George Bass Coastal Walk - March 2016

It's a long weekend here in Melbourne this weekend so I was looking for a walk that didn't require a lot of travelling to get to, I'm not a huge fan of traffic and public holidays seem to bring out the worst in a lot of drivers. Living in the south east of Melbourne Phillip Island is only a little over an hour away so I thought that I could head down in that direction and re walk the George Bass Coastal Walk (GBCW). Now being a solo walker the GBCW posses a bit of a logistical issue unless I wanted to walk a retrace, I suppose if you are ever going to do a retrace then this section of coastline is as good as any, but I wasn't so keen. Looking at the map I developed a cunning plan, I'd park at Anderson, before walking the bike paths and quite roads to Punch Bowl, then I'd walk the actual GBCW into Kilcunda before climbing back up to Anderson on the Bass Coast Rail Trail.

The historic Kilcunda Trestle Bridge.

Driving down to Anderson on Saturday I was hoping that the overcast, hot and humid conditions would start to clear up a bit, but the conditions actually seemed to deteriate the closer I got to the start of the walk, oh well maybe the misty conditions would add to the atmosphere I thought, being a glass half full kinda bloke! So after parking at Anderson I headed up the hill on the old Phillip Island Road in the increasing drizzle, with this section of the road now bypassed the walking along the grassy verge wasn't too bad really. Around a kilometre along the old road I did a bit of a dog leg to the left and headed up to a signposted scenic lookout, from here to Punch Bowl Road I would be walking a quiet shared path. Now normally from the lookout you'd have a great view down over Western Port Bay, but the main interest today was a feral free range rooster that seemed keen to make sure that I wasn't going to hang around for long.

There was a wide grassy verge for most of the walk along the old Phillip Island Road.

Zig Zag to the scenic lookout to pick up the shared path.

The feral free range rooster that didn't want me hanging around at the lookout.

With the main Phillip Island Road re joining the old road the traffic noise became more noticeable, but walking the shared path which is a little away from the road meant that the traffic noise wasn't too intrusive. The shared path heads on a fairly undulating journey towards Punch Bowl Road, in fine weather the views over Western Port Bay would probably compensate for the traffic noise, today however the drizzle obliterated most of the view, yeah that glass was now only around a quarter full. On reaching the quiet Punch Bowl Road I headed south towards Bass Strait, by the time I'd arrived at the car park at Punch Bowl the misty drizzle had cleared and while it wasn't exactly blue skies and sunshine at least it wasn't raining.

The start of the new shared path, it eventually leads to San Remo.

The scenery along the road wasn't too bad really.

There's a few undulations along the shared path.

Normally there would be great views over Western Port Bay along this section of the walk, today though I got a good look at the drizzle.

Punch Bowl marked the start of the GBCW section of todays stroll, the walking along here is beautiful with the track more or less keeping to the open cliff tops. Punch Bowl is a famous spot to go rock fishing in Victoria and there was no shortage of keen fisho's out on the rock ledges today, rock fishing is a fairly dangerous hobby and there was plenty of signage warning of the dangers, even a sobering sign warning of multiple fatalities in this spot. After about twenty metres along the GBCW I took the short side trip out to the Punch Bowl Lookout, the views from here stretched from Cape Woolamai in one direction to Cape Patterson in the other. The GBCW is backed by mainly rural farm land but every so often you pass close by a holiday house perched close to the cliffs and its near the start that you pass the most prominent one, this one is a huge pink monstrosity that looks like a pink Starship Enterprise has parked itself on the cliffs, looking back as you progress along the walk towards Kilcunda the pink beacon is a handy reference point to measure your progress as its quite often in view.

I'm on the George Bass Coastal Walk now, this is looking east from the Punch Bowl Lookout.

That's Cape Woolamai on Phillip Island in the distance.

The rural landscape bordering the cliffs looked incredibly dry for South Gippsland.

The track today was fairly busy and as I meandered my way along the cliff tops I was over taken by all manor of people, the most common characteristic was that they were all considerably older than me but they all looked to be doing it a lot easier than me, hmmm. Not wanting to be over taken by any walkers with Zimmer Frames I cranked it up slightly and soon arrived at the turn off to Half Moon Bay. I now had to decide whether to head down to the beach and try and rock hop the next headland or walk the cliff top bypass track, not having any idea about the tides I decided that I'd stay on the high ground along here, the consolation prize of the cliff tops was the great views over the beautiful sand of Half Moon Bay.

Half Moon Bay.

Cresting another rise on my way to Sandy Waterholes Beach.

Sandy Waterholes Beach.

After some more grassy cliff top wandering I started to pass through some dunes signalling my imminent arrival onto the beautiful stretch of white sand that is Sandy Waterholes Beach. Now once again I was faced with a high level route around a headland or a rock hop, this headland is only very short though so I decided that I'd traverse the short rock platform, in reality it would only be the highest of high tides that you'd need to use the high level track on this one, one well timed sprint between waves would be enough to get around this headland I reckon. 

