Boat or Bust

The heatwave has abated, our children are in school, my husband flies back to Pakistan on the weekend and we have been overly-preoccupied with schedules and cleaning, so on Wednesday morning we throw routine to the wind. Fortified with coffee from Axil Coffee Roasters, we head to Yarra Bend, Melbourne’s largest bushland park.

We don’t have long, and so opt to walk just a 4.5-kilometer portion of the Flying-Fox Walk. Fragrant and magical, it follows the Yarra River to Kew’s Flying Fox Conservation Area. We encounter friendly joggers, happy dogs, ducks, moorhens, masses of native flowers and trees, cacti and spreading blackberry and redcurrant bushes. The flying foxes are our favorites, hanging upside down from trees, close and tame enough for us to see their cute little faces. We walk as far as the Studley Park Boathouse, Melbourne’s oldest public boathouse, which offers boats and kayaks for hire. Rowing up the river looks fun and peaceful, so we make a plan to return with our kids.

On our return journey, we are overtaken by a man and his border collie. Still wet from a dip in the Yarra, carrying a stick in its mouth, the dog radiates with joy. As we head home, they are still in the park, playing with their stick. Our own attempt to be more bucolic and leisurely is not as successful. As per our plan we return to the boathouse on Friday, kids in tow, but turn out to be such woeful rowers that we are reprimanded by a rather officious boat-attendant. Our vessel mainly spins in circles, threatening to capsize and toss us into the water. Amyn and I blame each other while our daughter, laughing hysterically, takes endless pictures of our distress.