2022-03-05 -37 144

Location

In a lake in a wetland just on the coast at Altona

Participants

John
Bridget

Expedition

After having had a slow morning, having had a large night the previous evening at a friends' birthday drinks, me and Bridget were looking to make something of our Saturday afternoon. Why not go for a drive and have a stroll around the wetlands in Altona, and check out the hash while we're at it. It looked fairly inaccessible, lying as it did within a body of water, so we had no great expectations of actually getting to the point. But you never know, it looked like it might be quite shallow water, and wade-out-to-able.

So we hopped in the car from Bridget's in Ascot Vale, and we decided that I could do a bit more driving practice. The problem was that I didn't have my learner's permit on me, having left my wallet at home in Footscray. So we stopped off at Footscray on the way to pick that up (even though I was happy to illicitly drive without my learner's permit on me for that first section to get to Footscray). Here we stopped for longer than anticipated. We chatted with mum, and also raised the possibility of visiting my grandma while we were in Altona as we were going to driving right by her house. So we then rang grandma and arranged to come visit after our walk. Eventually we were on our way.

Parking the car at the bottom of Maidstone St, we walked along the coast towards the hash, crossing the Laverton Ck on the way. We quickly discovered that the hash was within a fenced off area with regular signs informing us that it was an area of sensitive saltmarsh vegetation, important habitat for migratory birds, and that we were to keep out. Not wanting to damage the fragile landscape by trampling all over it, potentially affecting the survival of threatened birds, we decided we would keep our distance from the hash.

Right where we got closest, about 300m away, we spotted a bird of prey sitting in a dead tree. A bit of investigation and we decided it was a black-shouldered kite. We decided to do a bit of a loop round the park, and continued onwards. A bit further along we found a gate that was very easy to slip past, with a line of sand stretching back towards the hash. Ooh maybe this was an approach where we didn't trample anything but sand. We ducked under the gate and walked back a little way, but very soon the sandy path ran out, leaving trampling the only option for onwards progress. We had already decided on no trampling, so we retreated.

On our way back through the park we saw several more birds, including grey fantails, and what we think were yellow thornbills. Our appreciation of these was rudely cut short by a swarm of mozzies buzzing about, so we had to hurry on. We got back to the car, and then popped in on grandma for a cup of tea and a chat, much of which was about the enormous news that had come through that day that Shane Warne had died in Thailand at the age of just 52. We patted Archie, her cat, and met a neighbour's cat, Delilah, who was hanging around, and looked out on her bantam chooks in the yard with their ridiculous feathered feet. After an hour or so, we made a move and got home around 8.