everything after Frankston is gold

Last weekend, Jack and I decided we needed to get out of the city. So we packed our bags and headed south on the Nepean Highway to the Mornington Peninsula. Just over an hour outside of Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsular forms one half of Port Phillip Bay, and is home to many wineries and big, expensive houses!


We chose to stay in Sorrento, the second-to-last town on the peninsula, primarily because we found cheap accommodation there! That proved to be the only inexpensive thing, though. A cheap Chinese dinner turned out not to be cheap at all, and all of our breakfast choices were over-priced and unsatisfactory. However, the hostel was very nice, and the "village" of Sorrento was almost quaint! After a good night's rest, we ventured out to Cape Schank, on the southeast corner of the Peninsula, to see the lighthouse there. Upon arrival at the carpark, though, we discovered the lighthouse was a paid attraction! So we decided just to walk the coastline instead, and got some good snaps of the lighthouse anyway.


It was built in 1859, and is one of the oldest in Australia

We walked the 3 km to Bushrangers Bay, which provided a somewhat unsatisfactory view, but the walk was lovely, if quite strenuous.



at the entrance to the "Tunnel of Love" as I call it, on the Bushrangers Bay track

By the time we turned around and walked the 3 km back to the car, we were both pooped, and decided to call it quits for the day.

The next morning, we headed to the very tip of the peninsula, Point Nepean. I thought we'd just park, take a few photos, and be on our way. Upon arriving, however, we discovered it was a 6 or 7 km walk to the point, and you could only take your car so far down the track. We drove to the Gunners Cottage car park, and decided to walk the rest of the way. A little exercise never hurt anybody! It proved to be a really nice walk, and the sun came out to greet us for the first half. Also, we discovered there are two old army bases out on the point, with machine gun emplacements and barracks and all kinds of cool stuff! 


 

So we spent a lot of time exploring those, and reading about the history of protecting Australia's borders! There were some lovely views along the way, too.

 

looking back towards the rest of the peninsula (and Melbourne!)

We also stopped at the Harold Holt memorial at Cheviot Beach. Harold Holt was the Australian Prime Minister in the 60s, but went swimming in some rough waters one day and never came back. A belated 2005 inquest ruled he had accidentally drowned while swimming, but since his body was never recovered, there is a certain amount of mystery surrounding the incident. Personally, I think you'd have to be insane to want to swim in the very rough. cold, and shark-infested waters of the Bass Strait, but hey, what do I know?

Well after all of that, we'd worked up quite an appetite, so drove back through Sorrento and had lunch at the historic local pub.

Fish and chips for $16 - not too bad!

And that was the end of our trip. We both really enjoyed our little getaway, and hope to return to the peninsula soon for some wine tasting and hedge maze running!


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