Nice walking on Boggy Creek Track.
One of the advantages (maybe the only advantage actually) of Melbourne's world leading Corona Lockdowns is that I've managed to catch up with my old mate DH a few times to go for a bit of a stroll and debrief. Normally DH and I are both heading off around the country separately on different adventures and we really only catch up once or twice a year for breakfast when we are both back in Melbourne at the same time. Our lockdowns have obviously pulled a big hand brake on those adventures, even the café that we use to meet up at is mostly beyond our Covid distance bubble now (when it's allowed to open). The good news is that once my Covid leg rope is extended out to 10 kilometres I can legally venture across to The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve (without risking the 5 grand fine) to meet DH and go for a stroll... happy days!
Melbourne 2020 er... 2021.
We met up at the car park off Ballarto Road at around 7am this morning, mostly to head out before the punters arrived however also to beat a cold front that was meant to blow through at around 10am. With us both having done fair bit of walking at the Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve over the last couple of years we were really connecting the dots a little today - doing a few random sections of track that we hadn't walked yet. To start off we entered the park, crossed over Boggy Creek and made our way to the Peninsula Link Trail. Once on the concrete shared path we followed it north for five minutes or so, the quiet (remember it was just after 7am) concrete path allowing us to enjoy the scenery without any other distractions. When the concrete Peninsula Link Trail swung away towards the nearby freeway DH and I continued straight on along the unsealed Centenary Break and followed it for 15 minutes up to meet the McClelland Break. Centenary Break marks the border between the reserve and the Centenary Park Gold Course and runs almost arrow straight for the complete distance.
Heading off across Boggy Creek towards the Peninsula Link Track... We'd jagged a beautiful morning.
The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve.
The heathland was looking good at the start of Spring.
Centenary Break.
The Centenary Park Golf Course was looking good - although golf was off the agenda due to Melbourne's lockdown.
Arriving at McClelland Break we swung left and shuffled our way up to Boggy Creek Track, crossing Tamarisk Creek (a dry rocky ford) and Boggy Creek (a wet sandy ford) along the way. Immediately after crossing Boggy Creek we picked up the Boggy Creek Track and started shuffling our way back in the general direction of the car park. I've walked a bit of this Boggy Creek Track before and it made for a reasonably nice walk as we followed the shallow valley of the creek north-west with one side of the track bordered by a swampy paperbark forest and the other side a decent sized sand dune vegetated with ferns. After fifteen minutes or so we climbed a little and turned left onto School Break and followed it easily around before veering left down Riparian Track, which meant that our little stroll finished off with a nice walk beside Boggy Creek.
The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve.
We had to ford Boggy Creek as we walked along the McClelland Break.
On one side of Boggy Track the country is a little swampy...
... and on the other the track is bordered by a big dune.
Boggy Creek Track.
DH is about to swing left onto School Break.
The Dirt.
According to my GPS we walked around 3.5 kilometres and climbed around 19 metres on this easy stroll. These small suburban parks have been mental health god sends over the course of our lockdowns and the Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve is no different in that respect, just being able to be surrounded by native bush along with the small, gently trickling creek was enough to recharge me mentally for a few more days of lockdown. As far as I know there are no published notes for this walk, I just jumped onto Google Maps and planned it out a bit before leaving home. I used my GPS maps on the walk.
Relevant Posts.
School Break, The Pines Flora & Fauna Reserve.
School Break.
Riparian Track following Boggy Creek back towards the car park.
Moonah Trees. The car park was only a couple of minutes away now.
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