Mornington Peninsula - 28th Dec 25

We spent today exploring the Mornington Peninsula. Located about 50 miles south of Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula is a place popular with tourists and locals alike and was pretty busy due to the summer holidays!

We started our day with breakfast in a local cafe and then drove about 30 minutes north to a wildlife area called Briars sanctuary. Here we spent just over an hour wandering through prepared tracks trying to spot wildlife. We could hear loads of birds, and even spotted a few! We also managed to see what we later identified as a swamp wallaby, not that far away from us in the bushes, along with a pair of emus who are walking along the path towards us. (We moved out of their way)

From here we headed back south towards the very tip of the peninsula. The traffic was pretty heavy but eventually we arrived at Point Nepean National Park. Once parked we took a shuttle bus ride to Fort Nepean. Situated overlooking the narrow inlet to Port Phillip, the vast bay that Melbourne sits at the far end of. The first Australian shots of the first world war (and possibly the first commonwealth shots) were reputedly fired from here when on 5 August 1914, the German ship SS Pfalz attempted to escape from the bay area.  Within minutes of being notified that war had been declared, the order was given to "stop her or sink her" after the Pfalz ignored signals to halt, they fired across her bow and the ship then turned around and the crew was arrested.

We spent some time exploring the fort, its tunnels and the areas around it before catching the shuttle bus the 3km back to the car park.

From here we drove to the south coast (the peninsula here is no more than a couple of miles wide) to see the London bridge lookout. The beach here is located on the ocean side of the peninsula and was beautifully rugged. From the lookout we could see the rock formation of London bridge along with plenty of people relaxing on the beach.

We drove then to the other side of the island through Portsea and then stopping off at Sorrento, a busy beach resort. Once parked we walked to the shore line and had a snack overlooking the beach area - far less rugged and not as pretty here!

We returned to the car and drove back to the house. It was now mid afternoon and we ordered an Uber to take us the 5 or so miles to a local brewery which is based in an old stable complex. The St Andrews Beach Brewery has redeveloped the stable area into a food and drinks venue with 'private' areas in each of the stables. We spent a couple of hours soaking up the atmosphere before getting another Uber back home.

Once back, I took advantage of the pool in the back yard and then we had some snacks that we'd brought with us from Melbourne and spent the rest of the evening chilling.Leggi altro