SUNDAY 12 JULY: MORDIALLOC TO CARRUM

Often people ask me how we find walks or how we decide where to walk. The answer in this case is easy: it’s walk #21 from Day Walks: Melbourne by John Chapman, Monica Chapman and John Sisemann (first edition). It's 18-19km, starting at Mordialloc station, walking down the beach to Carrum (Paterson River), up the river to Long Beach Path, and inland past the wetlands back to the start.



We first did this walk in June last year and thought it was high time to re-visit it! Here are the photos from last time, and here are our photos from this time, and here are SJ's pics.

We arrived in Mordialloc at about 9am. Although you can catch the train to the beginning/end of this walk, SJ was kind enough to drive us – a good thing when you have an extremely bouncy dog coming along for the walk! It was cold and windy (it’s been so windy in Melbourne over the last week or so) when we arrived, and SOME OF US were not looking forward to the walk due to the wind (I get sore ears really easily, OK?!).




Trying to keep my ears warm – some foolish person forgot his beanie!

Last time we walked here, some of the first bit along the creek was blocked off. This time, however, we got to stroll along the boardwalk beside the boats for a (very) short time, before heading through the back streets and laneways to the beach. Once we got there, things started looking up. The sun was out (intermittently), the wind was behind us (thank goodness) and the sand was firm (low tide was around 12 noon).





We’d half planned to get some chips from the kiosk like last time, but it was closed, oh noes! So we kept on down the beach, keeping an eye out for interesting things. Here are some of the interesting things:


A jellyfish that looks like a jelly!


A skull, which we couldn’t identify. Can you?


Patterns in the sand.


The jetty. ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE, DAD!


Swans (photo by SJS)

The beach part of the walk was very different from last year. Then, there was a sea mist over everything when we started, and it kept up for most of the way. This time we could see our destination as soon as we got onto the sand, and we could see across the bay to Arthur’s Seat on the peninsula. The clouds were pretty cool, too.





We stopped for morning tea at a new (we think) playground, which was pretty cool!





I didn’t mention yet, but Beatrice had SUCH AN AWESOME TIME! Here, have some pictures!






Photo by SJS


Photo by SJS

She was even cute enough that we didn’t steal this dog to replace her:



At Paterson River we sat down for a few minutes and watched life go by, but soon we were on our feet again, walking the 2 kms inland to the Long Beach Trail, peeking into people’s back yards and deciding which house we would buy.


These flowers were out, but I don’t know what they’re called? There are purple ones, too.

We stopped for lunch on the very same bench as last time and had quite a similar meal (roast potatoes . . . how NOT unusual!) Then we continued on the long, VERY STRAIGHT path back to the beginning. OMG. So straight. And because it’s so straight it feels like it takes FOREVER.






Photo by SJS

SJ tried to involve B in her tree obsession, but B was more interested in eating the pizza she found on the path.





We had afternoon tea, and called in on the bird hide in the Edithvale wetlands. The hide was still closed, but at least this time the wetlands had WET in them. We saw lots of birds, and we heard frogs several times, too, which was lovely.



In the end, although I whinged for the last kilometre (déjà vu!) about my feet being so bloody sore, we decided it was a successful walk.



We even tired B out!