Venus Bay - Point Smythe Nature Trail Walk
Point Smythe nature trail dips through masses of coastal vegetation in the Cape Liptrap Coastal Park. The tea tree and banksia woodlands will keep you protected from winds even on windy days.
Distance: The walk is 5.5km in length and takes approximately 2 hours (return) to complete. Side excursions to the Venus Bay beach and / or Point Smythe are an extra distance.
Difficulty: Medium difficulty level which is generally flat.
Terrain: Compacted gravel track with undulating surface.
Directions: From Melbourne: When entering Venus Bay take a right hand turn into Canterbury Road, this will then merge into Lees Road. The Point Smythe Nature Trail begins at the end of Lees Rd.
Access for Dogs:
Dogs are restricted from this walk as fox baiting is regularly conducted.
Restrictions
Camping and fires are prohibited. Horses are not permitted.
Review:
The walk passes along well defined and signposted tracks which are marked with blue arrows to follow. After about 700m there is a fork in the path where you can go in either direction since it is a circuit, but it is best to take the left track.
For most of the walk, there's very thick bush beside the track which means the walk is well protected from the strong winds which often blow here. The good signage and minimal side tracks mean that it is quite unlikely that you're going to get lost. The type of track keeps changing from sandy to grassy to narrow to wide. There was bright, lime green lichen on the path in some areas but it wasn't slippery.
Near Venus Bay beach, after 1.6km from the start point, the track turns at a 90 degree angle and there's a little side-track that leads off through the bush to the beach, 265 m away. Be aware that this path can be impassable when it is high tide because the beach is almost fully covered by water.
After another 1.65km there is a small side-track on the left branching off the main track to Point Smythe (900m one-way). This side track is overgrown with lots of fallen trees. At low tide there is a huge sandy expanse of sand.
After a few hundred metres, the track goes past an interesting saltmarsh area with colourful red groundcover and lovely little lakes. Saltmarsh occurs on areas inundated by the highest tides where only salt-tolerant plants survive.
Unless you take one of the side-tracks there are no views of the ocean at all.
There are lots of little birds flittering about along the track but we didn't see any animals even though was a lot of poop on the tracks.
Photos:
Location
825 Lees Road, Venus Bay 3956 Map
Web Links
→ Point Smythe Nature Trail (Walking Maps)
→ Cape Liptrap Coastal Park
