Day 34 - Yarra Trail

Today I finally got to go for my bike ride! I set off after breakfast and after consulting my maps decided to ride down into the city and get on the trail there. The Trail then winds itself along with the river and both make a 90 degree turn and heads back toward my area of town - well sort of, but anyway it made it easier to make a loop. The trail itself is very nice and well maintained. I thought it would be ridiculously crowded since it was the nicest day in a week but it was not bad at all. I made my way along the trail and only had to back track once because the trail had actually crossed over the river (some signs mislead me) but an older gentlemen with his dog put me back on track. Eventually the trail runs into an area made up of parks which made the river much more scenic and a bit cleaner. I took a break at Dights Falls for snack - I lost my water bottle so I had to rely on water fountains for the day :( Anyway after my snack I went down into the bushes to stalk a duck I had seen and guess what?!? I found my first Herp!!! Yay!!! It was just some little skink critter and he was so quick I couldn't even get a photo but I was so happy I spent 30 minutes crawling around looking for more and then I found my second species - the Blue Tongue Lizard - I spent a good 10 minutes snapping of pics of this guy and debated catching him but decided against (check out awesome will power) since I didn't know what he was at the time. So now I was super excited that maybe there might be more creatures about and was extra careful to check every rock and warm spot for a basking herptile - no more though. I rode up to the Yarra Bend Park and took a bush walk. It was a really neat trail - just a dirt path along the edge of the river and it is definitely the wildest place I have found around here yet. After I while I decided I needed to turn back and head for home but I think I finally saw a Laughing Kookaburra except I startled whatever it was so I only got a glimpse. I was too busy looking for snakes at this point - cause there was a warning sign for them on the trail head. For my ride home I took a different bike trail that led along the Merri Creek (also with snake warning signs - but still none). I really liked this trail and it continues off my map - I think I may make it my next excursion. After returning home I took a nap to rest up before returning to the Roo art paper for the remainder of the evening - I finally ended up with a draft suitable enough to turn into the tutor for corrections. I started on a few smaller assignments before calling it a night.


Some of the Yarra Trail - that's one of the highways on the left

Dights Falls

A pair of Chestnut Teal...that I was stalking


The Blue Tongue Lizard - he was pretty big - about the length of my forearm and hand combined. His head is appears awkwardly larger than his body... There are 6 species in Australia.

A close up of his head :)

The bush walkin trail

A dead bat!! One of the big ones I saw before...

So on the bush walk trail I got close enough to one of the little skinks to take a picture - I'm gonna stop by the book shop and look it up. Smaller than my pinky.

The Sulphur-crested Cockatoo - LOUD

The "Bend" in Yarra Bend Park