Mornington Peninsula Coastal Walk - February 2015

I'm off to Peru for a walk soon so I need to get in a few harder walks to keep me in some kind of condition. I have been trying to revisit an old favourite the Mornington Peninsula Coastal walk all summer, but with the need for low tide in the middle of the day, warm weather, and needing a lift to Portsea I hadn't been able to get it all together. With the forecast for this Saturday initially starting out as 34 Celsius with an early evening cool change and low tide at about 1 pm I figured that it was now or never if I was going to do it this summer. I awoke early on Saturday to a revised forecast of 31 Celsius, but with showers not predicted until late afternoon and Sam already lined up to drop my off in Portsea it was still all go.

London Bridge.

A swimmer in the rock pool next to London Bridge.

It poured with rain on the drive down to Portsea but I figured that the cloud would burn off, however when Sam left me at the Portsea back beach car park at 10 am the skies were still dark and brooding. Initially I headed off in the opposite direction to Cape Schanck, I wanted to walk from London Bridge to Cape Schanck but actually got dropped of 1 kilometre east of London Bridge due to a navigational error (who needs a map anyway). Following Farnsworth Track I was soon at my official start point and after taking a very ordinary photo of London Bridge I turned back to the east and, with the ocean on my right headed off towards the very distant Cape Schanck.

I'm on the beach and heading east, Cape Schanck is the low grey line stretching out into Bass Strait.

The first part of the walk I completed on the steeply sloping sand, the tide was dropping so I had some firm stuff to walk on but at the same time I had to be careful of waves washing up high on the beach. After finishing my initial beach ramble at Sorrento Back Beach I climbed up onto Coppins Track, the next long section to St Andrews Beach has some stunning coastal scenery. Even with the crappy overcast conditions it still looks pretty good. Now while I'm talking overcast conditions perhaps sultry is a better description as the day was actually petty warm, actually at 31 Celsious some may even say hot. The track now heads along on top of the coastal cliffs passing a series of secluded bays and some great lookouts, some sections of the route were through Tea Tree but other sections were along the edge of the cliffs.

Walking the rock shelves between Portsea and Sorrento Back Beaches.

Sphinx Rock near Sorrento Back Beach.

With low tide there was plenty of these rocky shelves to check out.

The first side trip I did was to Diamond Bay, quickly followed by a loop over St Pauls Lookout and a trip out to the Bay of Islands Lookout. All these places showcased a different aspect of the rugged coastal scenery and I'll have to come back again on a sunny day to try and capture it at its best. Some what surprisingly for me I'd actually put a bit of planning into the walk and frozen some drink bottles full of water so even though it was fairly warm at least I could enjoy a cool drink whenever I wanted, and with all the stunning vista's there was plenty of excuses to stop for a bit of a break.

On Coppins Track between Sorrento Back Beach and Koonya Ocean Beach.

They'll be plenty of these moody shots today.

Passing Bridgewater Bay the track was generally still high on the cliffs, near Number Sixteen Beach I passed a spot from my youth, I used to come here as a teenager to jump off a high rock stack into a rock pool, there was now a different group a young people as the generations changed, but they were still enjoying the same experience. From Number Sixteen Beach beach the cliffs got lower and a bit sandier but the route generally stayed on them, on eventually reaching the Rye Back Beach however the route dropped once again to the sand and would stay on the sand for quite a few more hours. It was well into the afternoon by the time I got to Rye Back Beach and the cloud hadn't yet broken, in fact I'd had some reasonably heavy showers to contend with which really cranked up the humidity.

Even though the route was high on the cliffs it was still a sandy slog in places.

Bay of Islands.

Bridgewater Bay.

I used to jump off that rock stack when I was their age.

