Easy walking along Orchard Track - pretty well sums up the whole walk really.
With Melbourne residents still being restricted to travel within a 25 kilometre radius of home I've been busy scouring the map looking for walking options. One of the local parks near home that I've never really considered walking in is The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve. This park normally makes the news every year or two the the local kids set fire to it and it threatens the nearby houses, apart from that it's normally well and truly off my radar. Being interested in new walking options I decided to have a bit more of a look at this little park. After trawling the inter web I came up with this little walk on Alltrails, that I figured might be worth a look.
Heading into The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve. This small park has a good network of well signposted tracks.
Not only has my walking been curtailed for months but I've also not seen any friends for months either so I figured I'd give my old mate DH a call and see if he wanted to join me on this little stroll. If anyone goes far enough back on my blog they might notice that I did a lot of my early walks with Dave, we walked everywhere from Feathertop and the Overland Track in winter to the sun soaked beaches of Hinchinbrook and the Prom. DH has had more than his share of serious health issues recently so it was nice to catch up for a chat and a stroll today.
It was only a few metres into the walk when we crossed Boggy Creek - which was flowing well after some good overnight rain.
Leaving the car park this afternoon we immediately crossed over Boggy Creek, which was flowing a banka after a lot of overnight rain, and then almost immediately headed left along Orchard Track. A lot of this reserve is reclaimed land in various states of rehabilitation, the land used to belong to the CSIRO I think. Orchard Track headed south keeping fairly close to Boggy Creek for the most part, the Wattles and heath keeping me interested this afternoon. After 15 minutes or so we arrived at the signposted Woodland Track on the left and headed east along this sandy track.
The Wattle and Heath were flowering.
Orchard Track
As the name suggests Woodland Track headed through an area of the park that featured a little more of a mature Stringybark Forest and with the benefit of hindsight was probably the best walking of this little adventure. After a pleasant twenty minutes ambling along Woodlands Track we emerged from the scrub on what I'm guessing is McClelland Drive Firebreak and headed right for a couple of minutes before ducking back into the scrub and heading west on Dara Track.
Late afternoon in The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve.
Woodland Track features some of the more mature trees on the walk.
Woodland Track, The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve.
As for Woodlands Track, Dara Track made for quite pleasant walking as well, the open woodland being sprinkled with colourful Heath and Wattle. We were now heading back to complete the loop part of our stroll as we first turned back down Orchard Track and then completed the circle at Woodland Track. Arriving at the Woodland Track turn off we climbed up onto a small rise beside the track which I'll call Pine Mountain to take in the view although really the view was pretty similar to the view from the bottom of my 3 metre high mountain really... who'd of thought!
Late afternoon in The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve.
Dara Track, The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve.
The Wattles were looking good this afternoon.
Continuing on down Orchard Track we now retraced the rest of our outward journey back to the car park. There was an interesting tree along here that I'm not sure of the name, for me it looked like an up side down Banksia (check out the photo, if anyone knows what it is let me know). With the car park coming into view we crossed back over Boggy Creek and our stroll was suddenly over. Arriving back at the utes DH and I took awhile to relax and chill out a bit, we'd both been doing it hard mentally during our months in isolation and this little walk and catch up had been very welcome.
This afternoons little walk did wonders for my mental health.
Heading back along Orchard Track.
I'm thinking that this is some kind of Banksia... although the flowers are pointing up?
The Dirt.
According to. my GPS we walked around 3.1 kilometres and climbed around 23 metres on this very easy stroll. The tracks that we walked this afternoon were all sandy 4wd tracks that were pretty well signposted. There are a couple of picnic tables at the car park if anyone wanted to enjoy a picnic before or after their stroll. This is yet another of my Corona Walks that is pleasant enough however possibly not worth travelling too many kilometres to do, I'll throw in my standard disclaimer though in that if you are a local or find yourself in the area then it's worth checking out. Information for this stroll is a little thin on the ground, as far as I know there is nothing published in print on this walk. As I mentioned earlier Alltrail have covered this stroll although it's in very basic terms (it maybe better if you pay for their premium product?). I just got by with a mud map off the inter-web and my GPS maps this afternoon, this is another spot that you really can't get too bushed in.
Relevant Posts.
Following Boggy Creek back down Orchard Track.
Boggy Creek.
There's plenty of parking along with a few picnic tables just off Ballarto Road.
I'm no botanist but that tree looks like a pine, with male flowers (pollen cones or whatever they are called).
ReplyDeleteI love this blog: not just the sumptuous pictures but the delightful writing.
Thanks for making the effort.
Thank you for the lovely comment:)
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