Day Hiking on the Bellarine Peninsula

My original plan for the day was to hike up Mount Ida near Heathcote in Central Victoria. But when I awaoke to a forecast of 40 Degree Celsius (104F), I decided that dragging teenagers up a mountain in scorching heat was not a fun plan.

So I decided Plan B was a good option. It involved driving down to the Bellarine Peninsula, just east of Geelong. The trip by road takes about 2.5 hours, and once you are over the Brisbane Ranges (part of the Great Dividing Range), the temperature drops considerably. We were very relieved when the temperature dropped to 24 Degrees Celsius once we were over the range.

Image from Google Maps

Plan B involved two short day hikes. Hike number 1 would be from the lighthouse at Point Lonsdale along the beach to somewhere near Ocean Grove or Barwon Heads. In particular I wanted to climb up this rather large sand dune I had noticed on a previous visit. From there I hoped to get a Panoramic shot of the beach including the famous light house.

I was not sure how far to go along the beach, because I also wanted to be at Clifton Springs around the time the sun was getting low. Hike Number 2 involved walking along the dell at Clifton springs to find an old Jetty that had weathered away over the years. This is one of the most popular places to photograph in Victoria, so I decided that since we were in the area I would take the opportunity. I had also tentatively planned to shoot Dog Rock, but realised that the best time to shoot this would be around sunset too, and since I can't be in 2 places at once, I decided that that needed to be another visit.

I briefed the family on the plans and was met with grumbles about the heat. As a compromise I let the two oldest kids bring along a friend each, and agreed we would allow a lot of time for swimming, as long as I could get the shots at Clifton Springs.

A couple of hours later we arrived at Geelong and parked at Eastern Beach. The kids had fun in the enclosure that was built to protect swimmers from sharks. It has pontoons and diving platforms and there are generally a lot of teenagers hanging around so my two oldest boys loved the place.

While they were swimming at the beach enclosure, I took the opportunity to take a walk along the foreshores of Geelong. One of the main features along the foreshores is a collection of approximately 100 wooden people. These are old poles that have been carved and painted to resemble people from the local community. There are lifeguards, footy players, local dignitaries such as mayors and officials, and even a Beauty Pageant winner. Miss Geelong was gorgeous as you can imagine, and her eyes seemed to follow me everywhere I went. I felt compelled to ask her to allow me to take a few shots of her. Being a celebrity, she had no qualms against me shooting her. In the end it was the only way I get away from her.

Not long after I gathered the kids and drove to Point Lonsdale. The kids kept swimming in the ocean while I set off down the beach. I walked along a path that seemed to meander through the tops of the sand dunes, heading generally west, and trying to get to the largest of the dunes which was about 3 kilometres away.

When I finally got there I attempted several times to find a way to the top. The dune was steep, and in some places verticle, unstable and fenced off. In the end I gave up. I could not figure a way to get up there.  Lesson learned No.1 - find out for future, how to get up on top of that dune. But from a similar position I was able to capture a shot looking back to the lighthouse at Point Lonsdale, and to the family swimming.

Point Lonsdale Lighthouse, Victoria Australia.

The lighthouse is located on the western head of the entry into Port Philip Bay. The surrounding areas are protected by the Port Philip Heads Marine National Park, and it is a great place to snorkel and scuba dive.

It is also the place where the expression "Buckleys Chance" originated. An escaped convict William Buckley escaped from British On 27 December 1803 at 9 PM. Buckley and several other convicts cut loose a boat and made their escape. They made their way around the bay, and the party split up in the vicinity of present day Melbourne. His companions went north-east, hoping to reach Sydney whch they mistakenly thought was not far (it is over 1000km away). Buckley, tired and dehydrated, continued alone around the bay. He avoided the indigenous Aboriginal people for several months, living alone in the caves around the heads of Point Lonsdale. The historic account tells that Buckley had taken a spear used to mark a grave for use as a walking stick. The women of the tribe befriended him after recognizing the spear as belonging to a relative who had recently died and invited him back to their camp. Believed to be the returned spirit of the former tribesman, he was joyfully welcomed and adopted by the group. He was given the name Murrangurk which literally meant "returned from the dead". For the next thirty-two years, he continued to live among the Wathaurung people on the Bellarine Peninsula being treated with great affection and respect. "By virtue of his age and peaceful ways, Buckley… became a Ngurungaeta, a person of considerable respect among his people and his voice was influential in deciding matters of war and peace". He had at least two Aboriginal wives, and almost certainly a daughter by one of them.

At the time of his escape, the officials believed he stood no chance of survival and gave him up for dead. This has led to the common Australian phrase "Buckley's Chance", which means "no chance" or "unlikely to succeed".

When I returned to Point Lonsdale I found my family climbing in the very caves that Buckley would have lived in.

We then drove around to Clifton Springs for the second of my short walks for the day. The plan was to walk from the carpark of the Dell along the forshores of Clifton Springs to find a series of old Jetties that had long since fallen into disrepair.  Ali and the kids dropped me off at the top of the Dell and went in search of a fast food shop to purchase some dinner.

I set off in search of the old Jetty. and learned the second lesson of the day - never leave without insect repellent. As the sun was setting the mosquitoes were waking up and they could not resist the smell of my blood. I rckon I ended up with several hundred lumps on any skin that was exposed. Well I learned the hard way.

I found the old Jetty but the sun was still too high and bright to get the shot I wanted, But I set up and took a few shots making sure the lens was manually focussed and that the filters were clean from salt, dust and sand from earlier. I had set up my tripod (I brought the sturdier one this week. It is heavier but is far better than the junk I took to the Dandenongs). I was quietly watching the gentle waves rolling in as I swatted the insects, and thought that this was quite a peaceful existence if it wasn't for the constant whine of mosquitoes in my ear. At about that time another pest presented itself. A couple of old ladies were walking their dog, when he noticed me and decided to charge. The big boofhead came straight at me despite it's owner frantically calling the dumb dogs name. I grabbed the tripod just in time as the dog hit us both at full charge. My camera bag, and lenses went flying but I held onto the tripod and camera. Lesson number 3 that day...beware of dumb dogs wanting to say hello!

As the sun set I captured the old Jetty in its glory. The light was still quite bright, so I chose to get a high key effect on my shots until the sun finally went below the horizon.

These are the remains of an old Jetty that was important in the local economy of Clifton Springs. In the hey-days of the Springs, visitors looking out over Port Phillip Bay faced crystal clear waters, with low tide exposing the cleanest of white sand for a distance of about 200 yards along the foreshore. A newspaper article of 1933 refers to the huge quantities of shell-grit being sent away annually off the foreshore, one firm sending 20,000 bags in 12 months, and it was common to see up to 50 men at work on the beach bagging the grit. Three boats were engaged in taking the shell-grit direct to Melbourne, Using this Jetty.

There is every indication that an earlier jetty had existed in the area prior to the pier erected in 1872, and used mainly for the dispatch of flour, bran, and pollard from the nearby Bellarine Mill. This mill, the first on the peninsula, was built about 1854 and destroyed by fire in 1861. Bullock wagons and horse drawn drays worked from the mill to the jetty. Today’s Jetty Road was then known as Mill Road, and the Bellarine Mill is historically linked to the Clifton Springs foreshore.

Walking back along the foreshore as the tide continued to come in, I met back up with the family and ate what was left of the take away food they had bought from a local shop. It was cold by the time I ate it, but I didn't care. It had been another good day walking, and in total I had covered about 10 kilometres.  I made a note to return to this spot one early morning to see what it would be like at sunrise instead of sunset.