Pier

Mornington Crescent

07.08.2014
We decided we needed to take some time out and explore as neither of us knew the area around Melbourne. We joined a city car scheme when we moved here and thought it would be a good time to go for a drive, and luckily for me, the nearest car to our flat is an Alfa Mito. So, on what turned out to the the stormiest weekend so far, we headed for the coast. The Mornington Peninsular is south of Melbourne and is formed by a crescent of land that encloses the bay and is apparently know for its vineyards. We drove down the coast road through some very familiarly sounding towns – Chelsea, Brighton, Sandringham – and we stopped at Seaford for a hot chocolate and cake. Something I've noticed is that place names here are opposite to the UK – Chelsea, Richmond are s!!t-holes. Australia is defo up-side-down-land.

The route to Flinders

Our ultimate destination was a place called Flinders, which is on the southern edge of the peninsula (not penisula) and opposite Phillip Island where you can see penguins and motorbikes (not penguins on motorbikes, that would be silly as they wouldn't be able to change gear because their legs are too short). We stopped for lunch at one of the vineyards and, even though it was the middle of winter, it was pretty busy and warm enough for us to sit outside and eat.

Flinders is a small town with a couple of antique shops and an artists studio and I can imagine it would be a busy place in the summer. We did see a surfer but he looked pretty hard-core and was in a full wetsuit. 

On the way back we stopped at the beach at Rye, for no other reason than we liked Rye in Kent and saw another dozen surfers – they must be very keen.

A stormy beach at Seaford

The thing that keeps surprising me is how much the area around Melbourne is like the UK. I though it was going to be red-dust roads and wombats.

Under the pier downtown

Napoli the Mito

The beach at Flinders

Looking towards Phillip Island

A little sun breaks the cloud at Flinders