WALK: LAVERTON CREEK, WETLANDS, SKELETON CREEK: MONDAY 8 JUNE 2009

so, two days after that enormous walk around melbourne, db and i went for a shorter one around laverton. you can see the route on mapmyhike.com by clicking here. you can see all the pics on my flickr.



to be honest, before we did the walk, we weren't sure if there could be anything worth looking at in laverton! this was somewhat exacerbated by having some public transport muck-ups on the way, and the day being quite cold, overcast and windy. however, we had seen some jedis sparring at north melbourne station, and got a bus (train replacement) straight from newport to laverton, so there were already some things going for the day!



not far along the route, the creek started growing considerably, and looking more like a creek than a drain. there are a few 'proposed bridges' over the creek, but we were glad we hadn't counted on them being there, because we would have been cut off on the other side!



there are a lot of interesting birds to see on laverton creek and the western wetlands in general. this photo shows some spoonbills (and an imposter). SPOONBILLS! we didn't see the wee stilts that migrate seasonally between melbourne and siberia, though.



we decided that the walk wasn't so bad after all! as a side note: the walk was very accessible to people with prams or wheelchairs, and also to cyclists.



at the mouth of laverton creek you can turn north towards altona and the city, over this footbridge. if we do the walk again, we will probably take this option. however, before we do, we will make a detour to the hundred steps to federation - a rather boring park/path thing, featuring a small hill with a spectacular view.



this is the time beacon (by cameron robbins) at the top of the hill. standing beneath it, you can see 360degrees - the dandenong ranges and the yarra ranges across the bay, the city skyline, lerderderg and werribee gorge state parks, and the you yangs. fantastic!



it was a bit cold and windy, so we stopped to rest our legs for a bit, then headed south alongside cheetham wetlands to skeleton creek. along the way we saw several houses with australian flags in their back yards - lucky, because otherwise how would we have known which country we were in? we were also aided in our navigation by this sculpture near where the path intersects with skeleton creek:



it was a pretty cool sculpture, actually! however, the walk up skeleton creek was not as fun as (and it was longer than) the walk down laverton creek. we had our tea and a snack sitting on a lonely bench, puzzling over who might actually need a house as big as the new ones going up over the other side of the creek, and chasing after things the wind blew away.



one highlight, though, was the play equipment some way up the creek. i had a bit of fun negotiating it with my pack, while d took some pics! we made our way back over the freeway and down to aircraft station, where we waited only a few minutes before the bus arrived and took us back to newport. we had arranged on a whim to see my sister for a late lunch, and she suggested yarraville, so we hopped off the train there and ate vast quantities of noodles. it was a genius end to our walk, i think!



i took my new boots for a burl, and they seemed to work well! i didn't get any blisters, or feel any rubbing, so that's a good sign. the only possible issue was that my feet might be rolling in too far (over-pronating). i have an appt with my podiatrist on tuesday, so i'll ask her about it then.