Queenscliffe
Back in January, when the weather was warm, we decided to take a day trip down to one of my favourite spots, Queenscliffe and its near neighbour Point Lonsdale. We drove down to Queenscliffe, stopped a while there and ate our picnic lunch on the beach. Then we paddled into the water and bemusedly watched three fully clothed women swimming.

Queenscliffe Lighthouse
The lighthouse at Queenscliffe is famous for being only one of a handful of black stone lighthouses globally. Constructed 1963 from solid bluestone and never painted, it’s the only black lighthouse in the southern hemisphere. It is also known as the High Lighthouse as it’s located inside the historic Fort Queenscliffe and guards the entrance to Port Phillip Bay.

Searoad Ferry
After our lunch, we headed for the Harbour and took the SeaRoad Ferry across to Sorrento. The ferry carries both cars and foot traffic in a 40 min journey. It crosses back and forth between the Bellarine and Mornington Peninsula on the hour all day long. We didn’t get off at Sorrento as we were making the return trip as a scenic ride rather than transport between the two peninsulas. On the way back to Queenscliffe, we were followed by a small pod of dolphins from Sorrento as far as the South Channel. To watch them surf alongside the boat was an incredible sight!


Point Lonsdale
Back at Queenscliffe, we retrieved the car and drove the ten minutes to Point Lonsdale. The pier at Point Lonsdale is excellent (and safe) for getting under. Especially at high tide with the waves crashing in. Point Lonsdale sits on a headland opposite Point Nepean, known locally as ‘the heads’. They frame the ‘rip’ and the entrance to Port Phillip Bay. The Heads are just over 3kms apart, but reefs restrict the shipping channel to 300m wide. Over 20 shipwrecks dating back to the 19th century lie between the heads.

While at the pier, we got out an old broken Nikon camera that we had brought along as a prop for some photos (see the first image). We photographed it in the sand, and then I placed it in a small rockpool to photograph. Standing nearby was a man and his sons, and the look on the youngest son’s face when I dumped the camera in a pool of seawater was a classic. I wish I had got a photo of that! Unfortunately, I had gone out without my CPL filter, so none of those shots worked. There was way too much reflection.