

Cherry Creek Wetlands at the western end of the lake.

Mt Cherry

Mt Cherry give me the closest I'd get to an elevated view over Cherry Lake this morning.

The view westwards from Mt Cherry was a little more industrial.

Leaving Mt Cherry I re-joined the circuit track and continued my stroll. I was now heading to a bird hide on the western end of the lake although when I arrived I found the short side track out to the bird hide locked up, and judging by the overgrown track it looks like it has been locked up and neglected for a fair while. So there'd be no waterbird close up this morning. Continuing on I now shuffled my way along the northern shoreline of Cherry Lake, the path staying a little further from the shoreline now. This part of the walk was easily my favourite part of today's little stroll, the succulent flora along with the early morning light giving me something to get excited about with my camera.

The side trip out to the bird hide looks like it's been out of action for a long time.

The western and northern shoreline of Cherry Lake feature mostly native flora.

The sealed path continues for the whole circumnavigation. 

The succulents gave me something to get excited about.

Cherry Lake Reserve

With the sound of the early morning traffic on Millers Road getting louder I entered manicured parkland again as I started to walk the eastern shoreline of the lake. To be honest the traffic from the busy road wasn't too annoying this morning, although maybe that was because it was still pretty early on a Saturday morning. After crossing Cherry Creek at the outlet of the lake I mucked around for awhile trying to get a half decent photo of a Black Swan, I'm thinking that some of the waterbirds may hang out at this end of the lake due to the punters feeding them, although once again that's only a guess. Anyway, after harassing the local waterbirds with my camera for a few minutes I shuffled the last few metres back to the ute and the walk was over.

Cherry Lake

The path was pretty well deserted this morning.

I was enjoying the salt tolerant ground cover.

Back near Millers Road and I was in suburban parkland again.

The Dirt.
I walked 4 kilometres and climbed 38 metres on this easy morning stroll. This walk is suitable for small children I think, Prams and Wheelchairs should be OK too so long as you avoid the short climb up Mt Cherry. There is a lot of infrastructure here in the forms of picnic tables, toilets, BBQ's and playgrounds. I've got to say I enjoyed this visit to Cherry Lake a lot more than my earlier visit, early morning is probably the best time for a visit as the waterbirds are fairly calm and relaxed. I used a mud map out of Tyrone Thomas' old book 40 Bushland & Park Walks in Metropolitan Melbourne, I'm thinking that there might be some other published walking notes around too. To be honest a Melway map will get you through safely.

Relevant Posts.

Altona Wetlands Walk, 2019.

Emerald Hill Precinct Walk, 2017.

Cherry Lake

Cherry Creek leaves the lake at the eastern end.

Gee that tag around its neck look tight.

Arriving back at the car park just after sunrise...  it was time to head off on another adventure.