The Caves Beach

The Caves is a beautiful stretch of sandstone bluff and a wide tidal rock platform on the Bass Coast. A gravel path and wooden steps drop from the small clifftop car park to the sand and rocky shoreline. Ideally try and time your visit for low tide to have lots of time to explore the ocean floor and rugged cliff line. At the bottom of the steps start your shooting adventure by turning right and heading west around the first headland. The cave will be there, a big open mouth in the cliff you can stand inside at low water. High water puts this section of the beach completely out of reach. When the tide goes out you get rock pools, fault lines cutting across the rock, and fossilised tree stumps sitting out in the open. These rocky platforms date back to the Early Cretaceous period, about 126 million years old, and the same layers have produced thousands of small dinosaur bones just a short walk up the beach. The shoreline faces south into Bass Strait, so summer sunrise and sunset both land over water. This beach is free to access, but the car park only holds around 15 cars, so try to arrive early during tourist season. (Inverloch, Victoria, Australia)