The tide had now just gone low and was starting to come back in, however with a fairly even sloping beach there was generally plenty of sand to walk on. The section from Rye to St Andrews isn't just an easy beach ramble however as there are quite a few rocky obstacles to negotiate. Along with the odd rocky headland to scramble around there are a series of long rock ribs running parallel with the water that I had to walk around. The rock ribs forced everyone up the beach onto the softer sand and the people along with the horse riding groups had churned the sand up and made it very soft and slow going, sometimes I took my chances on the jagged rocks to give my calf's a bit of a breather. I'll probably post a photo or two from along this section and you may notice that the horizon isn't level, this is somewhat surprising considering that trying to get a level horizon was all I was concentrating on! Reaching the scenic Boags Rocks the walking got easier again, Boags Rocks is infamous as the spot Melbourne Water pumps its treated effluent out into Bass Strait, it always surprises me when I see people fishing here.

The cliffs get a little lower on the section from Koonya ocean Beach to Rye Ocean Beach.

Hmmm... Looks like I'm going to get wet.

As I dropped down onto Gunnamatta Beach I could clearly see the lighthouse at Cape Schanck in the middle distance. It was about now that the sun decided to come out in force so I trudged the entire length of Gunnamatta Beach with the sun beating down on me. Every time I paused for minute to get a photo in the sunny conditions a horde of March Fly's would descend on me and start attacking, in fact they even attacked while I was walking, perhaps they were confused by my sloth like pace? After Gunnamatta I had one more beach to traverse, Fingal Beach. This was the spot I had to get around before high tide and as it was now very late afternoon I knew I'd be cutting it fine, but by this stage of the walk I probably would have just waded through the water in my boots rather than take the inland detour that climbed steeply up through the dunes. With a bit of easy scrambling I got around the two dicey spots before Fingal Beach and I knew that nothing could stop me now.

I scrambled around this headland between Rye Ocean Beach and St Andrews Beach.

Ringing Sam to let her know all was well and I'd be home on time I traversed the last beach for the day, Fingal Beach was deserted except for a couple of divers and the now blue sky gave me the chance to abuse the polariser a bit. The climb out of Fingal is a bitch at the best of times but after walking more than 25 kilometres it was extra special today, I decided to add a degree of difficulty and see if I could climb the hundreds of steps without stopping. With sweat pouring out of me and my heart threatening to pop out of my rib cage I got to the lookout at the top of the steps without stopping, and then proceeded to drop my pack and drink the last of my water. The sun was in and out of cloud providing some moody shots and looking back down the peninsula I could make out my whole days walk. Once my pulse rate got down under 150bpm I shouldered the pack for the last time today and made tracks for Cape Schanck, the last few kilometres being through a Tea Tree tunnel which, while not providing much in the way of views at least provided shade. I broke out of the scrub onto Cape Schanck Road just as the change came through, suddenly for the first time all day I had a cool breeze which was a nice way to finish my day. Arriving at the light house car park there was time for a selfie before I pulled off my boots and headed off on the short drive home for a cool shower.

Cape Schanck is looking a bit closer now, from Boags Rocks.

Gunnamatta Beach looking towards the cape.

Looking back along Gunnamatta beach the way I've come.

This is the start of the section between Gunnamatta and Fingal Beach's that is dodgy at high tide.

With the sun out I practised a bit of polariser abuse

I'm about to climb of the last beach for the day, you can just see the Fingal Beach access steps on the right of the photo.

The Dirt.
I walked from London Bridge in Portsea to Cape Schanck, the route is in the Mornington Peninsula National Park. I used the notes from Daywalks Around Melbourne first edition by Glenn Tempest, he hasn't written the walk up again and the book is long since out of print. The walk is signposted as the Great Peninsula Walk or something similar now, I'm sure if you google it something will turn up. I walked 29 kilometres over 8.5 hours with minimal breaks, although I did stop to take over one hundred photos. I'd rate this as a medium walk but only because of the length, make sure you plan for low tide towards the middle of the walk as some of the beach sections are hard or even impossible at high tide.

Last lookout for the day, it was a good excuse to stop and recover after the Fingal Beach steps.

I've just broken out on Cape Schanck Road.

The authors a bit tired and sweaty after almost 30 kilometres.