Date: 2nd March 2026
Travelled: 150 kms from Wilsons Promontory to Queenscliff
Visited: Rosebud and Queenscliff
Stayed: Collendina Holiday Park, $35pn , N38.27143, E144.55630
The first hour of our drive from Wilsons Prom is in drizzling rain but as we get closer to Melbourne the sky clears. Our loose plan is a couple of days in Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula, then the ferry from Sorrento to Queenscliff. That saves us the long drive around Port Phillip Bay, Melbourne and Geelong.
We couldnโt get a booking in our preferred campsite (once again), so settle for a small family park a km or so east of Rosebud. Why would you name a town after the dying words of Charles Foster Kane ?
So we have an ensuite site with a fabulous pool for a couple of days. At $65 a night itโs more than we would usually pay. Life travelling on the road is getting very expensive if your anywhere near the coast. Cannot complain about $65 with excellent facilities when we have been paying $50 for a patch of dust in some places.
Rosebud is a reasonable size suburb, lots of newish homes intermingled with older holiday houses closer to the water. There is a Woolworths every 2 kms along Point Nepean Drive and the odd pier out into Port Phillip Bay. We walk the shoreline do some shopping and find a surprising good Vietnamese Restaurant for dinner.
We take an afternoon drive down to Sorrento and Portsea which was an eye opener. Portsea in particular is lined with large Victorian style mansions set on 1 or 2 acre blocks. However the traffic is chaotic and we donโt really have an opportunity for any descent photos.
On Sunday morning we say goodbye to our ensuite hitch up the Suzuki and make for the ferry terminal in Sorrento. We arrive an hour early but get herded straight onto a ferry due to depart right now, so on we roll.
Forty minutes later we drive off in Queenscliff. We drive straight out to Collendina CP, check in and unhook the Suzuki. The CP is huge mostly permanent vans used as holiday homes but there a large area set aside for travellers and we have plenty of space.
Queenscliff looked interesting so we drive back in to do some exploring.
We manage a parking spot near the centre of Queenscliff and go for a walk.
Queenscliff proved to be a beautiful example of a Victorian era seaside resort and well worth wandering about. I steer Pam away from a couple of small boutiques with mixed success. The local pie shop claims to have won the best pie in Victoria in 2023. The girl tells me there are no pies in the freezer from 2023, so I get the 2026 version which was pretty good.
Time to wander back to the Suzuki and return to the mother ship.
Michael + Pam
