THORNBURY PARKS CIRCULAR WALK: 10 MAY 2009

On Sunday, HAWT was joined by E (and again by B the dog) for a 10km walk around Thornbury – with a bit of Preston and Northcote thrown in – taking in some of the smaller green spaces of the area. We headed off at around 9, and IIRC we finished a bit after 12, and ate dozens of delicious vegan chocolate biscuits made by SJ on the way.

The walk had a couple of objectives. The first was to scout out the area and become a bit more familiar with the public spaces, and in this it was successful – we discovered lots of parks, playing fields and reserves, and we also got a good overview of the accessibility of play equipment and facilities in the area. The second was to provide a less-strenuous walk than our last 25km epic along the Yarra, hopefully providing an opportunity for some new walkers to join our group (and not to break them like we almost broke SJ on the Olinda Walk-o-Doom last January). I think we also succeeded in this, as E joined us for the first time and seemed to make it to the end without dramatically falling into a heap or hating us forever!

Some pics (more on flickr):


Beatrice . . .


. . . bravely makes a friend . . .


. . . but misses out on a chocky biscuit!


An amusing sign alteration.


Grandview Dairy. No longer a dairy, and with less of a view than in halcyon days.


E, surveying our feast!


J, demonstrating this particularly rude piece of play equipment.


Review of Thornbury parks circular walk

I found this walk a little less exciting than usual, personally. I think it might have been because as a circular, suburban walk there wasn’t quite the same sense of discovery or progression as some of the creek/river/hill walks – almost everywhere we walked would also be accessible by car. However, there are many good aspects to this walk, too:

• It is very family/kid friendly (I can imagine how fun it would be to play on all that play equipment if I was a kid . . . what am I talking about? It was exciting for me as a so-called grown-up!)
• It is accessible to people with mobility issues, people using wheelchairs and/or prams (you can stay on evenly surfaced, sealed pavement the whole time, and there is only one ascent and one descent of significance);
• There are lots of water taps and 5 public toilets on the walk (I did notice that one set looked very closed, though, and I didn’t check if they were all wheelchair accessible or gender neutral);
• It is quite dog-friendly (although you would want to keep them on a lead near the main streets);
• Towards the end it goes past a strip of cafés on High Street, so if you are ready for lunch you could stop off for a coffee/tea/whatever and a bite to eat!
• It is well-serviced by public transport, so you can cut the walk short at numerous points if necessary; and
• It is circular, so you can start/finish at any point you want, and go in whichever direction pleases you.

Map of Thornbury parks circular walk