Wet Walks: Ermington

Here's another suburb in the east of Western Sydney, chilling along the banks of Parramatta River. 

Ermington

Picking up where I left off, I entered Ermington on foot, walking along the trail parallel to Parramatta River.

Naturally, this is pretty similar to Melrose Park, with a surprising amoung of foliage,

and industrious neighbours.

Everytime I'm on this walk I find it to be a bit of an underappreciated gem. Check out this rainforest-spec fern,

the sweet elevated walkway,

and even a portion of path remiscent of the London 2012 Olympics logo.

That jaggedy bit of the path is actually a fork off the main walk, where you can learn about the local birds,

before trying to spot some over the river. I failed at this endeavour, enjoying the tranquil little pullout nevertheless. 

So far, Ermington has been Melrose Park without the tragic history. That's a pretty good thing. 

Soon, the path split at a George Kendall Park. Rather than turn left and continue to hug the river (which I assumed would be essentially more of the same), I chose to head right,

onto the wet path at the park's northern end. 

This revealed an actually quite pleasant park - despite the poor weather,

with this patch of land being far wider than I ever knew Ermington held. 

And all just next to suburbia. 

I continued on, passing a local tennis court,

barbecue area,

and multi-purpose recreational paved area,

as well as the usual playground.

Not too shabby.

I eventually reached the other side of the park, where I was presented with two options.

Heading right (north) would lead me to the older side of Ermington, where I could eventually head back to Victoria Road and highlights such as the local Woolworths carpark that in the 1990s had a vine that my parents would pick vine leaves from for cooking (occasionally another ethnic family would get there before us and the vine would already have been stripped), and one of the eastern markers of the Red Rooster Line. 

I instead took the left fork, heading south into the newer side of Ermington, an area I was yet to have ever ventured into. 

Here, I found some unusual street light fixtures, 

townhouses, 

and these pleasing, but probably poisonous, berries,

as well as some very questionable street naming choices. 

The new area of Ermington is... well if you've been to one new housing development you've more or less been to them all. Green grass, geometric shapes, and cars parked on the side of the road. 

Continuing on, I reached another park (this one much smaller),

where you can climb some nets, 

and learn the international maritime flag code. 

This is followed by a sudden increase in density,

but also a very pleasant riverside walkway. 

This development popped up relatively recently and from afar I always thought it looked, well, crap. 

From the ground though, I'm actually appreciating what they're going for here. Your front yard is the river, 

quite literally, for some of the apartments that open up directly onto the walkway,

and while I wouldn't call the area a piece of architectural beauty - if you're inside the house, you don't need to look at it do you? 

Retiring from my short stint as a real estate marketer, I continued on towards the end of Ermington, 

taking this path away from the river,

and onto Silverwater Road. Where I was able to continue walking to my next suburb.

Ermington: Significantly less crappy than my memories from the '90s.