Getting Active in April

After our energetic Easter adventures we thought we'd stay on track, so to speak, and make the most of the few fine days left in autumn. While coming home from Werribee the other week we stopped for a coffee and picked up some leaflets. We discovered a coastal park almost on our doorstep. We wandered out there for a look last Sunday and what a lovely spot.

Point Cook Coastal park is an area of land, as the name suggests, on the coast of Port Phillip Bay. It covers a vast area and is full of picnic spots both large & small. From the many car parks, tracks meander through the foreshore to the beach. It is here that it differs from the Bayside beaches with just a narrow strip of sand separating the land from the sea. Off the coast there are low reefs with a fascinating range of marine life making it a favorite spot for snorkeling and scuba diving. We had the place to ourselves and really enjoyed just wandering around and checking it out. It also borders Point Cook RAAF base and one of the picnic areas is a favourite spot for plane spotting. We did see a couple of small aircraft buzzing around but were on the wrong side to do much with them. On the other edge of the Park a walk to the Cheetham Wetlands keep the visitors fit. A 1.5km walk takes you to an interesting piece of public art called The Tower, where you can view the wetlands and get a great view of the city. The Tower, a monument to Migration & Aspirations, was created by artist Bill Kelly who used the theme of bird migration as a symbol for human migration. While quite an interesting construction it makes me wonder how many people even know it exists or if they do, understand what it's for. It is worth the walk just for the view though.

It was another book that set us off again the following Saturday. While in Walhalla we had picked up a little book on the Nature Parks throughout Latrobe. With a lovely day forecast we set out early for a day out at Mount Worth State Park. Straight down the freeway to Darnum, where we stopped for coffee & then we followed the signs up to the Park. As the name suggests it is a mountain and at 5017 m above sea level was a pretty drive up. A couple of scary bits but the views were wonderful looking across the farm land to the ranges where we had been at Easter. Mt Baw Baw, Mt Erica & Mt St Gwinear. Again we had the park pretty much to ourselves for the day and had a great time wandering around on a number of walks from the central picnic grounds. I have decided that I really need some new walking shoes if this is how I'm going to spend my weekends. The whole area had been home to a number of timber mills and most of the walks were to these on tracks that followed old tramways. A lot of abandoned machinery can be seen between the trees.

One of the walks was called the Giant Circuit which features 'The Standing Giant', a very large Mountain Ash tree that escaped the mills. There are a number of these and they are big. As you can imagine not too many did escape so the majority of the forest is much younger. The giant tree ferns were amazing too and many of the walks were through these. Being in a high rainfall area makes it very damp underfoot and we saw the most unusual types of fungi growing on the ground and on the trees. They were amazing. Again lots of birdlife could be heard but a bit of challenge to find them. At least the fungi was still.

Coming back down the mountain we found the cutest little Echidna looking for dinner. Of course we had to stop and watch a while. He was not too happy about this and curled up into a ball until Bill got back in the car. He then set about finishing his dinner. The beautiful sunset saw us stop again to watch it go down and then we were on our way home for the night.

So with one park of the 35 mentioned in the book, crossed off the list, we look forward to finding many other wonderful places to explore. Must go shoe shopping soon!

Back to the grind again for the week, until next time..................