A Yarra Day Out

For my Sunday trip with my hire car, I decided to go in the opposite direction - east from Melbourne into the Yarra Valley and Yarra Ranges National Park beyond. It was a fine morning with not a cloud in the sky, so I ended up not needing the extra layers of clothing I'd brought.

My first stop was at the Maroondah Reservoir Park. I climbed the Rose Steps to the dam and on to the lookout. You can see why they've got water restrictions. The reservoir is not very full and the rainy season is over.

From here, the road winds along Black Spur through dense eucalypt forest to Marysville, my destination for the day. What a lovely little town, nestling below the sub-alpine Mystic Mountains. The spring blooms in people's gardens were magnificent. Here is one just of the main street.

I went into the tourist information centre to ask about local walks and was given some helpful leaflets. I decided not to venture too much further so I can spend longer walking, and started at Steavenson Falls - at 84m, the highest in Victoria.
Naturally, I climbed the path to the top of the falls. Here I found lots of the lovely wild Mountain Thyme flowers in bloom. In places, it was as thick as bluebells in a bluebell wood at home (like Bradfield Woods, for example).



Returning towards the Car Park, I picked up the Keppel Lookout track. This had me climbing some 300m from the base of the falls to the top of a ridge in a little less than 1km. Yes, this was what my gym sessions on the cross-trainer and sloping treadmill earlier this year were for! Once up, it was a fairly easy walk from the De La Rue Lookout along to the Keppel Lookout. Here is the lovely view from there.

It was a wonderful walk through the trees and tree ferns, hearing all sorts of bird calls. And, even though I was walking the trail in the opposite direction to that described in the Marysville Forest Walks Guide, I encountered only one couple and another group of 4 walkers in the 10km walk. I felt I had really got away from the big city.

On my way back to Melbourne I stopped off at a couple of wineries in the Yarra Valley. But that is another story...

You can see more of my pictures from my Yarra Day Out here on Flickr.