Day Fifty Five Concord

 Despite being a bit misty and rain threatening, I decided to walk some more streets today.  The views are not as good as they could have been because of the mist. I walked 12 streets today.

682. Orr Street
683. Craig Hendry Street
684. Morris Street
685. Davies Street
686. Mulford Street
687. Bell Crescent
688. Roy Crescent
689. Thoreau Street
690. Samson Road
691. Morton Street
692. Mary Street
693. Stevenson Road

Today I decided to avoid the busy city streets that I have been walking the past week and headed off to walk streets in Concord, at the other end of town. I started in Orr Street and walked up Stevenson Road to where it joins Corstorphine Road. This is where I had finished walking on Day Eighteen of my challenge. Stevenson Road is a bit unusual in that it has houses on one side and, despite being in the city, has paddocks on the other side. 

The large area of paddocks divides Corstorphine and Concord and has a 'for sale' sign so one day it might become a new subdivision for housing.  At the moment it is a nice break between the houses and the residents get a nice outlook. 

After turning off Stevenson Road, I walked part of Mulford Street and then onto Craig Hendry Street which has a large triangle of open grass at the end.  The residents of Craig Hendry Street have a good view looking over towards Corstorphine (in the mist)

If the weather had been better, the views would have been better. Despite the mist, I could still see down the hill to Kaikorai Valley where I had been walking on Day Twenty Seven of my challenge. 

I followed Mulford Street from the top of the hill down to the bottom and was rewarded with good views looking down to the Southern Motorway. Being early Saturday morning, the motorway wasn't very busy but I imagine there would be a lot of traffic noise at times. 

Rounding the corner from Mulford Street to Morton Street gives a good view of the motorway as it comes down the hill from Lookout Point.  It is a good place to see where the open farmland divides the two housing areas of Corstorphine and Concord.

As I walked back up the hill to Orr Street, where I had started my walk, I walked past the Emerson Street Reserve.  It is a large playground and sports fields surrounded by houses and it gave me a chance to look over the streets that I had walked this morning. 

There were a couple of interesting things I saw on my walk today.  The first is the Shaky Lane street sign.  It's not a legal DCC street sign but is one that the residents of the lane have put there themselves.  I am not sure why it is called Shaky Lane.  The other is the 'Beware of the Dog' sign on the letterbox, it's a neat twist on the usual beware of the dog sign. It gave me a good chuckle as I walked past. 

I walked past one painted telephone cabinet today.  It has the word 'compassion' under the cow and sheep and is not far from the Burnside Freezing Works which opened in 1883. It was one the major industrial establishments in the Green Island/Concord area until it closed in 2008. 

Distance walked:  9.8 km      Walking time   1 hr 50 mins    

Total distance: 435.8 km       Total walking  82 hr 06 mins 

 

Day Eighteen Corstorphine

 The weather was starting to change with cloud coming in so the views today were not as clear as previous walks.  Today I walked 17 streets.

213. Corstorphine Road
214. Traquair Street
215. Crammond Avenue
216. Middleton Road
217. Stenhope Crescent
218. Avondale Street
219. May Street
220. Westgate
221. Hilltop Crescent
222.  Hillhead Road
223. St Clair Close

224. Bruntsfield Place
225.  Dovecote Avenue
226. Clermiston Avenue
227. Summertime Avenue
228. Gilmerton Street
229. Milburn Street

I thought the easiest thing to do was to start today's walk by going uphill so that I could finish with a downhill. Today I started by walking up Corstorphine Road.  There are a number of side streets off Corstorphine Road and these gave me a break from the uphill.  One of these side streets, Crammond Avenue gave me good views of the city.  

Corstorphine Road is not so steep once past Crammond Avenue and I made my way round to Middleton Road then further up the hill to Stenhope Crescent.  I was surprised at how far these streets went and how many houses there are in Stenhope Crescent and the streets that lead off it.  The views form Stenhope Crescent are also worth stopping for a look.  

 

 

 

From here it was time to turn around and start heading back down the hill.  After walking through Westgate I was onto Hillhead Road.  I had walked part of Hillhead Road on an earlier walk and today I got to walk right to the end.  After passing the houses, Hillhead Road changes into a more rural area.  

 

The end of Hillhead Road is marked on the map as having access to Tunnel Beach but in reality it does not.

 

From here it was back along Hillhead Road and continue walking the streets of Corstorphine, making my way back to where I started.  I found Corstorphine interesting walking as there are a number of pathways connecting the streets which meant that I only needed to walk one way on some of cul-de-sac streets.  

During my walk today I noticed a few interesting things. One was this cute letterbox.  It is such a happy looking letter box that it made me smile.  Another is the large anchor outside the club rooms of the Otago Underwater Club on the corner of Crammond Avenue and Corstorphine Road

 

 

 I was a bit disappointed that the sun was not shining today as I would like to have seen this sun dial in Westgate working.

 

 

I really liked this bus stop that I passed today.  Thomas Sidey was a politician who was first elected to government in the Caversham electorate then the Dunedin South Electorate until 1928.  He lived in the family home of Corstorphine House until his death in 1933.  

 

Distance walked: 11.6 km     Walking time 2 hr  09 mins    

Total distance: 156.7 km       Total walking  28 hr 41 mins