River Gum Creek Reserve Walk - October 2021

River Gum Creek Wetlands.

On this afternoons Covid lockdown walk I pushed my bubble out to visit the bright lights of Narre Warren, also referred to as the Covid badlands at the moment as the case numbers are skyrocketing in that area of Melbourne currently. After parking the ute in the Oakgrove Community Centre car park this afternoon I re-set my GPS and wandered off to see what I could see. 

Oakgrove Community Centre was my start point today.

Basically the plan for today was to follow the course of River Gum Creek all the way downstream until I reached Hallam Road where I'd turn around and head back to the ute, and that's pretty well how things panned out really. A fair chunk of this stroll was along concrete shared path and that's what I set off along first up, quickly passing through the Baringa Park Drive Reserve playground before skirting along the back fence of a local school. Really the first section of the walk was a little mundane however after crossing over Seeback Drive things improved...a bit. After Seeback Drive the River Gum Creek actually flows above ground and from here on I was also walking past a series of wetlands (sediment settling ponds) as I made my way towards Hallam Road.

Yes, I was struggling one again to find something interesting to blog about.

I walked concrete paths for a fair chunk of the walk. 

Once again Melbourne had been blessed with a decent sized fall of rain last night, so on my walk this afternoon I had the added challenge of trying to keep my trail runners fairly dry as I sloshed my way through some fairly decent sized puddles, although thankfully I was more or less successful in making it through with dry feet. The closer I got to Hallam Road the better the walking got this afternoon and approaching my turn around point I was passing by some decent sized lakes that looked pretty nice in the late afternoon light. After consulting the map I decided the circumnavigate the last and largest of the lakes as I started my return journey and in retrospect this was probably the best section of the walk as there are some nice boardwalks and lookouts. 

We'd had a fair dump of rain last night which meant keeping my feet dry was a bit of a challenge. 

There was a bit of birdlife about.

River Gum Creek.

Late afternoon in River Gum Creek Reserve.

The fluffy grey cygnets came over to see what I was up to.

My walk back was pretty much as uneventful as I'd imagined. I enlivened my return walk by taking a couple of short detours to check out a few more creek viewing spots as well a short cut or two, although as you can probably tell by my half arsed right up I was once again struggling for inspiration. Arriving back at the ute just before the sun went down I headed off home, arriving at my front door less than thirty minutes later - about the only positive benefit of these lockdowns.

Heading back to the ute I took a few variants.

River Gum Reserve Walk.

These small wetlands are actually sediment settling ponds. 

River Gum Reserve Walk.

The Dirt.

According to my GPS I walked around 9.3 kilometres and climbed about 59 metres on this easy stroll. This walk is probably suitable for wheelchairs and prams as there are good surfaces and no steps or stairs. The Hampton Park Shopping Centre is on the opposite side of Hallam Road at the turn around point of the stroll so I guess that you could get a drink or a bite to eat there. Being a suburban park there are plenty of picnic facilities around and I also passed a couple of children's playgrounds along the length of the walk. I found this walk on Alltrails, the walk as I did it was actually the combination of two walks which added a bit of interest (and distance). I used the Alltrails App and my GPS maps on the stroll, Google Maps will also get most people through safely.

Relevant Posts.

Lynbrook Creek Trail, 2021.

Wilson Botanic Park Walk, 2020.

Most of the better creek and wetland views are actually on side tracks of the main track. 

Once again it was time to head home for some more quality lockdown time.