Easy/Medium Wednesday Walk - 18th March - BLUETTS NATURE RESERVE & THE LOWER MOLONGLO (BBC)

No bookings required for joint club Wednesday Walks

Leader: Dave Abela (0482 802 050, tangodancing4me@gmail.com) for BBC.

Starting from close to Stromlo on Urriara Road, we will start the walk on fire trails through Bluetts Nature Reserve, which is a charming, little-known area of scrub and protected forest. We’ll first make our way towards Springybark Hill for really nice views across the western part of Canberra. We then continue off track for a while through the open forest. Once out of Bluetts, we pick up the fire trail again and head down to the lower Molonglo valley to follow the river for a few kilometres. We cross over to the other side of the river via Butters Bridge and end up on the edge of the new suburb of Whitlam, probably having our lunch somewhere above the river in Namarag Park. From here, we will also have a splendid view of the new bridge under construction at Coppins Crossing. This is nearing completion and will be Canberra’s largest bridge and also Australia’s largest “weathered steel” bridge. After lunch we head into the suburb of Denman Prospect on a few cycleways and footpaths, then make our way back into Bluetts Nature Reserve to complete a loop of 12kms back to our cars.

This is generally an easy walk, on a large variety of surfaces including fire trails, single track, loose rock, off track, footpaths and cycleways. The hills are gentle and the off track section is quite open and easy going. I recommend you bring your gaiters and you might want to bring your walking poles for some of the rough and loose rock sections.

Weather for next Wednesday: A forecast maximum of 25C. A shower or two.

Those doing their first Wednesday Walk, and those who are not members of the CBC, BBC or NPA, must contact the leader to discuss the level of difficulty of the walk.