Daytrip Roadtip around Port Phillip Bay

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Not only is the city of Melbourne full of endless unique events and festivals and innovative places to eat and drink, but the locals are spoiled for choice when it comes to exploring the nearby areas.  Saturday Anthony and I decided to get out of the city and spend the day driving around Port Phillip Bay.  About an hour and a half away, we found ourselves at the southern tip of the bay on the Bellarine Peninsula.  Lesser known than its eastern side companion, the Mornington Peninsula, I was surprised to find so much to do.  We visited the Jack Rabbit Vineyard which offers not only a wide selection of wines to sample, but jaw-dropping panoramic views on the bay with the Melbourne cityscape in the distance.  I personally like to choose my vineyards based on the scenery, and Jack Rabbit did not disappoint.  The rich blue hues of the surrounding water reminded me of the beaches you would find in Florida.  It blows my mind that the beaches close to Melbourne are the least popular within Australia and that a scene like this still doesn’t even compare to the landscapes found in the rest of the country or the neighboring Great Ocean Road.  We plopped down on the lawn to enjoy a glass of chardonnay and bask in the springtime sun.  If we didn’t have other places we wanted to visit that day, we could have easily spent the entire afternoon there.

After wandering around to have a look at the sleepy beach town of Ocean Grove, we drove onto the Queenscliff ferry.  40 minutes later, we arrived at Sorrento in the Mornington Peninsula.  We drove towards the south to the Tasman Sea side and found the London Bridge Lookout at Portsea.  Vibrant blue waves with white caps splashed and spilled over the flat rock formations that jetted out into the ocean forming tiny waterfalls over the side every time the tide let out.  Anthony and I were mesmerized by the patterns of the ocean and found ourselves constantly cheering for the water to keep creeping closer and closer to the edge of the rocks just so we could marvel at the natural beauty of the water trickling over the side before slowly returning to the sea.  Further down the beach, the sandstone formation lovingly named London Bridge, stood like a cave directly on the waterline.  The shape developed over thousands of years from weathering conditions from wind, rain and crashing waves.  While nature continues to erode London Bridge, according to the sign in the car park, it really will be only a matter of time before London Bridge falls down.

We enjoyed dinner at the Portsea Hotel before continuing on to Dragon’s Head at 16^th Beach.  Anthony and I wandered rugged coastline and over shallow beached reef to get a closer look at a uniquely shaped rock that actually did resemble the shape of a dragon’s head.  If we had visited at high tide, everything would have been completely submerged, but between the low tide and the setting sun, we chose the perfect time of day to visit.  Photographers congregated near Dragon’s Head properly dressed in boots and warmer clothes than what we were wearing to capture the glowing landscape.  Like children, Anthony and I played around in a mammoth nearby cave and made ourselves comfortable on a couch-like stone to watch the sunset.  The sun hid behind a few small clouds, illuminating them with a bright highlighter edge before it finally sank into the ocean.  As I thanked Anthony for a wonderful day, neither of us could believe that all of these beautiful treasures we had found today were just a couple short hours away from our doorstep.