Mentone Beach...!!!

Beautiful Mentone Beach Sunset...

This place is some 10 minutes from where I live in Mentone, Victoria, Australia. A month ago, I packed all my photography gear, took the heavy tripod, everything I need for a good long exposure shooting, and went there to capture the sunset. But the sunset was crap enough that I didn't even bothered to unpack my gear.

Recently I went, without any gear, just for an evening walk and the sunset was very beautiful. So I made the most out of what I had on my hands. I used my mobile phone to take this shot. Came reasonably good considering this is a mobile camera shot. This proves the saying "The best camera that you have is the one that you have with you!".

Now something about the beach...

Mentone Beach forms the northern boundary of the 20 km long stretch of beach that extends from Frankston to the bluffs at Mentone. The beach is backed by Beach Road and 20 m high bluffs. The once bare and eroding bluffs were the subject of some famous paintings by Charles Condor and Tom Roberts. Today the bluffs have been stabilized and vegetated, and a seawall runs along their base, topped by a promenade. In addition, the beach was nourished with sand in the 1970s and 80s, and several rock groynes were placed across the beach.

The beach in this section is 1.5 km long and curves around to face the south-west. The orientation, and Table Rock Point to the west, afford some protection from west and north-westerly wind and waves. As a result, the parallel, double bar system that has run all the way from Frankston transforms into a 200 m wide series of shallow, transverse bars. These cause large protrusions of the shoreline where they join the beach. At low tide, even low waves can be observed breaking on the many bars. In addition, the rock groynes cause changes in beach orientation, resulting in, at times, a very undulating shoreline. The Mentone Life Saving Club was formed in 1921. It is located in front of the bluffs, with a good view of the beach.

Cheers,

Nirmal Kumar S.