Walking the Tan

I had heard of The Tan and running it or walking it as something that's done often in Melbourne.  But I didn't know what The Tan was, or where it was.  On Queen's Birthday, when the kids had the day off and the weather wasn't too terrible, I decided we finally had to get this done.

The Tan is the center of everything.

The Tan is a walking/running track that goes around King's Domain and the Royal Botanic Gardens, which is just south of the Yarra River and the CBD.  It's 3.8 km long, and is pretty flat.  There is an annual run around the Tan, but besides this, it's a popular walking/running track every day.

My kids don't do any kind of exertion without a serious meal beforehand.  Joel was still studying for exams, so they got to come along to my American friends' meetup in the City at, where else, Starbucks!  Just like the originals, but they have Aussie food like pies and sausage rolls, and they can spell properly.  Also my coffee was delicious!

A side note:  I am really grateful to my American buddies, who can sympathize with the idiosyncracies of living in Oz, yet give me a picture of how it gets better and better, and for opening my eyes to the many intellectual and cultural options for us here.  Also, they are so very kind to the kids.

Once the kids were properly bribed fed, we headed south of the river to the Tan.

 Ruth was complaining before we even got to the Track that she was too tired, but she made it all the way around.  There are quarter-kilometer markers all along the track, and it's pretty straight in most places, so both kids ran ahead to each quarter-km marker and waited for me there.

Besides this information, there are two clocks keeping time to the second so you can see if you are beating your personal best as you blaze around the Track.

 Overall it was an okay walk, but I'd prefer walking through the Garden and Domain.  The scenery inside is more beautiful than outside, and the hills inside make for a more interesting walk.  We saw a few nice things outside though.

Across the street from the Tan is a picnic area (the boxy looking things are barbecues), next to the Yarra.  There's a nice bike trail right next to the river that leads around Melbourne and through Southbank. Of course, all the cars don't add to the scenic nature of the Tan.

The kids thought this would make a hell of a sledding hill, if only we got snow ever.