Wednesday 25 April 2012

City river walk


I grew up overseas and whilst we lived in a city (smaller than Sydney though), we were not far from the natural world. As a kid - albeit a little older through the years of 6, 7, 8 and 9 - my cousins and I would often go on river walks. Our grandmother stitched up some knapsacks for us (from an old curtain of hers, if I remember correctly) and we'd go walking - quite literally in the river - walking all day. It was good times.

So, I've been wanting to do some river walking along the Cooks River with my family. We've lived in Marrickville for 15 months now - let's do it today! On a mid-week Public Holiday.

My husband jumped online for a map of the Cooks River and stumbled across Playground Finder, a playground search site for the whole of Australia! Thanks to this site, he decided we should start at Gough Whitlam Park in Earlwood and on the Cooks River. We parked the car there (loads of parking), had a play on playground kit on the banks of the river. At this spot on the river - there are wooden bridges that criss cross the water, with signs to Ryde and Homebush or to Botany. We walked in the direction of Ryde/Homebush. The walk was delightful. An easy footpath to walk on, little table and bench shelters for those wanting to lunch dotted alongside the river, we went under a tunnel (good for playing 'echos'), loads of interesting things to collect along the way like pine trees with little pine cones and these cool vines with green puffy pods (I'm not much of a botanist for the naming of plants), multiple playgrounds along the way - we reached Wanstead Reserve (with more kids kit to play on), then we kept on truckin' and saw Steele Park on the opposite side of the river banks. Aah, Steele Park an all time fave you are! We were going to walk a circuit - go across to Steele Park and then loop back past the Concordia Club for lunch. But O was flagging so we stayed on the Earlwood side of the river we were on and walked back to the car. It was a really great morning and were back home for midday lunch.

Concordia Club, if you have not been is another little gem. If you feel like a big German schnitzel!

6 comments:

  1. I discovered you after reading about you in the Inner West Courier. I am loving your blog and suggestions! Thanks.

    Just wondering, how long did you walk for? I know you said back by lunch but wasn't sure when you'd set off. I have a newborn so timing is sorta hard and important.

    Eliza

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    1. oh thanks so much for having a read and glad you are enjoying it:)

      ooh, i've been thinking back to our walk and trying to remember how long it took. i think we were gone for about 1hr30mins. but then we did it quite slowly, O walked some of it, dad and O went off into the undergrowth in search of things, we had 3 playground plays: at the beginning (gough whitlam), then wanstead reserve and then back at the end again on the gough whitlam play kit.

      our wee babe J started off in pram, then ended up in ergo carrier on me...

      i am sure you could do it in less time if you needed to. hope you enjoy the walk. have fun.

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  2. Oh and also forgot to say we love the Concordia Club also. Our fave is the pork knuckle! Huge and feeds all three of us (not the newborn obviously).
    Eliza

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    1. with winter on the way - i am thinking a warm meal of pork knuckle would be perfect and i've not had it at the concordia. will definitely give it a try. thanks for the recommendation.

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    2. Thanks for getting back to me. We'll try it out soon.
      Eliza

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  3. oh wow eliza! i've been meaning to let you know, we ended up at the concordia club (rather impromptu) on mother's day and i had the pork knuckle (on your recommendation:) and i could almost finish it myself! there were a few morsels left for my man - who was secretly hoping i would not able to clean my plate:) yum-o!! winter comfort food - here we come (again)! thank you for the tip off.

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