A cloudy day for a walk
Not every day can be a perfect day for a walk.
But sometimes those crappy weather days can be pretty nice.
A friend and I recently walked up Mt St Leonard, near Healesville, about an hour’s drive out of Melbourne.
It’s just over a thousand metres high and great for a climbing workout that’ll have you huffing and puffing.
The day we decided to climb it was cold and wet.
The forecast was for the rain and cloud to clear during the day and we thought by the time we got to the top the clouds would have cleared and we’d be rewarded with fantastic views.
Unfortunately, the weather gods weren’t with us, and the rain was heavy and the cloud dense just as we arrived at the summit.
We sheltered under the observation tower at the top briefly before deciding there was no chance of the weather changing any time soon and we headed back down … carefully on the now very wet and slippery trail.
While we didn’t get much in the way of views during the walk, the low, misty grey cloud through the trees created a quiet, serene atmosphere.
It also made us focus on what was close – the smells of the forest, the tweet and twitter of birds, the colours of the trees and the wallabies and lyre birds that scurried into the bush at our approach.
So for me, while wet, cold, grey walking days can be uncomfortable, they can also be as enjoyable as the warm, blue sky days.
The walk up and back took us about five hours. The trail is a wide, easy to follow track with well marked signs when it diverted to a walking track.
And steep. Very steep, especially towards the top. Be prepared for sore legs afterwards.
The Outdoorsy Type 