Length: 3.1 km

Time taken: 1 hr (with lots of breaks for pics)

Grade: Easy / Moderate

Climb: 75 metres (as measured by RunKeeper)

This track is a circuit around the Blue Lake in Plenty Gorge. It was a relatively short walk, but well worth it as the lake and cliffs were absolutely beautiful and the path was quite scenic with plenty of trees and a river flowing below. Unfortunately the book was left behind so I didn’t have the directions for the complete 4.5km walk – of which part is not a real track.

We took a wrong path near the beginning which lengthened the walk a little, but it wasn’t a bad detour. Although we ended up bush bashing between the wrong paths and I nearly slipped on loose rocks down the hill a few times.

The real path to the Blue Lake was quite wide and well maintained. From the car park to the lake it was on a slight decline, and from the lake to the car park on an incline. I rated this path as easy / moderate due to the incline on the way back, but I may have just felt it more because of the strong sun.

I can see why the locals hang around this lake for a drink on a nice day.

The path to the Blue Lake

Further down the path...

The man made cliffs along the path

Looking down on the lake

Danger! 🙂

A great view of the man made cliffs

The cliffs reflecting in the water

Another view

Length: 5km

Time taken: 1 hr

Grade: Easy

Climb: 54 metres (as measured by RunKeeper)

While not really a full day walk, the domain – otherwise known as “The Tan” – is quite a nice walk and in the book! The Tan is a great walk if you don’t have time to get out to a more remote area. As a bonus, after walking the circuit you can walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens at a nice leisurely pace.

The 4km track circles around the Royal Botanic Gardens – through Kings Domain, down a South Yarra side street, and along the Yarra River. On this walk there were two things that really surprised me:

1. Along the Yarra side of the track there were numerous different species of succulents planted at the bottom of the cut out cliffs. I don’t think i’ve ever seen so many beautiful succulents in one place.
2. I don’t know why I assumed this track is flat, but it has some decent gradients compared to your average park circuit walk. I took Tyrone’s advice and walked anti-clockwise to get the downhill gradient on Anderson St.

I would walk this track again if I am short of time, or perhaps near the area and it’s a great day.

"The Tan" track along the Yarra River

Cacti in the Botanic Gardens

Length: 5km

Time taken: 1 hr, 35 mins (including stops for photos and rain)

Grade: Easy-Medium (listed as Easy in the book, but the steep hills push it to a medium in my opinion)

Climb: 103 metres (as measured by RunKeeper)

Starting at the end of Reserve Rd Wonga Park, this is a gorgeous walk that took us down along the banks of the Yarra River before heading up to the Mt Lofty summit where there are some great views of Lilydale and beyond in the distance.

The track is a quite well maintained gravel foot track along the Yarra, with a number of ups and downs, before changing to a park maintenance road as it winds up to the summit. The section of track up to the summit is steep, but didn’t feel as bad as it looks. However it was steep and long enough for me to consider this an easy-medium grade walk.

After reaching the summit, the track continues along the top for a while before heading around past a farmhouse and down the mountain until it meets back with the river track. This last section of track is quite grassy and unfortunately it started raining heavily when we reached the summit which made this track that descends steeply down the mountain quite muddy and slippery. Luckily there were no slips!

Along the way we spotted a few families of kangaroos dozing and grazing on the slopes of Mt Lofty, and even a couple of rainbows due to the mixed weather.

Overall this was a great walk and a great start to reaching my goal! 1 down, 39 to go!

Beginning of the walk

Yarra River

The river was a bit swollen from heavy rains

Wattle growing along the track

A rainbow in the distance

The view from the near the summit

Interesting tree

This Kangaroo crossed the track in front of us

Another Rainbow

Canoeists in the Yarra River