The Elusive Melburnian Sunrise

Our goal was to witness a dazzling Melbourne sunrise. We wanted to watch in quiet reflection as the sun filled the chilly morning with light, warmth, and colour. It was a romanticized notion, but a nice idea… in theory.

It all began with Jana’s “brilliant” plan to wake up early and go to Brighton beach.

Attempt 1 – Brighton Beach

The beach is lined with 82 flamboyant Victorian bathing boxes. Once used by people to maintain their modesty while changing into swimsuits, the boxes now serve as a backdrop for tourists pursuing their next Instagram-worthy photo.

It can be costly to preserve your modesty at Brighton Beach nowadays. We saw one of these for sale for $340,000.

The public transit app told us that because of construction on the railway, trains were NOT going to Brighton. The fact that we would have to wake up at 4 AM in order to catch two replacement buses to get to the beach by sunrise did not discourage us. Neither did the fact that Brighton beach isn’t geographically positioned for a good view of the sunrise. All minor details.

Armed with a bottle of wine, a beach blanket, and a bitterness towards Jana for shoving me out of bed when the alarm rang, I was curious to see the sunrise that would make this all worth it.

After navigating the befuddling world of temporary bus stops, irregular transport schedules, and malfunctioning Myki bus passes, we finally made it to Brighton.

In our rush to beat the sun to the beach and the bathing boxes, we neglected our map and any common sense and headed straight for where we saw a glimpse of water between buildings. Unfortunately, this decision was costly.

Rather than strolling along the nice trail and making it to the bathing boxes in a civilized manner, we had to trek through scratchy shrubs and dust. At one point we were assailed by a swarm of bugs that kept landing all over us and used us as a public transport system when we tried to outrun them.

A friendly jogger mistook us for locals and quipped, “Great to get a run in this early when we don’t yet have to share our beaches with the tourists!”. We agreed…those pesky tourists and their photos! We then waited until he was a good distance away before snapping the pics above.

By the time we made it, the sun had already started to emerge, but there was no real sunrise to see. It was just dark…and then it was not. It was still cold though. For another two hours until the heat caught up, we sat on the near-deserted beach shivering, trying to warm ourselves from the inside-out with our wine. Around 9 AM we were joined by the sane, well-rested crowd coming to enjoy a beach day.

Though a fun memory in the end, the trip was a big fail regarding our mission to see a sunrise. We would have to try again.

Attempt 2 – Royal Botanic Gardens

Our next idea began to hatch over some drinks with friends. The Royal Botanic Gardens, one of them suggested, was a promising location from which to catch a sunrise.

Considered an “inner-city oasis,” the 38-hectare Gardens are full of picturesque nature. It was one of the first places Jana and I visited when we came to Melbourne.

This is what the Gardens look like even without the glow of a gently rising sun…

We could only image what scenic views we’d get when the winding paths and dazzling blooms were softy lit by a sunrise.

More impromptu than our previous effort, our group took an Uber to the Gardens at 6:00 AM the next morning without much planning ahead. Usually a notorious planner, I was excited to step outside the box and be spontaneous.

Perhaps a bit of planning would have been warranted, though. When we got to the Gardens, the gates were closed.

Hopping the gate was briefly (very briefly!) debated and nixed. But we would still try to get a glimpse of the sunrise.

We found a comfortable position on a hill nearby and sat in silence in the cool grass, trying to ignore the dew seeping into our clothes, our gazes set on the horizon.

The night crept away, and in its place came dreary gray clouds. This, my friends, is why you should always check the weather forecast prior to hunting a sunrise.

Attempt 3 to Who Knows

The rest of our attempts featured various combinations of cloudy mornings and bad vantage points. More than once, we slept straight through our alarms and failed to greet the sunrise altogether.

Then we moved to an inner-city private room that had no windows, thinking we would be out and about most of the time. COVID-19, however, entered the picture. Forced to spend most of our time in this closet of a room, we lost all track of night and day, let alone our impulse to watch a sunrise. (See Jana’s blog post about that wonderful experience here).

Discouraged from our pursuit, we had given up on the idea that we’d get to witness a rising sun while in Victoria’s capital city.

The Anticlimactic Morning We (FINALLY!) Saw a Sunrise in Melbourne

When it finally happened, we weren't expecting it. I guess the proverb "Sometimes what you're looking for comes when you're not looking at all" has at least an ounce of truth in it.

There was no meticulously outlined plan, no bus or Uber ride, no bug attack.

We had just moved into our new apartment after a moving marathon that included:

• A last-minute search for a place to live

• A gap between when we had to leave our old place and when we could enter the new one

• 2 nights spent at an in-between accommodation

• Dragging suitcases through the streets of Melbourne...twice

Note: A moving marathon is not nearly as fun as a movie marathon. Don't get the two confused.

So when we finally made it to the new(est) place, we headed to bed pretty early.

And woke up to this:

This view completely makes up for having no view at all for a month.

There you have it. We finally captured the elusive Melburnian sunrise.