Brighton Beach

Brighton Beach is a great place to visit for a free day out.

It’s famous for the brightly painted bathing boxes and it’s always fun watching people getting photos of themselves in front of the boxes.

Have you looked at the video above?..........

.........I wish I’d taken my video camera the previous time I was here..........

.........one girl was jumping up and down in front of the bathing boxes with arms and legs outstretched for a good 10 minutes while her friend/partner/husband(?) took loads of photos.........

..........boy, she must have been fit doing all those jumps and she obviously wasn’t a self-conscious type!..........

..........Then a wedding party turned up for photos using the city as a backdrop.........

.........They never seem to use the beach huts as a back-drop for some reason. I'd have thought that would be a nicer background but I suppose those professional photographers know what they're doing!!

The bathing huts are now heritage listed and the council recently built two more and sold them for over $200,000 each. A pretty easy way to make some money when they’re strapped for cash!

If it’s windy you’ll get lots of kite-surfers around – you need to look very closely in my rather basic video but they are there!........

........I love watching them do their jumps. I never see beginners though, they always seem expert here in Australia.........

.........When I had a go (in New Zealand a few years ago) I was dragged about 200 metres along the water, face down, with my arms screaming in pain holding on to the kite so I didn’t lose it and owe a fortune to the instructor!.........

.........I wouldn’t mind seeing a few kite-surfers doing this just so I’d know I wasn’t the only useless one!

You can see from the video at the top of the page that things are getting busier now that spring has sprung..........

..........I took the photo above in the winter when things were just a little bit quieter.

The beach boxes aren't surrounded by any down market tourist developments and there’s a nice walk along a concreted pathway between the beach boxes and Brighton Beach café..........

........In fact you can walk (or cycle) for miles in a northerly direction, all the way up to the West Gate Bridge apparently – I’ve not done that trip yet but it passes through St Kilda which is another fabulous beachside destination...........

.........If you’re thinking of heading that way then check out my Cool Day Trip page too as there’s loads of good free things to do in St Kilda including an artists market to wander round, a childrens playground which is the best I’ve ever been to, an art gallery, Luna Park, a guided walk and penguin watching.

You can catch a train from the city to Brighton Beach railway station using the Sandringham line. It’s about a 20 minute train ride and the beach boxes are about a 10 minute walk from the station..........

.........If you're driving, park in one of the streets on the other side of the Esplanade as the beachside carparks are very expensive and it’s only an extra 150 metres or so to walk.

Meanwhile, I think I’ll invest in a better quality video camera!

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