Reflections (and rain drops) beneath the Hight Street Bridge.
After months of being locked down within a 5 kilometre radius of home, while at the same time not being allowed out of the house for more than an hour or two a day the Corona restrictions have slowly started to loosen a bit in Melbourne (we'll, they are loosening as I type this up however by the time I publish this post all bets are off!). We are now allowed to venture 25 kilometres from home and today was the first opportunity that I'd had since the restrictions eased earlier in the week to actually head out and about a bit. Now it's not all sweetness and light in my Feral world though, 25 kilometres from my humble abode features half of Port Phillip Bay to the west, so that kind of cuts down my walking options a little. Looking away from the water my map features a lot of suburbia, the Mornington Peninsula National Park and the Dandenong Ranges National Park both just out of reach in different directions, so it looks like I'll be featuring a few of these suburban strolls on my blog for awhile, still it's a lot better than being locked inside.
It was a grey old morning when I parked in the small car park off Sinclair Avenue this morning.
Waking early this morning I excitedly dusted the spiders webs off the ute and set off for adventures far afield... unfortunately those adventures will have to wait as I pulled up at Glen Iris as I butted up against my 25 kilometre limit... oh well. Parking near Bourke Road just as the sun made it's watery appearance in the east on this grey morning, I grabbed my pack, re-set the GPS and set off. Two minutes into the walk I decided that I'd better read my notes and discover that I was already freelancing away from the described route - yes, it seem some things never change! After consulting my map I was soon back on track although heading off in the opposite direction to the one that was designated, not that it really mattered as with City Link on one side and Gardiners Creek on the other to guide me I was hardly going to get lost. After circumnavigating the Bourke Road South Wetlands in the wrong direction I soon found myself back at the ute and set off up the Gardiners Creek Trail.
It was about now that I read my notes and realised I was walking the wrong way!
Gardiners Creek snaking its way towards the Yarra River - I was heading the other way.
I had high tension powerlines above, a freeway beside me and a creek to guide me this morning... and I still struggled!
Bourke Road South Wetlands.
One of the issues that I have with these suburban strolls is that there are normally too many tracks coming and going, so if I want to religiously follow my notes and visit all the described attractions in my notes then I have to constantly read my notes - something that I'm not really that disciplined about. Out in the bush I can generally follow a spur or a river or a track for some distance without having to keep glancing at my notes and map all the time. Passing under Bourke Road this morning all was good for a few minutes as I followed the sealed shared path south to the Nettleton Park Reserve, where arriving at the bridge over Gardiners Creek I left the shared trail and set off through the native bush in Glenburn Bend Park on a less formal gravel path. It was nice to be off the Gardiners Creek Trail for awhile as even at this early hour it was still pretty busy with bike riders and joggers. This short section through Glenburn Bend Park has quite a few tracks heading off into the bush in random directions that access some small wetlands as wells as a bird hide.
Passing beneath Bourke Road on the Gradiners Creek Trail... maybe there is some light at the end of the tunnel although the way I feel at the moment it would probably be a truck heading straight for me!
Gardiners Creek Trail early this morning.
Gardiners Creek Trail.
The Grevillea's and the Wattle's are flowering at the moment.
The deciduous trees along the creek are probably best seen in Autumn I think.
I stayed left here along the informal pad beside the creek.
Apart from the dog walkers the ducks were also enjoying the grass in the T.H.King Reserve this morning.
After checking out a bird hide and enjoying the boardwalk over the wetlands I crossed over Gardiners Creek again and re-joined the main shared path - which was now getting fairly busy with bikes. I'd reached the furtherest point of my stroll now and was now heading back down stream towards Burke Road. My return journey mostly followed the Gardiners Creek Trail for the complete distance, the notable side trip being when I skirted around the edge of the Eric Raven Reserve on another informal pad beside the creek which allowed me to get a couple of photos of the old graffiti covered High Street Bridge with some nice reflections of the wattles in the still water below the bridge, probably my favourite photo on this walk.
Gardiners Creek in Glen Iris.
Glen Iris Wetlands.
Glen Iris Wetlands - there is those power lines again!
There a nice little bird hide at Glen Iris Wetlands.
I crossed the wetlands on a long section of boardwalk.
Glen Iris Wetlands.
Re-joining the Gardiners Creek Trail after crossing the creek on the High Street Bridge I now followed the shared path all the way back to the ute. It was now getting close to 8am and the shared path was getting very busy indeed, although while it appears that most of the punters (whether they be bike riders, dog walker, joggers or just walkers) didn't want to leave the sanctuary of the concrete path I found it better to walk parallel to the path through the short grass for a lot of the distance. I'd had very light intermittent rain falling for basically my whole walk this morning and approaching Bourke Road it appeared that the rain was getting a little more persistent so I was reasonably happy to arrive back at the ute still relatively dry this morning. Jumping back in the ute I headed of home, maybe not feeling as euphoric as I normally do after a great walk but still pretty happy to finally get out of the house after months of lockdown.
My walk back towards the ute along the Gardiners Creek Trail was a little busier.
I followed this informal pad between the creek and the Eric Raven Reserve on the way back.
Gardiners Creek, Glen Iris.
Here's another one of the High Street Bridge (yep, I was struggling a bit with the photos this morning).
The Dirt.
According to my GPS I walked 6.4 kilometres and climbed around 65 metres on this easy stroll. This is another of those walks that probably isn't worth travelling too far to do, sure if you are a local or find yourself in the area then it's a nice enough stroll however I wouldn't be travelling big kilometres just to do this walk. With around 60% of the walk along the concrete Gradiners Creek Shared Trail it can get busy too, so go really early or really late if, like me you prefer fewer crowds. Most of the diversions off the Gardiners Creek Trail aren't signposted and some of the tracks a fairly rough and informal so you need to keep an eye on the map. I used the notes and map out of Melbourne's Best River, Bay & Lakeside Walks by Julie Mundy & Debra Heyes along with my GPS maps this morning.
Relevant Posts.
The genteel suburban streets of Glen Iris were never far away.
Back at the ute and time to head home. While the Gardiners Creek Trail was pretty busy on my return walk there were long sections where I was able to walk the grass parallel to the concrete path.
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