Point Leo to Balnarring - October 2015

Another Saturday in Melbourne and its time for another stroll, this time I decided to head down the Mornington Peninsula to Point Leo, and beach comb my way to the old Coolart Homestead in Somers before retracing my steps back to the ute. It all sounded pretty straight forward, I'd even managed to get a low tide in the middle of the afternoon too, so I was pretty confident that I'd be walking on firm sand most of the way. Pulling up at Point Leo at the reasonably early time of 1pm, I soon had my boots on and was on my way. 

From the entrance gate I initially headed south along the cliff tops, the view across towards Phillip Island and The Nobbies was particularly good from up here. After around ten minutes walking along the cliff tops in the wrong direction I descended to the wide expanse of sandy beach near the Point Leo Boat Club and turned to the north and headed off into the distance . The beach along here is backed by low vegetated cliffs with not a lot of landmarks to make out, so I basically counted the headlands stretching to the north east and tried to guess where Coolart Homestead was, coming to the conclusion that it was a bloody long way away. 

Looking over to The Nobbies on Phillip Island.

Looking towards my destination.

The cliff top track at Point Leo made for an easy start to the walk.

For the first few kilometres the beach is protected by extensive rock reefs that at low tide were exposed, at another time it would be worth spending a few hours along here exploring the many rock pools, today however I had to make a mile while the tide was in my favour, so I kept my rock pool exploration to a minimum. Passing by the masts of Merricks Yacht Club, the yachts in dry dock behind the foreshore dunes, I continued on my beach side ramble passing around Palmer Bluff.

Down on beach the low tide made for easy walking.

Point Leo Creek.

On the first section today there was extensive rocky reefs protecting the beach.

Once around Palmer Bluff the coastline change a bit and the houses of Balnarring started to appear above the beach. Situated on the quiet Western Port Bay, Balnarring has always been a pretty sleepy coastal town. Now however I was surprised to see quite a few modern beach houses had popped up, the modern architecturally designed houses sitting beside the more traditional weather board houses. As the houses of Balnarring receded into the distance the coast changed a bit, the low dunes now backing the beach gave it a more remote feel, I was now looking for an exit track into Coolart Homestead however I had a sneaking suspicion that it wouldn't be signposted. I'd been watching some pine trees getting closer and closer for the last half an hour and was betting that they would be marking the site of the homestead, so when I saw a small track heading up through the dunes in the direction of the pines I figured that this was my track. After passing through the dunes the track came to a bridge over Merricks Creek, I was indeed on the right track.

Westerport Bay is home to a deep water port, there is talk every now and again of making it Melbourne's main port.

I was aiming for those pine trees which I figured would mark the site of Coolart Homestead.

Crossing the tidal creek the track twisted and turned a bit but sure enough I eventually made my way to the historic homestead. Coolart Homestead was built in 1895 by Frederick Sheppard Grimwade, and over the years it has passed through a few sets of hands before finally coming to rest in its current  state, being looked after by Parks Victoria. I spent a little while wandering around checking out the old buildings and the surrounding wetlands before I decided that I'd better turn around and head back to the ute, I still had a fair walk in front of me and now the tide was starting to rise which promised a harder walk.

Coolart Homestead.

Apart from the rising tide the other thing that had changed was that the weather had become a little overcast, and while it wasn't going to rain I probably wouldn't be getting any more blue sky shots. The one advantage of the overcast skies though was that I didn't stop much to take photos on the return journey, its amazing how long it takes to do these walks now that I am trying to get some interesting photos to post. The walk back was largely uneventful, the rising tide didn't really affect me too much, it looks like that this walk would be doable at almost any tide. Eventually I arrived back at the small Point Leo Creek which marked the spot that I had to leave the sand and climb up through the Point Leo Campground to the ute. 

Reflections in Merricks Creek.

Heading back out onto the beach, all I had to do now was to turn right and walk back to the start.

The Dirt.

Point Leo hasn't changed a lot since I used to visit with my surfing mates way back in high school, there is still one small general store and not much else, some of the older houses have been replaced with flash modern ones, but generally it has a bit of a 1970's feel about it. I enjoyed this walk but its not a stroll full of scenic highlights, sure the view across to Phillip Island is nice enough, but for the most part I just enjoyed wandering along the beach with the salt air in my lungs and not a thing to worry about. I walked 17.01 kilometres on the walk and climbed 69 metres, on this fairly easy stroll. I used the maps off my GPS and the notes and map out of Walks in Nature, Australia. The guide book is published by Explore Australia and is more of a foodie book than a walking guide, each walk has recommended places to eat either on the walk or before or after, I've used the book a couple of times and find the notes very basic but the maps are OK.

The overcast light didn't give me much to work with on the return journey.

Point Leo Creek in the late afternoon.