Cape Bridgewater

Cape Bridgewater has the highest coastal cliffs in Victoria, around one hundred and thirty metres of basalt above the Southern Ocean, and a walking track along the top passes several features in a few kilometres: blowholes where the swell forces water up through cracks, and the Petrified Forest, a field of hollow limestone tubes long interpreted as fossilised tree stumps and now understood to be solution pipes formed by water dissolving through dune limestone. Below the cape, a colony of Australian and New Zealand fur seals lives on the rocks, viewed from a clifftop platform or from boat tours that run in settled weather. A crescent of white sand curves in the bay behind.

What you actually see

• The basalt cliffs - Victoria's highest coastal cliffs above the Southern Ocean.
• The blowholes - swell forcing water through the rocks on a big sea.
• The Petrified Forest - limestone tubes once thought to be fossil stumps.
• The seal colony - fur seals on the rocks below the cape.

When to go

October to April for the calmest conditions and boat access; the blowholes work best on a big swell, which often coincides with the worst weather. Winter is cold and the wind severe. Seal numbers are highest in the warmer months.

Honest expectations

The clifftop is exposed and unfenced in places with lethal drops. Boat tours are frequently cancelled by swell. The Petrified Forest is not petrified wood, despite the name and older signage, and looks modest without that context.

Nearby

Portland lies east; the Great South West Walk passes along this coast.