This will be a very short post, I'm still writing up my crazy guy journal so haven't been doing a lot of walking. After breakfast with Sam on Saturday I figured that I'd try and fit in a short walk in the afternoon to give me something to post. Wanting a quick walk meant that it also had to be reasonably close to home, it kind of defeats the purpose if I do a short walk but have a three hour drive to get there. So after consulting my library of guide books I decided to head down the Mornington Peninsula to Crib Point and do the Woolleys Beach walk.
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| This pretty much sums up what today's trail was like. |
Parking at the picnic area near he old Crib Point jetty I basically headed along a sandy path southwards until I came to Stony Point Road, where I turned around and retraced my steps. The path led through lots of native bush and although The Esplanade was never far away it felt reasonably remote. After walking for about five minutes I realised that I'd left my wallet in the ute so had to back track and get it, developing dementia will do that. Looking at the bright side I figured that at least the extra distance would add a bit of respectability to the stats for the walk.
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Plenty of wild flowers.
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A bit of native fauna.
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Setting off for the second time I soon passed another picnic area, this one with an old boat ramp, however with the tide in Westernport Bay out about 100 metres you'd need a 4wd to launch anything here. The sandy track continued on inside the coastal bush, for a walk along the coast there were virtually no views as the route kept far enough inland and the topography was that flat that it didn't allow me to catch more than fleeting glimpses of the sea. There were a lot of wild flowers on display however so I spent a little time mucking around taking photos of them. There was also an Echidna that tried to bury itself in the soft sand when it heard me coming, I could only get a shot of his spiky bum as he pointed it towards me, the head being well and truly buried.
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| I'd like to caption the names of the flowers but I've got no idea! |
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My turn around point, I scrub bashed a little to try and get a view. No wonder I was eaten by sand flies
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| My turn around point, that's Stony Point Road through the gate, the pad on the left led into the scrub towards the water but there was no real view. |
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After passing by a few pads leading up to the suburban streets of Crib Point I got to the end of the walk at Stony Point Road, it was now a matter of turning around and retracing my route. I'm not a big fan of the retrace but I improved it a little by taking to the beach at the boat ramp and walking the last section along the beach, the eucalypt's lining the shore adding a bit of interest. Westernport Bay suffers a bit scenically compared to its neighbour Port Phillip Bay, but if you look closely there is enough to hold your interest, just don't do this walk if you want to have a swim as the mud flats aren't very conducive for that.
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| Looking down towards Stony Point from the boat ramp. |
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The Dirt.
I used the notes from walk number 63 in 'Walks of the Mornington Peninsula' by Ken Martin, he doesn't appear to have a web site so I can't link it. I walked a grand total of 6.4 kilometres and climbed a whopping 35 metres, its definitely a flat walk, I think most of those metres were me crouching down to take photos of flowers. As I write this the next day I'm scratching at about twenty sand fly bites so take some nuclear insect repellent with you, the little bastards are very hard to see so I didn't realise I was getting attacked at the time, oh well at least its good preparation for my up coming trip to New Zealand!
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| Walking the beach back to the ute. |
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| The picnic area near the Crib Point jetty. |
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| Looking out to Westernport Bay from the picnic area, it doesn't look to bad, does it? |
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