This is Cape Schank
We’d spent a lovely time in the Mornington Peninsula yesterday with family from overseas who’d come to Australia for a visit and some great diving. After a scrumptious lunch at the Red Hill Estate (vineyard) we took a slow drive to the lighthouse at Cape Schank; we thought it would be nice to potter around a lighthouse and work off some of the postprandial bloat.
The drive was magic, the scenery straight out of an Australian bedtime story – the only blight on the day was the commercial money-grubbing rip-off that was the lighthouse itself. It seems that sometime ago, a miserly Scrooge got hold of some land rights to the lighthouse and decided this was his/her meal-ticket to the big time. You drive through a boom gate into a ridiculous shopping mall like car park and then proceed to the little trinket hut where you are eye-balled by a rather obnoxious blond woman. Here she, in no uncertain terms, informs you that to proceed any further you need to cough up $10 per person and if you want to go inside it doubles to $20 per person and if you don’t like these conditions feel free to mosey on up to the car park lookout (be still my beating heart) where you can see the top of a very average looking lighthouse (nothing as grand as the “free” lighthouses down on the Great Ocean Road).
The money is non-refundable and it makes sense that they’d make you fork out first as I’d imagine the sense of overwhelming disappointment you’d feel after paying all that money would be too much to bear and you might have to resort to fisticuffs for financial justice.
We opted not to be ripped off but unfortunately they had the last laugh. In addition to the $40-$80 (4 people) you’d have had to pay; it seems that your car could not leave the boomed parking lot without paying an additional $4.50. I briefly entertained the idea of ramming through the boom, A-Team style, but the damage to my new car would have just added insult to injury.
My advise, if you’re down in the Peninsula steer clear of the rip-off at Cape Schank.
I provide a photo to the world, free of charge and in large format, taken from the parking lot lookout to ensure I got my $4.50 worth.
Cape Schank Lighthouse
p.s.
About 2-3km from the gate there is a parking spot where you can do the most incredible walks. We stopped after our unsavory lighthouse experience and went on a walk. At one point we walked smack into the middle of a group of rather startled looking kangaroos and got some really cute photos.
Made me forget all about the lighthouse and it’s snarky gate-keeper.
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