Sunday 31 May 2009

walking in a dog-friendly park

Penny loves walking in Yarra Bend Park. We had been there before, with our friend Jabari, but usually confined ourselves to the ovals, because we weren't sure of the rules for off-lead walking.

Recently we've discovered other areas and we've heard of a plan to make this park even more dog-friendly. Already it's wonderful, because there are large areas where you can walk a circuit with the dog off-lead, and plenty of places to go on-lead. There are open grassed areas to throw a ball around, and the openness of many parts means that it should be possible to spot snakes in summer before we disturb them.

The rules are spelled out clearly - in many places you only need to stay away from asphalted paths. How wonderful! We can walk on gravel paths without feeling like second-class citizens because we're accompanied by a dog.

So far we've found cyclists to be polite, dinging their bells to let us know they're coming up behind, when we're on-lead and on the bike paths.

Best of all, there's a dog-friendly cafe right there where we park, in the Fairfield campus of the NMIT TAFE College. And, if we go the other way, there's the lovely old surroundings of the Studley Park Boathouse Cafe, where we can enjoy a meal also.

There's a meeting in couple of weeks to discuss the proposed plan to improve the park, so I'm intending to go.

No comments: