A walk in the park turned into an eye-watering balancing act for a man who impaled himself in Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens.



The man, about 25, slipped last night as he tried to climb over a 1.8-metre tall wrought-iron gate, driving a spike deep into the back of his upper left thigh.



Stranded, he spent about 20 minutes balancing on his toes on a gate cross-bar until Metropolitan Fire Brigade and Ambulance Victoria crews arrived about 8pm.



Firefighters used a ladder to gently lift the man off the gate and into the hands of paramedics.



"He's been trying to climb over, his foot must have slipped and he's impaled the back of his left thigh. Once he was there he couldn't move because the spike would have gone about 10 centimetres in," said intensive-care paramedic Michelle Murphy



"He was in lots of pain, obviously, a bit frightened and he was balancing on his toes precariously on a middle rung of the gate.



"We checked his vital signs and then made sure he got some pain relief medication via an intravenous drip. Once he had enough pain relief on board we were able to carefully lift him from the fence with the help of the fire brigade.



"We managed to get the stretcher underneath him and once he was safely on that we were able to bandage up his wounds.



"He was very relieved. His heart rate was going a bit quickly when we first got there because of the pain and anxiety of being stuck where he was. After we got him off, thankfully that all was resolved pretty quickly.



"Thankfully he hadn't lost a lot of blood and he was taken to the Alfred Hospital in a stable condition."



It's unclear why the man mounted the gate, but he did not appear to have been drinking, said both firefighters and paramedics.