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Published: October 23rd 2008
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Moving east and the next stop was Wilsons Prom, through the Gippsland and small towns we soon found ourselves heading south and into the National Park. Paying our fee at the gate we made our way down the 30Km track to our camp site.
Nestled between the banks of the Tidal river (name what you see theory) and Nelson’s beach the camp site was a thriving buzz of activity. We parked up and set out to discover the area and it wasn’t long till we found an ice cream.
We took a scenic walk up through the bush and above the bay to see what we could find. The sun shone brightly across the valley as we climbed higher and higher to the breathtaking views.
As we settled in for the night and the sun went down the camp site came alive with wildlife and we soon met face to face with the one little friend we had come to see. Waddling around grassing on the grass, this big friendly wombat had come out to play. Trying not to get too close as they can be aggressive we moved in for a few snaps of this marvellous wild
animal.
We named our new little friend Wally and he stayed by our van all night grazing. It’s just amazing how such a lot of animals just disappear in the day time, back to the burrows and nests, by the time the sun shone brightly in the only creatures to be seen and herd were the annoying sea gulls.
After our night with nature it was now time to start to make our move back to Melbourne planning our moves like chess to get the van back to the depot. It would soon be time to leave the van and our road trip, our next stop was in rural milk country and a small town called Toora.
Quite a deserted little village but with a very strange unique twist, every building seemed to have an information and date plaque. Honestly though we hadn’t come out to read them but because the cheap campsite had so much going for it. So we bounced on the inflatable pillow, swam in their pool, enjoyed the free internet and relaxed in the television lounge all for about £8, bargain!
We headed back west again and up the south Gippsland Highway,
through the lush green fields of cattle, it’s all very green considering the hype of the drought situation. Our next stop was the old mining town of kurumba and a very friendly jolly park manager. We took a visit to an old mock up turn of the century coal town, very much as expected with the wooden buildings and all the Victorian artefacts and products of the time. They don’t have much history here but the people seem very proud of what they have. Although normally in a glossed up nice way, no doubt the actual history of the settlement of Australia was a lot darker.
When the settlers moved onto the land they logged the rain forests away and destroyed much of the environment through agricultural development, when they talked about this in Queensland at first it made me quite angry, but the more I learn and try to understand the more sympathetic it has made me about the state of the country. The settlers had to survive and needed to advance, it is no different then any other land population, only younger. Perhaps if the wild life and environment was not so diverse to the rest of
the developed world then there would be less of a cry, I just feel very glad that there are so many national park trusts and heritage site protection to maintain and develop the special and delicate parts of Australia.
Although that said there has been a lot of greed and wasteful destruction. In small areas there are now plantation programs to save the habitation, this is not completely selfless however due to the discovery of issues caused by changing the land usage, trying to bring European methods of agriculture and development to Oceania. Back in Melbourne there is literally billions of dollars being spent to dredge the bay and entrance to the port which has filled with silt due to mangrove removal and bay side developments.
Returning to Melbourne and it was a real relief to revisit a city we knew, if only a little. Finding the van depot was quite straightforward and with the well laid out city and we both felt a weight of responsibility lifted when we handed the keys back. The excess on the insurance would have certainly made a huge difference in our further travel plans.
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