Melbourne to Queenscliff
A weekend away, starting with the evening Ferry from Docklands, Melbourne, on Saturday night, a night in Geelong, an easy day’s rail-trail cycling to a night in Queenscliff, and an easy back-road ride to Portarlington for the Ferry ride back on Monday.
Saturday night. The ferry to Geelong
Saturday, 1 October 2022. Having seen the forecast of two fine days ahead, we decided for a mini-break to Queenscliff. We began the trip with a quiet Saturday afternoon ride along the Yarra River into the Docklands terminal of the Port Phillip Ferries to Geelong. Being a Saturday evening, there was only one other bike rider on the trip, so we had the bike hook area of the ferry to ourselves. The bay was a millpond and the beautiful sunset boded well for a good weekend. You could, of course, catch the train from Southern Cross to Geelong (cheaper, and takes an hour rather than an hour and a half), but the Ferry ride is pretty special.
Last-minute accommodation was scarce on a Saturday night. We booked a room at the Eastern Sands Hotel, which was adequate and in a good location. From the ferry, we had a nice ride in the dark along the bike lane on Eastern Beach Road, and up Bellerine St to the hotel (mainly catering for cars, we had to get creative to find a spot to lock our bikes in the sheltered section of the carpark). In contrast to accommodation options, we were spoilt for choice for dining options after a bit of a walk along Little Malop Street, and we settled on a great feed at The Arborist.
Sunday. The Queenscliff rail trail (an easy 37.5 km)
Sunday, 2 October 2022. Another reason that the Eastern Sands was in a good location was the short walk across the parks for an early morning swim in the great Geelong Eastern Beach Sea Baths, followed by breakfast at the beach house cafe.
Our beachy start to the day meant a leisurely 10 am start to our ride. It was a civilised ride out of town, once we cut across from Bellerine Street to the mainly off-road bike track along Swanston St, up the not very significant hill to the rail trail, just over Carr Street (~1.2 km). From there, the rail trail is an easy ride through the Geelong Suburbs to Leopold after which it becomes more rural.
Not much more to say about the rail trail: it’s easy and well sign-posted. One word of warning would be that there are no cafes directly on the trail all the way to Queenscliff, so you might want to pack a lunch, unless, like us, you are happy with a late lunch when you get to Queenscliff (well worth the wait for the Bahn Mis at Nivana cafe).
For Sunday night accommodation we had booked a room at Athelstane House, which was spectularly good (particularly in comparison to our Saturday night lodgings). After checking in, we still had a few hours to explore the town wandering around the fort and out along the jetty. Sunday night dining options were surprisingly limited: we ended up in the Queenscliff Brewhouse, which was fine, before a sound night’s sleep in beautiful Athelstane House.
Monday. Ride to Portarlington (26 km) and ferry home
Monday 3 October 2022.
After breakfast at Athelstane House we hit the road up Hobson Street to rejoin the rail trail. We retraced our ride along the trail for ~4 km until Yarram Creek Lane, which cuts across to the Portarlington Queenscliff Road. It was a long, straight 20 km into Portarlington: a gentle 60 m climb before the roll into Portarlington, with a moderate amount of traffic to keep us on our toes.
We arrived with an hour to kill before the next ferry so we had a little ride west on the bike trail along the beach, pausing to contemplate another remarkably still day on the bay. The ferry arrived from Geelong on its way back to Melbourne, and we happily joined it for another smooth ride across the bay: this time with bonus dolphins and seals to keep us amused.
We had taken it sufficiently easy that we happily rode back home along the Yarra.