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Published: November 6th 2006
Squeaky beach
Actually not that squeaky at all...Just in case you miss the last paragraph below...
we’re cutting a month off New Zealand (although we still have 2 months there), postponing Thailand indefinitely, heading home on 20 December for Christmas and then heading back out to Whistler on 30 December for another month of skiing!!
Wilsons Prom Wilsons Promontory National Park was another last-minute addition to the itinerary. Dawn and Eugene particularly recommended it and was certainly one of the most beautiful parts that we’ve seen of Australia. It’s the Australian mainland’s southern most point…and pretty much the only thing directly south of it is Tasmania.
On the way down to the Prom, we happened upon a winery which turned out to be the most southerly in Australia. This, we figured, pretty much obliged us to buy a bottle, so we did and then we drove on with the Kaiser Chief’s ‘Never Been This Far Away From Home’ ringing in our ears.
Wilsons Prom is a rugged, windswept kind of place with far more wildlife than people. It seems to have a particularly high number of wombats and there were plenty in and around our campsite at Tidal River.
Thanks to the idiots who ignore all of the official advice about not feeding the wildlife, these wombats are getting a bit brazen. Apparently, territorial wombats can be aggressive and can barge at people if the mood takes them, so when
the nocturnal beasties started appearing just as Rod was making tea on our first night we both got a bit edgy. We spent both nights eating in the car with cheap-as-chips cleanskin wine. Fortunately, it seems that wombats aren’t big pasta fans, so mealtimes passed without too many problems.
On our first afternoon, we did a short walk to Squeaky Beach (actually one of the less squeaky beaches we’ve been to in Australia). We had our first wombat encounter along the way and the scenery was lovely. On day two we walked a 12 mile round-trip to Sealers Cove. It’s described as a ‘full day walk’ but we finished it in just over 3 hours. I could barely move for the next 2 days!
Up the coast to NSW Our next major destination was Canberra, but we had a fair old distance to cover before we could reach it. Having taken the inland route down to Melbourne we followed the coast on our way north, but there’s not a whole lot of interest on the Victorian coast north of Melbourne or the NSW coast south of Sydney. We spent a night camping at Mallacoota and then a
second night at Merimbula, a couple of coastal towns which aren’t really anything to write home about, so I’ll leave it there.
The only newsworthy thing was our very-near-collision with two very big kangaroos on the night we stayed we stayed in Merimbula. Fortunately Rod was driving and he reacted just quickly enough to avoid them. They hopped off happily and we had a stiff drink to calm our shattered nerves.
Slight change of plans Oh, and after we both confessed to suffering some travel fatigue, we made a slightly radical change to our round-the-world itinerary…..we’re cutting a month off New Zealand (although we still have 2 months there), postponing Thailand indefinitely, heading home on 20 December for Christmas and then heading back out to Whistler on 30 December for another month of skiing!!
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Mike Hitchmough
non-member comment
You had to go and ruin it didn't you!
Doh! What are we going to do with 10 return tickets to NZ now?! By the way "Kookaburra" sounds nothing like "a monkey". If it was called a Kachoonkey then you'd be right but it's not so stop drinking so much wine and do a crossword or something to get your brains working again!