The Mornington Peninsula

 Nepean National Park

 The lighthouse at Point Lonsdale on the other side of the 'Rip' (the opening to Port Phillip Bay).

 The main drag of Sorrento.

Sorrento's 'back' beach on the ocean side.

Sunday, February 7^th.
This morning I decided I was going to go on my first road trip. I packed up and put my bicycle in the back of the CVR, gassed up and drove south in the direction of the Mornington Pennisula. If you use Google Maps to locate Melbourne and then zoom out, you will notice Melbourne is at the top of a large salt water bay. The land comes down and around from the west and the east and almost seals off the entrance to the bay. It is called Port Phillip Bay. I traveled to Frankston (which I visited last week by bike and saw the sand sculptures) and continued along the coast.

It was a beautiful, hot day with blue skies. I stopped at a number of beaches and watched people doing their thing: kite surfing, boating, paddle boarding, swimming, sunbathing, fishing, etc. I continued past the town of Mornington until I reached Point Nepean National Park. You cannot enter the park by car, only by foot or bicycle, luckily I brought mine. The scenery was beautiful as I rode in, with the crashing waves, rough rocks, windswept vegetation and the smell of the surf.

Further in you had to enter by foot only so I parked my bike and hiked into where Fort Nepean used to be. Today it is an abandoned group of buildings, battlements, and tunnels, but during Melbourne's history this fort guarded the entrance to Port Phillip Bay from any intruder. The fort was equipped with massive guns the same as the fort I found in New Zealand guarding Christchurch's harbour.
I walked around the peninsula until I got back to my bike and then rode it as far up to the lookout as I could before I had to climb a series of stairs to attain the top. The view was excellent.

Then I rode back to the car and drove to the town of Sorrento for lunch. I ordered from a very popular fish and chip take out shop. I had grilled barramundi and chips and a lemon squash drink. I walked around town for a bit before driving to the 'back' beach which is on the ocean side. The town is between the bay and the ocean. They call the bay beach the front beach and the ocean beach the back beach. Here the water was rougher and although the beach was nice the swimming area was more of a cove with lots of rock formations in the water.

I left there and began the drive home. I took the motorway but there was lots of traffic. I think that a lot of people from Melbourne have trailers on the peninsula or spend the weekends there and this was the weekend traffic.

I got back to Chelsea by 5:30 and went to Woolies to get my salad stuff and after dropping it off I walked to the beach for a swim and to hang out and read while the sun went down. Then back home for dinner and chopping up the salad.

So a successful first day road trip. The car drove great (we did 170 km together), I didn't get lost and more importantly I managed to stay on the right (actually the left) side of the roads and roundabouts. I am getting comfortable driving here.