Jon Morgan

Last month, one evening I happened to be out near midnight. The moon was well over half full, the walking was pleasant, and I thought “I haven’t done this for a while”.

Later that week I did do a night walk, coinciding with the full moon, and was reminded how much I enjoy that kind of thing.

Hadn’t I already been doing it?

This certainly wasn’t the first time I’ve been on a moonlit walk. Early on in the history of this blog I wrote about a few of the moonlit walks I’d done. Then during the Covid years I walked under the moonlight at midnight sometimes - when curfew didn’t prevent me.

More recently, last time I was at Wilson’s Prom on a multi-day walk I remember walking in the moonlight one evening. Then last year I went walking by the Yarra after a very late Australian Open finish (that time you could have found me near Herring Island at 3AM, reading from my Kindle under a full moon. It was a great experience - if a little surreal).

What I felt I’d been missing was going out in the moonlight in my local area. That meant going out on a night I was meant to be at home. Making the walk a conscious choice, rather than just - say - encountering moonlight after a night event or because I hadn’t finished my daylight walk soon enough.

Why night walking?

Everyone knows that daylight’s a better time to go walking, right? There’s a lot more light. There’s less chance of tripping over something. And there’s also less fear there might be an axe murderer hiding in the bushes (though I’m not sure how many axe murderers choose the Dandenong Ranges to operate in…).

For me, a daytime walk means interactions with birds and animals, and a lot of photography. Not only do I pause to observe those animals, but I also listen for calls and then try to locate the bird or animal responsible for those calls. That’s great, but it does have its downsides - and one of the biggest is spending longer out walking while getting less exercise.

When I was younger, night walking meant tricksy, shifting moonlight and views of the streetlights below, and it still means those things. But now it also means actually being able to walk faster and further.

The biggest surprise from the walk was how much I loved the pure physicality of it. The reminder that I really can climb 200m vertical over a couple of kilometres without stopping every 50m for photos. It makes me wonder whether I should do more walking just for exercise, even in daylight (though I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to convince myself to do that with things to see all round me).

It was so good I went further than planned, climbed higher than planned, and actually ended up in national park walking among the eucalypts for a bit (regular readers will probably guess that I’m absolutely shocked by that. There’s no way I could have guessed that I’d go further than planned 😉).

Unlike in daytime, it was mostly pretty calm - mostly distant traffic noise, only briefly interrupted by a few cars and a few people walking dogs. It’s just so nice, and so different from ordinary daytime walking.

Still taking photos

Of course, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t take a few photos. For example, I passed a scenic bus shelter (though I think the final bus for the night had already passed…):

Nor could I ignore the occasional headlights of a passing car:

Introducing our friend and satellite - the Moon!

A moonlit walk wouldn’t be much without the moon, so here are a couple of shots:

What those photos don’t show is what it feels like walking under the moon. The light is fairly gentle, and the colour palette of familiar trees and streets is completely different.

In case you’re wondering, I do have plenty of light available: I tend to carry a head-torch with me, plus my phone of course has a torch. However, I try not to use them since they would spoil the experience. So long as there’s enough light and I can walk safely without providing my own light, it makes for a much better experience. That walk I didn’t use a torch at all.

The same is true of street lights: Usually they’re a good thing for the night walker, but they do get in the way of the moonlight. I didn’t notice it so much while I was still under street lights, but then I got to an area of the tourist road with no street lights. The moonlight reminded me of that time camping up Mount Buffalo nearly a decade ago. I loved the reflection of moon on asphalt and the road inviting me to ascend, just as much as I always have. Then I entered the forest, and the moonlight continued to filter softly through. It was perfect.

A different view of street lights

By the time I got back to street lights I’d probably had half an hour without them, and I was surprised to find a definite feeling of loss. I really didn’t want to leave the moonlight. The moon was still up in the sky, of course, but it was no longer reflecting off the asphalt in the same way. Under the street lights the light was harsher, the shadows were sharper, and it was just completely different from moonlight.

Here’s what it was like when the street lights returned:

The street lights stretched out in all directions on the flat plains below:

I could even see my regular train station far below:

(and if those photos don’t look good to you - just do it in real life. It’s much better 🙂).

Animals still included

It’s not just cars and bus shelters and street lights - even when out at dark I can’t completely shake off animal photography 😛.

Possums are probably the most common animals I see at night, both the smaller ringtails and the larger brushtails. They’re often to be found walking the wires, and if they’re not hurrying along those wires, they might just be watching you.

Take for example the ringtail I saw on that walk:

It apparently wasn’t in too much of a hurry to get away from the pesky human, and I in my turn was happy to watch it.

For comparison, here’s the brushtail I saw on my way home from the station a couple of weeks later:

Another night walk: Avoiding the rain

It was a week later that I went for another night walk near midnight, and this time it hadn’t been planned.

It had been raining most of the day. I’d gone out on what looked to be a gap in the rain at lunchtime, and it had then turned very heavy very quickly. Then I’d been about to go out shortly before sunset - and it started raining. I tried again when it was almost dark - and it was still raining. Likewise after dinner. In the end, it was after 11PM, it seemed to have stopped raining, and I was sick of waiting. Perhaps it wasn’t as pretty as the previous week - but I did get a walk and managed to stay dry on a day when it hadn’t looked possible.

It was still cloudy and there was definitely no moon, but at least I got to see a night bird:

Unfamiliar territory out west

Yesterday evening I was walking with my sister in the Werribee Gorge State Park. As planned, we saw a sunset from the Western Viewpoint (mostly obscured by cloud and drizzle!), then moved on to the Eastern Viewpoint for night views towards Melbourne. The city lights were distant but pretty, in front of us were the constant headlights of traffic passing along the Western Highway, and we even heard a wallaby or two hopping on the scree below.

Then it was time to return to the cars. It was full moon again, and with the clouds the moon was going in and out:

We were walking a part of the short circuit track that I’m not sure I’ve ever walked before, and certainly haven’t walked at night. Route finding on an unfamiliar track can certainly be more nerve wracking - even under that full moon. It was a nice walk and I’m glad we did it - but next time I’ll probably stick to a trail I already know.

Conclusion

Night walking - and particularly walking under the moonlight - is just another thing to add back to my list of “Things I should do more often”.

Will I actually do it more often? We’ll see…

It’s very easy to get busy and for these kinds of “less usual” walk to feel like a luxury, and perhaps they are a luxury. But that first walk in particular was a reminder of simpler times, and made for a good walk that I want to repeat when I get a chance.