Geelong & the Bellarine: Travelling to the Other Peninsula

Last month I spent a few days in Geelong and the Bellarine Peninsula, courtesy of the local tourism authority.

I was researching a craft beer story, which will appear in due course. In the meantime, I'd like to share a few images of other places I visited while in the region.

The Bellarine is, for whatever reason, less renowned than the Mornington Peninsula to its east. Both of them stretch around the southern end of Port Phillip Bay south of Melbourne.

The two almost meet here at The Rip, the turbulent channel where the bay connects to Bass Strait:

At that Point Lonsdale lookout near the town of Queenscliff, there's a marker bearing the distances to various other places, some near and some far:

North of Queenscliff, I stopped for quite a decent long black coffee at Pik Nik. As its form suggests, it was once a service station:

I spent the night at the attractive Starhaven Retreat in Indented Head (there's a great place name for you!). It's a grand modern home that functions as luxury bed-and-breakfast accommodation, with a friendly resident couple as hosts.

This is the view from the retreat's balcony across Port Phillip Bay (you can just make out the tall buildings of central Melbourne on the horizon)...

... and here's the retreat's dining table, set for dinner:

After sampling much beer, it was good to have coffee at one of central Geelong's newest and hippest cafes, Freckleduck:

This was my breakfast choice - baked polenta with roasted and pickled mushrooms, kale chips, beetroot hummus, and poached eggs ($18). All the flavours. Probably good for you too:

Disclosure: On this trip I was hosted by Tourism Greater Geelong & the Bellarine.