Easter on the Peninsula

We’ve just returned from a family weekend spent with friends on the Mornington Peninsula. With a base in Rosebud, we spent time at the Red Hill show, down the beach, and around Portsea. This entry looks at the family day trip to Porsea, taking in London Bridge, Point Nepean and the Sorrento back beach. I’ve wanted to visit Point Nepean for years. When we decided to head to Rosebud for the weekend, it seemed a perfect opportunity to see it.

We’d promised the girls some time in rockpools, so we started the day at the London Bridge beach in Portsea. The girls loved exploring the cave in London Bridge and the cave leading to the restricted area on the old Army base, however as the tide started to come in we didn’t explore as much as we would have liked to.

From here we headed back into town for ice cream and then up to the national park on the old Army Officer Cadet School (OCS) grounds. You can’t drive all the way into the park; you have to get a tractor-pulled trolley train or walk. Given the girls love of distance walking we took the trolley option. A trolley was leaving just as we got our tickets.

First stop was Chevoit Hill. This contains a number of old wartime concrete observation posts and gun emplacements. It also overlooks Cheviot Beach where Harold Holt went missing in 1967. It was a decent climb up the path to the top, and Jordan complained almost the whole way, but it was worth it for the views. I was surprised the girls found it interesting and wanted to explore. We came down the hill with a few minutes to spare before the next trolley arrived.

We skipped the next stop and continued on to the fort on the point. This area contains the bulk of the coastal defence guns, there are eight emplacements of differing types, many connected by tunnels and with the underground magazines and other chambers open to look around. One of the observation posts has a telephone and ringer setup. Maddie got the shock of her life when, after winding the ringer, a voice answered. It turned out to be a recorded message explaining how the phone system worked, but it was a lot of fun.

After this we returned to the car and headed off to Sorrento Back Beach. We’d promised the girls a swim and they hadn’t been to a surf beach before. The beach was busy (and expensive with parking at $4.30 ) but the girls had a ball. Both were experimenting with body surfing; they’d sit on the edge of the water and wait for the big waves to shoot them further in. It may not be the right way, but they loved it and are asking for Boogie Boards now. This capped off a great day.