Mornington Peninsula

Two weekends ago, my beautiful housemates (and my boyfriend, but he is also a housemate) and I went for a little explore down the Morning Peninsula as a belated birthday adventure for me. -And it was superb. After having a beautiful homemade breakfast together we packed the car and started our road trip. We arrived at the Ashcombe Maze and Lavender Gardens around 3 o’clock.

This is the place where childhood dreams come true. We frolicked around searching for gnomes and fairies and tried out some lavender ice-cream. The hedge maze made me feel like Alice in Wonderland or Gwen Stefani from her “What you waiting for” video clip, that us Gen Y kids know all too well. As the sun was preparing to set, I started to become increasingly nervous knowing that there was a ‘small hike’ to our camping spot. We raced the sun to London Bridge beach, picking up some sausages on the way. Once we got to the beach we strapped on our head torches and backpacks and made our way down the beach.

I get a bit nervous finding a camping spot in the dark,  don’t know why. Well, I kind of do -since anything or anyone could be lurking in the darkness, geez. But since my housemates Sylvain and Ana had been here many times before, I thought I would throw caution to the wind. We walked down the beach for a while and climbed up to a fence and sign saying “Warning, do not enter. Unexploded bombs in this area.” Because it was an ex-military site. SHIT! Way to make me feel at ease. So I put on my ‘brave’ face and jumped over the fence as the others assured me it was a new sign and not to worry. Hmm…

We then had to climb up a cliff and edge our way across, being sure to not turn  around and look at the drop. Luckily the others carried essentially all the equipment and I didn’t have to worry about the extra kilos on my back. (Thanks guys!) Once we climbed back down and that was over, we had to climb across a rocky surface and dodge the waves as they came in. Note: I am not a very good rock climber, and may I remind you that darkness was well and truly surrounding us by now. But to be honest, I think that made it easier somehow. I guess I was able to misjudge how hard it was, as in if I could properly see what we were doing I might slump in a heap saying ‘I give up, it’s all too difficult -I’m not made for this’, so luckily I couldn’t see how scary it was.

We made it to the final stretch and ran up the dune to meet the beautiful clearing waiting for us. A camp fire was made, potatoes and sausages were cooked in the fire and way too many marshmallows were eaten. The four of us watched the stars and went to bed impressively early (at least for me) squished up in my little pop up tent.

When we woke up the stars were still out and we packed up our stuff by the first light of the sun because the next stretch of the adventure was upon us -hot springs! As we made our way back down the beach following the sunrise, I became increasingly impressed with our last night’s efforts.

We got to Peninsula Hot Springs at 8 am and would you believe it, we stayed there for 5 hours. Who wouldn’t? It was fabulous. 20 different mineral pools, a sauna, Turkish steam room and cold plunge pools (yes I took the plunge). The only thing that could beat it would be the real deal – natural hot springs found in the bush. On our way home we stopped for some fish and chips (and  fruit and a green juice) and played some serious frisbee. Great weekend, great company, great experiences and one very happy birthday girl. (I think I’ve managed to have 3 birthdays this year already)