Grants Picnic Ground - Sherbooke Forest, Kallista

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After being restricted to my 5 kms radius for months on end during Melbourne's COVID lockdown, I craved mountain air, greenery, screeching cockies, laughing kookaburras and warbling magpies. And most of all hills. The funny thing is I grew up nearby and would often drive through on the way to somewhere else and not give it a second thought.



On the first chance, I got I headed up to Grants Picnic Ground, just before the village of Kallista, arriving around 8:00 am. At this time of the morning, the car park is near empty. Walking past the café, a ranger station and the once busy bird feeding area where tourists once fed birds - it is now illegal to do so. I found the start of Lyrebird Walk.



As I stepped onto the track, I involuntarily sighed as stress left my body. The sound of my boots squelched in the mud. Lungs inhaled fresh mountain air. My eyes were drawn upwards to the tops of mountain ash. My hands brushed over ferns and shrubs. Heaven.

My feet had been lazy for so long they occasionally tripped on tree roots that crossed the path and bird calls break the silence and deafen my ears. Not too far along, another path appears on the right which loops back onto the main track. If you venture along this path, there are steps down (or up if you come from the opposite way). This path levels off and then increases as it joins the main path later on. It is a short beautiful path to explore.

Whatever path you take, you walk past a rocky streamlined with ferns. This is a popular stop for posing for photos. The track here is always damp even in the height of summer. As it is on a bend the beauty of the gully never lets me down and it always takes me by surprise. I half expect to see enchanted fairies dancing on the moss-covered rocks. One day I might.


Past the gully, another path to the right appears. I stayed on the left-hand path and made my way up a steady incline, occasionally stopping for breath (restricted Covid exercise time for months on end can have that effect), and scanned the vegetation for the elusive lyrebird. Ahead people are quietly staring and pointing into vegetation which often means they have spotted a lyrebird. This time, I'm rewarded the glimpse of the male's tail.

As I reached the top of the path and forest edge, I turned around and went back the way I came. Yes, it was the same path and the same trees but everything looked new viewed from a different angle.



At the end of my walk, as I headed back to the car, the tea room and souvenir shop looked inviting, but today I pass and make do with water to quench the well-earned thirst. Besides, there are walkers looking for somewhere to park their car.

#fun_things_to_do
#kallista
#outdoor
#parks
#picnic_spots
#south_east
#victoria
#walks
%wnmelbourne