St Kilda to Station Pier - October 2018

If you are after pristine wilderness style photos, then give this post a miss.

With a night out at St Kilda planned this week I decided to head up a few hours earlier and go for a little stroll along Port Phillip Bay. After checking into our slightly quirky digs at the Tolarno Hotel hotel on Fitzroy Street, I pulled on my hiking havaianas and headed off towards the somewhat distant Station Pier. While the majority of this walk was along the shores of the bay, the initial section found me walking the tree lined back streets of St Kilda, firstly I passed The Gatwick Hotel (somewhat famous for it’s recent makeover on 'The Block') and then down past the old Victorian and Edwardian Houses along Loch Street.

The Gatwick has just gone through a Block style reno.

Checking out the old Real Estate on Loch Street.

It's not all old Real Estate though.

After a bit of zigging and zagging I crossed the busy Beaconsfield Road and arrived at Port Phillip Bay, which I would stay pretty close to for the next few hours. My walk now really just consisted of me promenading my way north until I reached Station Pier before I would reverse the direction and head back down to St Kilda, yep this isn’t the toughest walk that I’ve ever featured on my blog. That was all ahead of me now though as I followed a short section of boardwalk near the West Beach Pavilion, this short stretch being virtually the only spot that I’d leave concrete footpath until I returned in a few hours.

After reaching the bay I turned right and kept going. This short section of boardwalk lasted for a couple of minutes.

If I looked hard enough I found the occasional patches native vegetation.

St Kilda Pier, from the boardwalk.

Once off the boardwalk and back on the footpath it was just a matter of flip flopping my way north in my thongs. Probably the hardest challenge for the day was actually finding something to take a photo of really, although I’ve grown up near Port Phillip Bay so maybe I’m taking it all for granted? This is prized people watching territory along here which is just as well as the bayside scenery wasn’t giving me a lot. St Kilda is also the semi permanent home to large populations of back packers who seem to flock to the sand and bright lights, they are easily recognisable by their pink, flushed skin during the day and their staggering gait and slurred speech once the sun goes down and the clubs open up. It didn’t take long for my first sighting today as I passed by a gaggle of back packers testing out their skills and improving their tans playing a bit of beach volleyball.

St Kilda is the prime location to spot back packers in their natural habitat.

Leaving the volleyball players in peace I continued trudging my way north. Now you are not going to get lost on this stroll as the turn around point on my walk was Station Pier and Station Pier is where the Spirit of Tasmania docks, the big red ship being visible for the length of my beach side walk. The highlights were coming thick and fast now, Kerford Float Pier, Plum Garland Playground, South Melbourne Life Saving Club, Port Melbourne Life Saving Club, Lagoon Pier, Port Melbourne Yacht Club, like I said ‘thick and fast’.

It's not often that I do a walk that I can see over the distance of the whole walk.

Lagoon Pier (err, that maybe a Feral fact).

There is some prime beach side real estate along this stroll.

Using all my Feral imagination I took a few photos as the big red ship got bigger and bigger, although to be honest the thing that was focussing my mind the most was the blisters that I was getting on my feet…..who would of thought a 10 kilometre walk in Havaianas wouldn’t be a good idea? People watching is the go along here though and thankfully the Melbourne weather was co-operating with the temperature in the high 20˚ region. With The Spirit of Tasmania now almost filling my field of vision my mind was wandering a little now as I re-lived past trips down to Tassy and imagined new adventures ahead of me.

Maybe next year.....?

I was heading straight for the Beacon Cove supermarket, but there is a nice café here as well.

This monument is the only remaining part of the old Railway Pier Bridge.

After a quick stop at the Beacon Cove supermarket to purchase supplies for my return journey (band-aids) I was on my way again. It was fairly late in the afternoon now so my return walk was enlivened by watching the two wheeled, lycra clad, 'wacky racers' on their evening commute home from work. Instead of heading back to the hotel via the back streets of St Kilda I continued along the shore of Port Phillip Bay all the way down to St Kilda Pier, climbed the pedestrian bridge over Jacka Bolouavard and then wandered up Fitzroy Street to meet up with Sam at the hotel.

This is was what 95% of the walk consisted of. I struggled with the photo's a bit!

I've made it back down to St Kilda.

Heading back up to Fitzroy Street I could still see the big red boat in the distance.

The Dirt.
You’d never of guessed this from my great write up of this stroll, but I struggled a bit writing about this little walk. I’m thinking that if you are visiting Melbourne and haven’t grown up close to the shores of Port Phillip Bay then the walk might be a lot more interesting. All that said the walk has a bit going for it, the beaches are all safe for swimming, there are a multitude of choices available if you feel like a drink or a bite to eat, the old architecture is interesting and the people watching is good on a nice day. This walk was written up by Julie Mundy in her book Melbourne's Best Bush, Bay & City Walks, it's walk number 39 in the book. I walked out and back and walked 10.5 kilometres and climbed 88 metres on this easy walk, it would be easy enough to walk one way and catch public transport back to the start though. This is probably one of those walks that is worth considering if you find yourself in the area, but probably not worth travelling too far to do…..but like I say, maybe I’m a bit jaded?

The view from our balcony.

Sam took this before I got back and spread my gear near and far.

The Tolarno Hotel.

The Tolarno Hotel.

Accommodation
We were up in St Kilda to go to the theatre that night (relax, I’m talking Bruce Dickinson out of Iron Maiden, not the Pirate of Penzance type of show). Being in my senior years now (and seeing that I’d dragged Sam along) we decided to spend the night in town and not head home after the show. After extensive research (well, two minutes on Trip Advisor) we decided to bed down at the Tolarno Hotel on Fitzroy Street. The Tolarno Hotel is next door to the refurbished Gatwick Hotel and opposite the main café strip on Fitzroy Street, so it’s a prime spot. The hotel is one of those old places that has been refurbished in a retro, arty, slightly rough around the edges style. We had a Balcony Studio Suite that overlooked Fitzroy Street which came in at less than $200 per night which isn’t too bad for the location, I’m thinking. The room had all the modern conveniences we needed to survive like a large flat screen, small kitchen, polished hard wood floor boards and free (crap) wifi. Being on the fairly busy Fitzroy Street things are a little noisy until the wee hours of the morning but it wasn’t too bad, we would use the hotel again if we need to stay in St Kilda. Oh, incase you were wondering, Bruce was very entertaining, even for a non metal head like Sam.

Relevant Posts.
Southbank, Melbourne, 2015.
Arts Precinct, Melbourne, 2017.
Emerald Hill Heritage Precinct, Melbourne, 2017. 

A good night was had by all...