I didn’t know it when I went out this morning that I was on an expedition to find the old Spearwood railway junction. (Isn’t that the whole point of this sort of ramble though? Not knowing. Although, it’d be nice to know what’s not known in OSM I guess…)

On the way, I filled in a few more street names, and took some more photos of market gardens that are almost certainly soon to be “redeveloped” and never seen any more. A nice morning, and far better than being at work. (Ha! A whole nother week to go yet of the hols!)

The northern part of the walk was reasonably dull (by which I do not mean to imply that it was not enjoyable, just not interesting; dull walks are sometimes the most fun… if you see what I mean? Xavier de Maistre would get it perhaps. But then again, perhaps not.) There was a leaky footpath though.

(Who else takes photos of bus-stop poles, by the way? OSM people only, I assume.)

Once the prospect of a railway formation was gained, however, that old excitement came, that thing of I’ll-just-see-where-this-goes. I did meet a few morning walkers, some with dogs and some old and seemingly deaf to my attempted salutations. One chap on his front lawn attempted to glare me out of his street, but I grew bold (for once; meandering with GPS and camera often feels a bit conspicuous) and took a photo of the building site opposite his house.

After crossing Spearwood Avenue things changed — visibly, but just as much in that vibe that really determines what any place is like. Few well-tended gardens; a tinted 4WD that stopped to watch my progress along the footpath; more fly-tipping… but then, a gravel path with the distinct feeling of being curvacious and level enough to have once been a railway line. A nice thing to think, even if I’d been quite wrong (it was more likely, I thought, to be the easement of some UG asset). Last time I came this way, I went off-track a couple of kilometers following the gas pipe when I was trying to follow the oil pipe…

I assume someone out there knows (much) more than me about the history of this little bit of railway line, but I don’t know where to look.

Anyway, here are some incredibly boring photos of street signs in Spearwood:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/freosam/sets/72157639301543813/