THE MORNINGTON PENNINSULA

We booked into a council park on the Mornington Peninsular at Rosebud for a week and tripped around from there. We are right on the beach in the shade under the trees with a 20 mitre walk down to the waters of Port Phillip Bay.  From here we could see the big container ships coming on a zig-zag course into the bay we are imagining to avoid either rocks or shallows on their way to Melbourne from destinations I probably haven't even heard of.

A highlight of one day was a drive right up to the point past Portsea which those of us over 40 will remember is the place where former Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in December 1967 while swimming off the coast here.  The official cause of death was drowning but the rumours of the day were that either he was taken by the Russians because of his opposition to some of their policies or taken by aliens or more plausible that the Americans got him because of his opposition to the newly established Pine Gap, which from my perspective was Australia's answer to 007 in the '60's.

Either way he was never seen again.  We visited Cheviot Beach where he disappeared and saw real estate valued at over $2 mil and this was Holt's holiday home?????

After we came back down to earth and travelled back to our little caravan we realised that we would sooner be living in the present than in the sixty's anyway.

The Mornington Peninsular, though quite small is a lovely part of Australia.

There are some lovely beaches which are both on the ocean side and also inside Port Phillip Bay.

With glass of wine in hand one evening .....

On the shore of Port Phillip Bay when a Dutch couple came along and offered to take our picture.
Yes - we told them about our Dutch friends but no - they didn't know you....lol

 ..... we strolled down to the shore to watch dozens of black swans feeding on the weed just below the surface of the water and watch huge freighter ships after entering the narrow entrance of the port make their way in a zig zag manner up to Melbourne, I would assume to avoid shallow water.



The graves of 2 of the convicts that came ashore with the first landing in Port Phillip Bay.
 

Apparently, an early Governor King took a ship of convicts to Port Phillip in 1803 to establish a colony there and in the course of time many escaped including a man by the name of William Buckley who escaped numerous times and the last time succeeded by living amongst the natives for many years and so they say came the saying "Buckley's Chance" as they said he had "Buckley's Chance" of surviving - but he did and ended up in Tasmania.

An interesting Quoit game at a park we went to

Yes! I did find my way out as I had remembered to take bread crumbs to find my way out

In the hills in the middle of the Mornington Peninsula is a little district called Arthur's Seat, apparently named an early explorer for an apparent resemblance to the hill of Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh Scotland.  Captain Matthew Flinders climbed Arthur's Seat on 27 April 1802.^[4]

 

We went to strawberry farms that had strawberry's that barely fitted in the palm of my hand they were so big and as sweet and juicy as I have ever tasted. Also cherry's that were just bursting with flavour the like of which hasn't been seen in Qld.

We left the Peninsula early as the weather was so cold and travelled back up to a little town called Koo-Wee-Rup where we caught up with friends Lindsay and Judith Black.

Lindsay took us for a drive around the area he has called home since he was born and showed us all the little channels that were built to stop the run off from the Dandanongs down to the bay from flooding the whole area.  An engineering feat from the early 1900's.  we also saw Western Port Bay with French island taking up more than 2/3 of the bay.  A beautiful piece of paradise.

After meeting their daughter Kylie and her family who are all into the Rural Fire Service we were allowed to stay on rural fire service property for a couple of nights.

The next night we meandered south to Wilson's Promontory and went down to the beach.  The tide was out but we saw South East Cape which is the most southerly point in the Australian Mainland.  This place is all National Park and there are a lot of people who know about it.  There are all stages of camp life and lots of it.  Just a short walk to the beach but I must say, not a patch on Queensland beaches.

The beach at Tidal River

This parrot came right up to under the van looking for water

While sitting out in the shade of the caravan, Stuart saw a wombat meander across the back of the park - how good is that.  He grabbed his camera but couldn't see it.  There are a lot of them around here apparently as we have seen a few dead on the side of the road.  Apparently there was a mother and young as well as the lone one that night.


Tidal River is a tourist spot in the National Park where there is a Ranger Station, Shop, takeaway and accomodation from cabins through to tent sites and all in between with very good amenities.