My first "roo" sighting...


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Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne
March 2nd 2006
Published: March 4th 2006
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I kept calling the place we were to camp at Wilson's Promenade in the last one, but it was actually Wilson's Promontory... Anyways, we ended up going and I had an amazing time!
It was about a three hour drive or so from Melbourne which took us to Tidal River where there was a campground for us to stay. As soon as we pulled into the National Park I got my first glimpse of a few different Australian animals. First I got to see a wombat, which was interesting, the thing kind of looked diseased though, it had rough patches of skin with no hair and looked a little weird. The next thing I saw though were real live KANGAROOS!! There was three of them just hangin about in the field watching us all closely as we crept up and starting taking snapshots. The other two hopped off as we approached but one hung around to see what was going on. It was such an amazing feeling to be right there witnessing them hop off into the bush, I never thought this day would come. I guess there is so many here that they actually encourage people to hunt them. A kangaroo steak is supposed to be quite delicious, even with that being said, I still don't want to try any.
So after the animal sightings we headed straight for the beach to watch the sunset and have a swim. The water was freezing, but the couple of drinks I had prior helped me settle right in. Once I was in the water I didn't want to leave. We pitched our tent afterwards and had a bbq that night and then all hung out together on the beach. In the morning a Rosella visited our site and Brett got in shit from the ranger for feeding it while we took photos. Of course we knew you are not supposed to feed the animals, but it's hard to capture close ups without any food.
After that we drove down to another beach and hung out there for the day. A couple of the guys tried surfing, I just swam around and played some frisbee. That night we went to this mountain and hiked to the top. It was called Mount Oberon (I think) and it took us about an hour to reach the top. You could drive part ways up, so that helped to shave of some hiking time, not that I don't enjoy it, but in this heat it can get pretty intense. The views from the top were amazing!!
So after we climbed this mountain we drove off towards home to go back there for the night, well so we thought...
So we stop for gas and pee breaks and all that kind of road trip stuff in this small town called Leongatha just outside of the National Park. Everything seems to be in order, everyone is busily doing what they need to get done and the van has just been filled with gas. Then someone realizes that we had just put diesel into a van that shouldn't have had diesel and we are pretty much screwed because the van is not going anywhere now. However, the mistake was made because we were told from the rental company that it was a diesel van. It's almost 11 at night and the gas station is about to close. We call the rental company and tell them our dilemma. They said they couldn't do anything until morning so we were to stay in the town overnight at the gas station. Most of us walked across the street to this park and pitched our tents, some of the others slept at the station. In the morning we were awakened by the voices of rangers and asked to pack up and leave. They were actually quite nice about the whole situation, they even gave us an hour to get out of there. It was a children's playground, not really a camping spot. So we packed up and ended up spending most of the day wandering around the town until the service station drained our tank and put the proper gas in. It was a totally unexpected layover and I was pissed at first, but it actually wasn't that bad. We definitely made the best of it...


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