Distillery Creek Nature Walk and Fireside Fun

Escaping Your Comfort Zone - Side by Side Nature Walks is for women who want chilled out, short and slow adventures. We don’t care about size, speed or fitness. We go slow, we go short, we leave no one behind. It’s about fun in the outdoors, because we can!  These walks are about building connections between women 50+.

📌 Distillery Creek - Aireys Inlet - NOTE there is limited or no phone reception at this location

🌿 Lush creek-side bushland, gentle forest tracks and birdlife
🚶 Easy, relaxed, short walk (around 1 hr). Mostly flat with some uneven natural surfaces. There may be some mud. No one left behind.

🕵️‍♀️ We’ll also add a nature scavenger hunt along the way - ticking off fun discoveries like smooth and rough bark, gumnuts, feathers, insect life, bird calls, and other small wonders of the bush as we wander and explore together.
🔥 Finish with fireside time (weather permitting) to relax, chat and unwind together in nature. I will bring snags, bread, sauce, napkins and marshmellows to cook on the fire. Please BYO anything else you may like.
🍴 Stay for a cuppa + fireside snack time. (Tea/coffee/hot choc provided) – byo mug. You’re welcome to bring something to share (optional).
🐕 No dogs on this one please
🚻 Basic public toilets available near start/end point.
🅿️ Parking at designated Distillery Creek picnic area toilets. If there are no toilets where you are, you are at the wrong carpark (see photo below). YOU MUST FOLLOW Google Map Directions: https://maps.app.goo.gl/TgKxAqfSkCEnaUx68
🚗 Carpool if you can. Please drop a comment in the chat if you can offer or need a lift.

ABOUT DISTILLERY CREEK
Distillery Creek is a peaceful pocket of coastal bushland where the sound of water, birdsong and wind through the trees sets the tone. Our walk follows gentle trails through shaded forest and creek-side habitat, offering a calm and immersive nature experience. The dense forest and wetlands have become a haven for native fauna, particularly honeyeaters, superb fairy-wrens, and wallabies. More about the walk: https://feo.org.au/walks/walk-12-distillery-creek-nature-trail/?audiogallery_startitem_ag1=0

FOOD + CUPPAS
Ill bring the snags (GF), bread, sauce, napkins, marshmellows, tea, coffee and hot chocolate. Please bring along anything else you would like to share.

 WHAT TO BRING

• Camp chair for sitting round the fire

• Water: at least 1L (more if it’s hot)

• Cuppa: BYO mug

• Clothes: comfy, with layers you can add/remove. Warm clothes for sitting round the fire.

• Shoes: any comfortable shoes with laces - there may be some mud

• Raincoat: if you have one and rain is possible

• First aid/medications: Your health is your responsibility.  Bring your own first aid kit.  Don't forget any puffers, antihistamines, epipens etc if you use them. Remember you are in the outdoors.

• Emergency contact info: use our form (or write details on paper, in a ziplock bag, in the top/front pocket your pack)

CARPOOLING
Carpooling is a great way to save car park space, cut down our environmental footprint, and travel with new friends. Many of us come from similar areas, so please drop a note in the chat if you can offer a lift or need one.  It's great to offer a small contribution ($10 for this kind of distance is reasonable) to your driver.

JOIN OUR FACEBOOK GROUP: https://www.facebook.com/groups/sidebysidegeelongsurfcoast

Directions: Follow the Google map directions to Distillery Creek Picnic Area. Enter the picnic area from Bambra Rd. Turn right into Ironbark Gorge Track. Turn into the first carpark on the LEFT, the one with the toilets (there is carpark on the right, with no loos, go past this one to get to the carpark on the left with the loos). See the directions photo below. Park in the carpark to the left of the toilet block.

Google Map Directions: https://maps.app.goo.gl/TgKxAqfSkCEnaUx68