Just made my way back from Moonlight Head, which is located just off the Great Ocean Road. This being my second visit to this particular area, Wreck Beach has always been on my list of places to get back to. It’s a little off the beaten track, which means you won’t be running into too many tourists along the way.

My first visit to Wreck Beach was about 5 years ago; not too familiar with the area, I began my walk to Wreck Beach from The Gables car-park, which takes over 2 hours return. 2.6 km and including 366 steps along the way, add in 20 kgs of camera gear, trudging through heavy sand, you can see why I decided not to get back there in a hurry.

Unbeknown to me was that had I driven to the Wreck Beach car-park, I would have saved myself a 2-hour walk and several litres of body fluid. From the Wreck Beach car-park the walk is only 700-odd metres, including 366 steps, which seems like a walk in the park compared to the other route.

Now that I am all the wiser, I aim to visit Wreck Beach more often. Wreck Beach is famous for the remnants that lie in ruins from the Marie Gabrielle, which was shipwrecked in 1869, and the Irish Barque (Fiji) shipwrecked in 1891. Anchors from both ships and also part of the capstan are embedded in rock along the ocean floor.

At low tide they are fully visible and make interesting subject matter. Being there at low tide, I opted not to photograph the anchors. I will visit again when the tide is a little higher and there is water movement around the anchors, giving me more to work with.

I’m hoping to photograph the anchors with lots of water movement and a moody sky, so I scoured around Wreck Beach and stumbled across another area to photograph until I visit next time.

Darren J.