Home to Portsea (again)

View from Millionaires Row in January

In January this year I ran from home to Portsea, just as I did last year, except that I did it over four days rather than three. Last year I had a hard time of it because I had three very warm days and this year I had some smoke haze to contend with; I also had a struggle with the heat, especially on my third day when I had to stop for a rest many times between Safety Beach and Rosebud. So I decided to try again, this time at a cooler time of year. So cool that it was below four degrees when I set out this Saturday morning. I planned to get the thing done in three days, taking a slightly different and coincidentally what I believed to be a shorter route because the coast paths have been so busy during this Covid time.

I made it to Frankston on my first day. Surprisingly my route proved not much shorter than before even though I took a straight course from home to Sandringham, avoiding the beach, and later cut off the India shaped Beaumaris part of the coastline where you have to do two sides of a triangle. I ran from home to Mentone so often this summer that I have a great route that looks the shortest possible distance on the map.

It was a beautiful day but cold. Everywhere seemed quiet in the suburbs except when I came to a coffee shop; they all had long queues. I dipped down to the beach at Half Moon Bay where lots of people were heading towards the water in wetsuits, and I had a brief stop at Mordialloc. Then I got through the boring stretch to Carrum and once again enjoyed the path through the bush between Seaford and Frankston. When I got to the end of that trail I again followed the creek side path into Frankston and found that by crossing the creek I could stay beside it right to the town centre. 35 kms for my first day.

First up on the second day I was pleased to not find Oliver’s Hill too hard, and being fresh must have helped. But I had some navigation issues: I’ve got a good route through Mt Eliza which avoids the busy highway but I managed to miss a turn right near the town centre. I thought the roads looked familiar, then I thought they didn’t and I finally looked at my phone to see I was way off course. I righted myself and got to the edge of Mornington where I decided to try a new route so as to avoid the shopping area and also, because I had wasted time in Mt Eliza, I wanted to cut off a corner of the coastline in Mornington. I found a creek and some nice bushland but then  ended up going wrong a few times and probably ran further than in the past. 

The road beyond Mt Martha, which I always worry about as it has very little shoulder or none at all, was really busy. This is not a highlight of the course and it’s always a great pleasure to take the turn onto the coast path and be spat out at Safety Beach. It was a beautiful day and the beach looked lovely.

The Bay Trail was very popular on a sunny Sunday, but runnable. I wanted to get to Dromana because it’s on the bus route back to Frankston, and when I got there I decided to continue on for a while. It was nice running through the foreshore camping areas without any tents, and also not feeling as hot and exhausted as I had when running here in January. 

By the time I reached Macrae I had had enough. I stopped at a bus stop and saw that a bus was due in two minutes, but it seemed a pity to come all this way and then go straight home. So I got a coffee and a roll and sat on the beach for almost an hour until the next bus was coming. I ended up running 37 kms.

The third day is like the prize for all the hard work and again I had perfect weather. It was freezing as I waited for the bus in Frankston but pleasantly warm by he time I got to Macrae. I made a short pit stop in Rosebud and went down onto the beach for the Capel Sound stretch which I always do on the sand as the path is next to the road.

It was close to high tide so I had very little hard sand. There’s a small creek estuary before Rye but I didn’t leave the sand and go up to the path; I tried to jump the estuary but couldn’t so I got wet feet. After that I didn’t worry about getting lapped by the little waves. At Rye I ducked up to the grass to avoid the pier and then returned to the beach. I wondered if I could get all the way to Sorrento on the beach, and this is what I ended up doing. There were people walking on the beach all along and it was especially busy around Blairgowrie. I only had to leave the sand briefly in a couple of places. There was a nice paved walkway under the first set of cliffs at Sorrento. I didn’t stop at all until I reached the park by the ferry in Sorrento. It was quite strange to miss all the landmarks I know along the Bay Trail route I usually use.

From there I didn’t even go into the town, but continued past the ferry to the big park above Sorrento, where you get a great view of the coast towards Portsea. I was in two minds about taking the detour to Millionaires Row because I thought it would be crowded, and in the end I missed the turnoff. Shortly after I stumbled onto a path leading down to the foreshore and then undulated along the coast so I got the same views as I would have had from Millionaires Row anyway. I emerged just before the Portsea pub, all closed up of course. Portsea was deserted, unlike the other Peninsula places.

In the past I’ve always finished here and slightly regretted not continuing to the end of the road, so this time I continued the 800 metres to Point Nepean National Park. By this time I’d had enough. I walked out to a lookout and then ran back to Portsea. I didn’t linger in Portsea, but I broke my return journey in Sorrento for a large ice cream and coffee/pastry at the only cafe I could find without a massive queue. 24 kms for the day. The previous two times I’ve done this I have coincidentally run 94 kms to the pub finish line despite varying my route, but this time I had done a kilometre more when I reached the pub; I’m not sure how I managed this as I had thought I was taking a shorter route at many points. So much for short cuts.