[Trailwalker] Tales from the trail – “Let’s go to Southbank for an ice-cream”

G’day folklings,

“Let’s go to Southbank for an ice-cream”. We had tried 2 years ago and were hailed out before we got there, so we had decided to try again.
The Main Yarra Trail follows the Yarra River from Warrandyte, through Eltham, and all the way to the city. From Eltham to Southbank is 34 km and relatively flattish. Distance, no hills, a good stretch of the legs while we don’t have Darren with us.

Then it started to heat up, each day the weather report added another degree to the expected temperature for Saturday. “Gwen, Frances, how’s your relationship with the weather man? If you ask nicely do you think he might cool it down a bit?” Well, that didn’t work so, plan B, start early and try to beat the worst of the heat.

We met up at 7 am, fuffed around a bit and were on the trail before 7:30. The constant call this week was “Bike!”, and occasionally “Runner!” when we would move aside to let them pass then spread out again afterward.

We walked, we talked, we admired the runners (particularly those 2 in blue who helped us when we weren’t sure which way the trail went), we played bingo: runner + cyclist + skater + walker = Bingo! And we eventually made it to Fairfield Boathouse where we had planned to stop for lunch. Lunch at the Boathouse doesn’t start ‘til midday so at just before 11 we were looking at the Breakfast menu. Eggs, bacon and sausage are obviously very popular for breakfast but not if you’ve just walked 19 km and it’s starting to get hot, so we ignored the many, many variations of the above theme and had pancakes with banana and ice-cream.

After lunch we continued along, passed Collingwood Children’s Farm, where we were hailed out last time, and made it to Burnley before the heat was getting to us enough to make us decide that, although we had less the 5 km to go, it was time to call it quits and finish up. Onto the train at Burnley into the city, then back out on the Eltham train and home to cool down.

Maybe next time we’ll reach that ice-cream.

Cheers, Tracy