Hands down one of my favourite walks in Aus! Located at the far southern end of the Peninsula, this short walk features incredible costal scenery, with beaches, rockpools, cliffs and more…
There are essentially 2 trails - the harder walk which is ~13km and consists of a large in-land component, or the shorter walk which begins at Cape Schanck and follows the coastline, roughly 5.2km return. Naturally we went for the shorter version!
The walk starts with pretty standard bush scenery, beautiful of course, but nothing exceptional relative to the rest of the Peninsula. There are some really nice vantage points looking out over the ocean, and a largely shaded walking track resulting from the canopies formed by the surrounding vegetation which now cover the walking path. Once you make it to the end of the walk it really becomes quite special though… you arrive at a narrow path which leads out to an open beach. From there you can see the impressive rock formations far into the distance, guiding the way forwards. As you walk around the view really opens up, with a haze of morning light glistening over the cliffs and reflecting off the water. There are rock-pools scattered throughout the maze of pebbles and rocks, all of which are crystal clear, with the bright-blue water providing a stunning backdrop.
Unfortunately in this instance the photos really don’t do it justice… I struggled a little with the light and reflections, hard shadows and lens flare - it was truly better in person. On the upside, we had the entire place to ourselves as we left early (8:00am departure) and managed to walk all the way around to the archway as it was low tide. Definitely one to try (needs to be early morning though) if you’re in the area!
