Barkly Gardens Richmond (My rating B)

Barkly Gardens is in Richmond, this park is reasonable good size for dogs, children, joggers....................  Ample parking spots, plenty of shades, number of benches, a playground and toilet facilities too.

This park is shared by onleash and offleash areas.  The area near playground and toilet facilities is the onleash area, the other side is the offleash area.

We went there on a sunny Sunday.  The park was bubbled with joy: dogs bouncing happily; kids kicking the balls joyfully; Couples pushing prams having a enjoyable stroll;  Friends jogging alongside;  Lovers on the grass whispering............

Winter Sun is so warm and so relaxing..........

This is a very nice park indeed.  I'm excited to see there're some very nice offleash parks in City of Yarra, I'll explore them all!

The only downside of this park is it's next to the Railway, thus you're constantly reminded that you're in the real world..........

p.s.: We brought bikes but the kids didn't feel like to cycle.

 

(Playground)

(Offleash Area in Purple)

Cooper Reserve@Burwood (my rating B)

Cooper Reserve (on Boroondara website, it's in Burwood, but on Google Map, it's in Camberwell) is on Green Street.  The entire reserve is offleash except the playground.

This is an awesome park, an average size playground, an oval, trees, drinking taps, and toilet facilities.  The car park isn't big,  but there are off street parking spots.

To me, this park is best to visit in summer, if you want to have a relaxation time.  Just to bring the picnic rug and food, find a shade,  you may easily spend a few hours in this park.  The kids will be busy with the play equipments, or balls (if they bring a ball);  The dogs will enjoy the park too.

The area near the street was clean and nice.  But at the other side of the park (towards Morey Street) where the resident houses are was a bit "whoopsy" when we were there. 

 

(The oval)

 

(The playground)

 

(The toilet)

Enfield State Park (my rating D)

Enfield State Park is near Ballarat, about 2.5 hrs drive from Melbourne City.  I chose this park because I was longing to be away from the city and man-made noises and to see some vast greenness, and I hadn't been to this park yet.

2 and half hours drive, GPS guided us to somewhere near the park but not in the park (by judging the google map), luckily we had the print-out map, finally we saw the sign of "Enfield State Park" and were back on track (Misery Creek Road).

But worrying about the condition of the unsealed road and potential flood after possible heavy rain, plus the lack of the road signs, we failed to go to the desired destination "Surface Point".  We went back to the Entry where "Enfield State Park" sign stands, and set up our camp chairs.

There, I had my "relaxation".

The park itself should be nice, the only thing that made me nervous is: there's no road signs except the road names.  "Misery Creek Road" goes to 3 different directions, but there's no sign to "Surface Point".  I followed my sixth sense completely whenever I had to choose which way to turn: left or right.  And because of this, I was nervous that I might've got lost and couldn't find the way out.

 

 

(Misery Creek Road - unsealed): this section is actually very good, but it goes steeper and bumpier deeper into the woods.

 

(This is where we set up our camp chairs)

 

(map from Park Victoria website)