McRitchie

[Walker_]

What is the best way to enjoy McRitchie with a 2 and a 4 year old?
Is it true there are loads of monkeys in the visitor centre car park?
Where is nice to walk - jungly but not where i have to carry the kids all the way round .. boardwalk?

[National Parks]

A lot of this info is available online. Some of the reservoir is ringed with boardwalks, there are some paved bit, etc. A sturdy sports style buggy would do the trick for most of the way, even on the jungle paths. Yes, there are some steeper bits, but you can negotiate those slowly, or get the kids out and get over the hurdles that way

[buzzing bee]

bring mosquito repellent. water - inside the canopy it can get quite humid.

[monkey business]

I haven't been there for ages, but from back when I last went, there was a boardwalk that went left (west?) part-way around the reservoir from the main car-park area.  You can also get to the treetop walk without having to go too far around if you go from the Upper Thompson Rd area down Venus Rd.

Most of the walk is jungly apart from the golf club area and the main visitor centre bit.

I heard that they were doing lots of work on the main entrance - back when I used to go there regularly, there was just one cafe but there may be more there now.

The monkeys are OK to look at but be careful, they can be nasty little things due to so many people feeding them (they assume that everyone has something for them).  Don't let your kids have anything that the monkeys might want to take so put all toys/favourite blankets/food/even water bottles away in a bag where they can't be seen.  The monkeys also move around from place to place - you may go and not see any or there could be quite a lot of them hanging around.