Looking out to Bass Strait from Sandy Waterholes Beach.

The small headland halfway along the beach is the tide dependent part, I reckon a well timed run would see you through pretty easily though.

The GBCT is fairly well sign posted.

Leaving Sandy Waterholes Beach I once again climbed up towards the brown parched paddocks that lined the cliff tops, from now until I arrived on the outskirts of Kilcunda the tops would provide a roller coaster walk with constant views out over Bass Strait. It wasn't the views that first got my attention though it was a peregrine Falcon nesting in a hollow on the cliffs that stopped me, I watched the falcon for five minutes or so as it flew back and forth to its nest, unfortunately I didn't get a photo worth posting so you'll have to take me word for it, but it was a special encounter. Wandering along the cliff tops a bit further I got to Arch Rock, as the name implies a sea cave that has broken through the headland to create an arch, the coastline along here and looking back in the direction of Punch Bowl is particularly photogenic.

It was a pretty warm day but there was still a bit of weather around.

The cliff in the foreground was home to a Peregrine Falcon, the pink house in the distance is at the start of the GBCW at Punch Bowl.

The long beach eventually leads to Cape Patterson.

The coast line around Arch Rock is particularly rugged.

Arch Rock.

Soon after passing the lookout to Arch Rock the track crosses a shallow gully and comes to an old winch rusting away in the scrub, this area of Victoria was the home to a lot of coal mines back in the early 1900's and the winch is a left over from the Kilcunda Mine.  The track now starts to pass some houses on the out skirts of Kilcunda as it makes it way over Black Head which provides the last grand stand views of the walk, shortly after passing over Black Head I got to the car park above Shelly Beach, the first vehicle access since leaving Punch Bowl. The choice here was to head along the short cut track straight to the Kilcunda Pub or descend to the water level and continue my walk along the coastline, it may be somewhat hard to believe but I decided to forgo the pleasures of the pub in order to keep walking.

The old steam driven winch that was used in the Kilcunda Coal Mine.

That's Cape Woolamai still visible in the distance.

Bass Strait.

Once on the shore line I followed a series of sandy beaches broken up by rocky headlands, it was now obvious to me that I hadn't managed to time the tides very well, the headlands required a little bit of scrambling and some well timed jogs in order to keep my boots dry as the waves encroached further up the rock. After passing around one final headland the (somewhat) famous Kilcunda Trestle Bridge came into view, this was the spot where I'd leave the coast and climb up onto the Bass Coast Rail Trail. Now I had been thinking about this post while I was walking and I figured that the trestle bridge would make a good opening photo for the post, so on rounding the final headland I was a bit disappointed to see that the trestle bridge was fenced off for maintenance work with bright red fencing, and there was some industrial plant parked under the bridge, hmmm this was going to make getting a good photo challenging. Climbing up onto the bridge I decided to try for a photo from the inland side of the bridge, hoping that if I took it in black and white the bright red generator under the bridge mightn't stand out so much, you'll have to be the judge on whether that worked.

I didn't time the tide too good on my beach section, it took a little easy scrambling to keep my boots dry.

The Kilcunda Trestle Bridge has just come into view as I round the last headland.

Eventually this beach will deliver you to Cape Patterson.

Now the plan was to head to the Kilcunda Pub for a late lunch but walking into town along the rail trailI could see that the place was packed, the deck over flowing with punters, not the ideal spot for a hot and sweaty walker with a pathological aversion to crowds really! So after ringing Sam to let her know that I'd be home a little earlier than planned I headed out of town along the wide rail trail. After crossing the Bass Highway the rail trail comes to the remains of the old Mitchell's Black Coal Mine that operated for almost 100 years from the 1860's. There are some remains of the processing plant in the long grass but the most obvious reminder of the old mine is the large mullock heap that the rail trail passes. The rest of the walk up to Anderson passes through mainly rural farmland, the old train line climbing at a fairly gentle angle all the way, Cape Woolamai occasionally in view across the parched paddocks. An easy 45 minutes walk from Kilcunda and I arrived back at the car park at Anderson, hot and sweaty but content after another nice stroll.

Heading into Kilcunda along the rail trail, the Kilcunda Pub was doing a roaring trade today.

Another old bridge on the climb up to Anderson.

The historic Mitchell's Black Coal Mine mullock heap.

The gentle climb up the Bass Coast Rail Trail made for an easy end to my stroll today.

The Dirt.

I walked 20.6 kilometres on this walk and climbed 400 metres, I suppose I'd rate this as a medium walk mainly because of the distance. I used notes out of the Chapman's Day Walks Victoria 2nd edition, its walk number 29 in the book. To turn this into a circuit you need to walk or ride the first 6 kilometres along road verges, shared paths and quiet roads, its not as bad as it sounds though as you will normally have great views over Western Port Bay for a lot of the road bash and at the same time the bucolic landscape is a contrast to the rugged coastal scenery to come.

One last view of Cape Woolamai over the rolling farmland before I arrived back at the ute.

The start and end point of my walk at Anderson.