Restaurants, cafes, craft stores and art galleries line the main street. Sorrento offers that quintessential laidback holiday vibe, especially during summer. With breathtaking foreshore camping offered on the Port Phillip side of Sorrento and the Back Beach on the other, the town is sandwiched by salt water – the glass of the bay at one end, rough and tumbling waves and high sand dunes and cliffs at the other.
I hadn’ t been to Sorrento Back Beach in almost 10 years when Avida offered me the use of its new Sprinter-based Explorer LX off-grid campervan. I decided to use the opportunity to reconnect with the Mornington Peninsula, the stomping ground of my youth. The beauty of the Avida, as opposed to a much longer towing combination, was that I could head wherever I wanted, minus the need to plan‘ escape routes’ or avoid busy car parks. It was, in truth, the perfect vehicle for the trip.
The seawall that created a safe swimming area has, sadly, eroded.
The view from Arthur ' s Seat, a 20-minute drive from Sorrento.
MEMORIES
The Back Beach isn’ t hard to find. Signs point the way. A short stretch of road after the main street will lead you to a view that will forever live in my memory, a vista of dunes and ocean and a swimming area that had once been blocked from the fury of the ocean by a concrete seawall that has long since eroded.
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