Dad was off to the tennis, so I was lucky enough to take the beautiful chocolate lab, Angus, and my boy, Erik, on a half-day of adventuring around some of my favourite secret spots around Melbourne. And as always, I discovered some new ones!

I have to plug the VarioCage from MimSafe - it's the only crash-tested travel crate I know, and I only transport dogs in my care in my VarioCages.  That's the adverts over!

We started off on a favourite haunt along the Yarra in Alphington - close to the hub-bub of traffic and construction, where the magpie song competes with roaring engines of the Eastern Freeway, and often wins. 

That's when I thought I'd follow the river east and see where we landed. Looking at the map, I thought I'd try Wilsons Reserve in Ivanhoe. A beautiful spot but off limits for dogs so we headed off just up the road to Sparkes Reserve next to Heidelberg Road.

What a little treat that spot is! It offers dogs great stimulation and plenty of opportunities to practice recall and polish up tracking skills.  It also gives good access to the river, so there's plenty of fun to be had there too.  Which reminds me, can anyone recommend a shoe and sock that would be good for walking and wading in?

Only a couple of kilometers away is the Darebin Creek and our final river walk of the day.  There's no access to the river here, unless you're particularly brave, but it's a lovely long stretch of mature trees and birdsong that we had all to ourselves when we were there.

Erik and Angus slept all the way home and if Angus is anything like Erik at the moment, he'll be fast asleep right now!