Over the weekend Chris, Evie and I went for a huge walk – I mean 5 hours, 2 boob feeding stops and one poo explosion kind of long. A ‘drive me to maccas now for 5 cheeseburgers and stop at Dan Murphys for some pale ale too STAT’ kind of long. (That seriously happened).

As we were walking along in the sunshine around the river, past the Queens Park one way bridge and down to Fyansford we had to stop for our first feed, and it got me thinking – How about a quick guide to some walks around the area including places you can change your baby, have a drink, places that are pram friendly and where you can go exploring.

Living close to the CBD of Geelong, we normally walk down to the river but this time we drove as Chris wanted to walk furthur than we had before, and show me right down to Fyansford and back. Given that for the entire last trimester of pregnancy until now, the longest I had walked was most likely to toilet and back, I was super keen to get back out and be active – I didn’t buy a Mountain Buggy for no reason people!

We parked at Balliang Sanctuary and set off towards Fyansford. Balliang is always good for a pit stop anyway, it’s lovely, normally has some pelicans if you  your kids are into some wildlife, and has loads of picnic areas.

Here is an overview, except we followed the river:

• Along the way, you can walk up the banks to Pakington Street, where you have a multitude of shops, cafes and toilets.
• Barwon Edge Boat House is on the banks of the River, and has toilets and a full menu.
• The Fyansford Hotel has wheelchair/pram access, a full lunch and dinner menu and toilets. They also have a big kids play area inside, with a TV on the outside so you can see the kids from your lunch table.
• Queens Park has a cricket/football club, and public toilets. There are also a lot of park benches and table around that area if you want to sit, or don’t mind changing your baby outdoors – this was the scene of the clean up for Evies poop explosion!

  

Once you get to the Fyansford and continue the walk around you can turn right to the Old Paper Mill, or left to go back the way you came on the other side of the river. Although the Old Paper Mill is not currently open to the public, down towards the river more there are some ‘off road’ paths you can follow around the side of it – see photos below. It’s pretty beautiful!

  
You can also keep going to the Weir, where you’ll eventually come to a car park which pretty much means you cannot go any furthur. We walked this on a rare sunny Autumn Saturday, so you’d expect there to be loads of people around however we only saw a few people along the banks fishing and sunbaking – it’s a bit of a hidden gem!

Follow this back to the junction I mentioned earlier and head back on the other side of the river towards Highton/Newtown and you’ll be able to cross the bridge at the big roundabout and get back to Balliang Sactuary!

The whole walk is roughly 11-12kms I would say.. Not bad to kick start my walking again! Okay, next time I’ll take snacks and a water bottle. #palealeforthewin

Tell me some of your walking paths! Feel free to guest blog and share.