Southern Tour Day 13 Walking Brighton Beach to St Kilda

 

By the numbers

21,869 steps

16.53 kms

The last day of my journey had come and I had an idea what I wanted to do evben though I tried to sleep in and ended up moving off a little later than I should have as I was happy to eat breakfast and read a book. My kindle has come in handy and has made my bag lighter and sometimes I have had no problems having the device in my pocket. The plan for today was meant to be an hour walk according to Google maps that would take me straight from Brighton Beach to St Kilda.

 

I had thought I could catch the train that terminates at Sandringham and I had the impression it begins at Southern Cross, but the information I looked at said Flinders Station. I headed there part way by tram, although I don’t think I was tapping on correctly as I was tappiung the screen, not the base of the machine. My bad, but I did learn. The train was departing from platform 23 and I had to find it as I ended up at one end of the station and seemed to walk so far into another end of Flinders Station without changing direction. The train turned up after a couple of minutes and it said terminating at Flinders, so I then confirmed what I had found online had been correct. That made me happy, I hadn’t been rushing from Southern Cross to another station. I did learn there was a middle Brighton just before Brighton Beach.

 

I hopped off the train and unsure as to where to go I went down a street, though I had turned around to look behind me at something and I could see the Port Phillip Bay, so I knew I should have been looking properly I headed to the water and then came across an old Tram tunnel that had been built in the 1800s and that was now covered up with a road going over it. You would never know it was there. Nearby I came across an info panel that told me the stones they used on the foreshore came from old Melbourne Goal and some of the stones had names carved in then including one Ned Kelly. What I had come for were the bathing boxes that were meant to be famous here. There were quite a few of them and the council were doing work on the foreshore to  sort out the erosion issues and I was wondering where I could get back onto the concrete as the sand was compact, but I would need to move on soon enough. I thought that was interesting. I just took my time following the coast from Brighton to St Kilda. I stopped for coffee at Middle Brighton and had a bird crap on me, I came across a rat, but I don’t think it was native as it sat near my foot before running off into the bushes as I ate lunch.

 

The day became warmer and I had my jumper around my waist as it was a cape that didn’t do much as I became sunburnt. I noticed the beaches were becoming more occupied the further towards St Kilda I walked and there were plenty of ladies bathing on them. The area of Elwood seemed to have better beaches, but the city council seemed to have spent a bit of money of the coastal footpath and cycle track as I found it pretty easy to use. There was something about the local surf club that said it wqas the first in Victoria, I think. Though it was a surf club. I came across an arty building and before I took a picture I found it was a toilet as someone walked out of it. I got several good photos from the nearby lookout. I realised the hour long walk I was meant to be doing was taking longer than I thought it would. I could see bits of Luna Park from the vantage point, but I wasn’t sure at the time of what I was looking at. I did however walk through the St Kilda marina looking at the boats that were moored there and others that were in storage. I decided to wander over to Luna Park and found it to be closed even though there was the sound of a roller coaster going round. I had to sit in the shade for a little bit and charge the phone so I would have enough battery until I got back to the hostel.

 

Once I was rested a touch, I wandered into Brighton and wondering why the officials for the trams were at two stops. That would be important later. I ended up walking to the St Kilda Peir when I should have been heading back, but I wanted to at least check that one out. Turns out they were spending money on that too. I found the nearby monuments to James Cook and the WW1 memorial. Though I ended up watching the stunt planes flying around as I thought the racing would start over the weekend. I headed back to the tram station and found that there were delays and the one I was after wasn’t running, so I jumped onto a random tram going to Melbourne University, but I had no idea where the stops were. Google maps helped as the tram filled up with the people who had been watching the racing. I could have gotten off an explored more, but I had to eat and then pack my bags properly or else I would be stuck as I was leaving early in the morning. I made it back after getting two trams back to the hostel instead of the one, but I didn’t mind that at all. Though I do know I got sunburnt from being outside.