April 2026 - Nierinna Creek, Margate

This month's walk was organised by David. At 10am on a lovely sunny early winter morning, we gathered at the quiet carpark at the end of Burnaby Drive in Margate.

Our walkers were: David, Catherine, Peter, Fin, Angie, Lyn, Di, Maryanne and Dorothy. Maryanne was celebrating her brand new EV - we almost had a majority of clean electric vehicles over smelly ICE vehicles bringing us to the walk today.

The walk started with an easy stroll beside the level Nierinna Creek, skirting some lifestyle blocks above us. The poplars were glowing with their autumn colours, it was very pretty.

There were some quaint little bridges to cross, these are great spots for lingering and taking a closer look at the creek, which was actually pretty low today, not much water flowing.

We stopped for a drink at the top of a set of steps. Then it was onwards and downwards to drop down beside the creek again. Here we were in damp almost rainforest bushland, the air was quite moist.

Then it was up and up some more steps, till we reached the end of the trail at the road. Here we caught our breath, chatted some more, and then turned around to return back down to the rainforest.

At the bottom we found a bench to sit on for our morning tea. A leech found Fin's lunchbox (yikes), but no others were reported. We strolled back to our starting point.

We then drove to nearby Hopfields Brewery in Margate for some refreshing drinks and a very pleasant lunch. Our booking was for 1pm and I think we got there a little earlier than that. It was a great finishing touch to a very pleasant day out with our friends :)

March 2026 - Clarence Foreshore Trail

Thanks to Wayne for organising this walk, and writing its story. The March walk was originally planned for Cape Queen Elizabeth on Bruny Island. Unfortunately the weather forecast was not great for Bruny Island, plus a few people couldn't make it due to other plans the day before or the day after the proposed walk. It was then determined to move the walk much closer to suburbia, so we settled on the Clarence Foreshore Trail from Howrah Beach to the Bellerive waterfront, partaking of lunch in Bellerive and meandering back to the starting point on Howrah Road.

The starters from Howrah Road were Catherine, Peter, Bob, Angie, Summa, Gerwyn & Wayne. A few of us met Angie at Atmosfire Cafe, Howrah, for a drink before the walk.

Along the track we passed the Howrah Primary School, where a few students were partaking in physical exercise, probably more energetically than us. At the Wentworth Bike Park & Play Park there were some parents and children enjoying a pleasant Friday morning.

We walked around the headland towards Bellerive Beach, and the headland is where we met Gary, who joined us there for part of the walk.

Coming down from the headland, we walked along Bellerive Beach toward Ninja Stadium, then walked around Victoria Esplanade to the Bellerive waterfront. Here we lost Gary, who had organised to have lunch at the Waterfront Hotel.

We checked out the boardwalk, then headed through the backstreets to find The Fish Bar at Bellerive Beach for a feed of fish & chips.

After lunch we headed back along the walking trail inside the dunes from the beach to provide a bit of variety in the walk. It was on this part of the walk that we saw a southern brown bandicoot, which is fairly common in this area. Unfortunately it was quite shy and didn't want to pose for a photo.

We continued back along the Foreshore Trail back to Howrah Road, said our goodbyes and went on our merry ways. All in all, a pleasant 3 hour walk (including lunch), not too strenuous and fine weather.