FROM THE YARRA RIVER, THE GREY SPEARS of Melbourne’s skyline shrink behind us, replaced by open water with a handful of distant container ships resting on the horizon like tiny caterpillars. Within an hour, a new horizon comes into view, low-rise and lined with palm trees and the masts of a few hundred yachts.
Laid-back and with its face turned to the sun, Geelong is a world away from its big sister, and it comes as a surprise to many – Melburnians included – that there’s ‘public transport’ across the bay to reach it (and to Portarlington on the Bellarine Peninsula). The next surprise is just how much there is to explore there, much of it easily accessible on foot. With Port Phillip Ferries departing from the dynamic Docklands, a five-minute walk from Melbourne CBD’s Southern Cross Station, this is simplicity at its best.
I’m on a long weekend away with a friend, with plans to spend a night in each bayside town, and
