Peter Murrell Reserves, Blackmans Bay, Oct 2013 and March 2014

Our March 2014 walk was to be an easy one, as we have quite got out of the habit of walking recently, what with the distractions of Christmas, holidays and unexpected hospital stays (gosh, are we getting old or something?).  So Di, Robert and Julie eased into the day with a cappuccino before heading to Blackmans Bay to pick Bob up.  From there, only a couple of blocks away, we rendezvous'ed with Austin in the little carpark off Burwood Drive.

We walked northwards and anti-clockwise around the outsides of the Peter Murrell Conservation Area, along fire trails:

Disappointingly, there were not many wildflowers out.  When I did this walk  in early October last year, with Angie, Heather and Joan,

we saw lots of:

Slender sun orchid

lots of little flowers

springing up in the mowed verges of the park.  Early March is not a good time for these exquisite flowers.  Also we found out that a bushfire prevention burn had got out of control recently, and a large part of the Conservation Area was pretty black.

Still, we had a nice walk, catching up on what we have all been up to lately, and the weather was fine.   We visited Penrhyn Pond, which has ducks, a shelter shed and access for people in wheelchairs to do some fishing. 

Then we headed south along the horse riding trail, encountering some forbidding looking geese:

and had to do a little scrambling to get onto the dam wall of Heron Pond. 

Heron Pond is very pretty, with ducks and huge blackwoods and white gums to admire.

We walked south along the Coffee Creek Fire Trail, then turned into the Peter Murrell State Reserve, which is more protected than the Conservation Area.  Bikes are not permitted on the Nature Trail, however we could see recent signs of them on the track and everyone ignores the badly designed "bike deterring" chicanes.   

In October, Heather took us along the right hand leg of the Nature Trail, which was rather lovely.  This time, we took the left hand leg, which turned out to be a mistake.  It was a bit degraded, there had been fire there in the past and the trees were taking their time to come back.  Perhaps it is nicer in the spring.

Still there were some pretty flowers to admire, including Trigger plants, and this one:

 We got back to the carpark before midday, so the loop we did took about 1 hour and 40 minutes.  And it was just the right timing to visit the Beach cafe at Blackmans Bay for lunch!