Mornington Beaches - November 2018

This is definitely not a wilderness style walk....it was still a very nice stroll though.

Sometimes I do a walk that really surprises me, and this little late afternoon stroll definitely falls into that category. Mornington is just down the coast from the Feral abode and I’ve spent more than half a century living within a twenty kilometre radius of this place, so you think that I’d know all the nooks and crannies. Yep, you would think that… but you’d be wrong! Today I stumbled into a hidden little gem, this was a short walk but it turned out to be a very nice one.

It was every late in the day when we set off on this walk.

Now that I’ve built it up so much I suppose I’d better bring it down a notch, this isn’t a wild, wilderness style of walk, it’s more of an urban amble. It was a bit of a spur of the moment decision to head down to Mornington tonight, it was a Friday and we’d both been at work so it was 7pm when we finally parked the ute down at the carpark on Schnapper Point and set off along the cliff top path. Straight away we had great views up the coast in the direction that we’d be walking and also in the other direction down over the still waters of Mothers Beach to the Mornington Pier and it’s colourful collection of boats.

Straight up the views were good this afternoon.

Looking back down over Mothers Beach to the Mornington Pier.

Staying on the path on top of the cliff we slowly made our way towards the headland at the eastern end of Shire Hall Beach. This headland was a bit of a mystery to me, being almost high tide there was no chance off getting around at water level and I wasn’t keen on walking the narrow Esplanade here either, so I was hoping that there would be a walking track over the top. Ignoring the prominent sign that was pointing the wrong way to Mills Beach, we continued on another 15 metres towards the coast and did indeed find a walking track. As it turned out not only was there a good walking track over the headland but there was also three or four lookouts only a few metres off the track, which in the late afternoon sun were all worth a look today.

Shire Hall Beach

Actually.... to get over the headland to Mills Beach go left toward the water for 15 metres and there is a good walking track.

Looking up the coast towards Beleura Hil. You can just see our track dropping down the cliffs to the left of the bathing boxes.

Dropping off the headland we crossed the mouth of Tanti Creek on a substantial bridge and then climbed up onto the Esplanade. This next half a kilometre or so was probably least inspiring bit of the walk as we made our way up Beleura Hill along the Esplanade. We still had our water views but they were now a little further away, the real interest along this short section is probably the very flash real-estate lining the south side of the road. It’s not only new houses along this stretch either, there is also a few well kept older houses complete with beautiful gardens.

Tanti Creek

The walk along the Esplanade is very suburban, but there are some nice houses to check out.

Plenty of more modern houses as well.

Climbing up Beleura Hill along the Esplanade, the views made the road walk pretty pleasant.

Kalimna Drive was a hidden little nook that I'd never explored before.

Arriving at the top of Beleura Hill Sam and I headed down the quiet Kalimna Drive, if anything the houses are even swisher along here. In all my years in the area I’ve never ventured into this little nook of Mornington so I was quite surprised to find this quiet piece of urban paradise, if only I could win Tatts…..twice, then I could afford the deposit on a house along here! It wasn't just nice houses, there is also a fair bit of native bush lining the road along here and with the sun now getting very low on the horizon, everything was bathed in a beautiful golden light.

The houses were even more stunning up on Kalimna Drive I think.

The late afternoon light was beautiful.

It's a wonder they let Feral looking blokes like this into this neighbourhood!

Turning left down Caraar Creek Lane we followed it for 100 metres before arriving at the top of the Beleura Hill boardwalk. The next half a kilometre or so was the highlight of the walk I thought. The boardwalk contours along the cliffs as it slowly makes it’s way down towards the sand at Mills Beach East. With the sun now slowly slipping down below the horizon Port Phillip Bay was looking about as good as it can, I think. Below us the water lapping the rocks looked almost like grey molten metal as the sun did it’s work and in the middle distance Schnapper Point was silhouetted against the red setting sun.

The Beleura Cliffs Boardwalk starts at the end of this dead end lane.

The sun was setting into the calm water of Port Phillip Bay by now.

Beleura Cliffs Boardwalk

The photo doesn't really show it to it's best effect but the water had the appearance of molten metal as the sun went down.

Beleura Cliffs Boardwalk

After a very nice walk down the Beleura Boardwalk we arrived onto the soft sand of Mills Beach. It was now high tide so our walk along Mills Beach was a bit of a slog really, luckily there was a bit to look at and take our minds off the slow progress. The main attractions keeping me busy with the camera along here were the colourful bathing boxes. Being from around here I can sometimes take the bathing boxes for granted a bit I think, every time I bring overseas or interstate visitors to check out these spots they are always chuffed to see the colourful bathing boxes. After trudging the length of Mills Beach we reached the mouth of Tanti Creek again and rejoined our track over the headland.

Mills Beach East

Mills Beach bathing boxes.

Mills Beach

The light was going quickly now.

Looking across towards Mornington Pier.

Some more of the colourful Mills Beach bathing boxes.

It was more or less dark now as we climbed back over the headland and dropped down to the sand again at Shire Hall Beach, not that it mattered much as we now only had to follow the sand around to the Mornington Pier which was lit up like a beacon in the twilight. Shuffling along the sand we crossed over to Mothers Beach, although where the exact delineation between Shire Hall and Mothers Beaches is I’ve got no idea. Arriving at the carpark near the pier we slowly made our way past the moored boats, progress slowed down by me trying to get the occasional photo in the dark conditions.

Looking down to Schnapper Point from the last headland.

It's not easy taking photos in this light when I don't have a tripod.

Mornington Pier

Leaving the pier to the fishermen out enjoying the balmy evening, Sam and I climbed up to check out the Matthew Flinders Monument although all we could really see now was a silhouette against the purple coloured evening sky. Schnapper Point was actually another pleasant surprise, after we passed by the monument we picked up another boardwalk, this stretch of boardwalk traversing the western cliff line of Schnapper Point. I’m guessing that during the daylight hours then there would be some nice views down along the coast towards Mt Martha from this boardwalk. While we didn’t have much in the way of distant coastal views tonight we still got a few final glimpses of the last of the sunset fading to black. Our nice little walk was over now and after leaving the boardwalk we followed the footpath for 100 metres or so back to the ute and headed off on the short drive home.

We climbed onto Schnapper Point in time to witness the last of the sun setting.

Looking back down to the pier from Schnapper Point.

The Matthew Flinders Memorial on Schnapper Point.

The Dirt.
We walked 6.2 kilometres and climbed 111 metres on this easy stroll according to my somewhat optimistic GPS. As I waffled on about earlier I found this walk surprisingly enjoyable, Sam and I set off really just wanting an easy stroll to stretch the legs after finishing work for the week on a Friday night and we ended up seeing some spots that we had no idea about. The walk definitely isn’t a wilderness style of walk though, there is a bit of walking along suburban streets and the beach sections are not exactly wild, pristine and remote. Anyone who has waded through some of my blog will realise that I don’t mind a bit of variety and this walk offered a fair bit of that I think. The walk is roughly written up in Woodslane’s book Best of the Mornington Peninsula but to be honest the Melways map is enough to get you through here, I just had a look at google maps before I left home and then improvised a bit on the walk.

Relevant Posts.
Mornington to Frankston, 2014.
Balcombe Estuary Nature Park Trail, 2014.
Mount Martha, 2016.

Among the other attractions there is a nice café down at the pier.

Our walk ended with another nice boardwalk section, this time along the western cliff line of Schnapper Point.