English (part 11): Wilsons Promontory NP

Tuesday 18th of November: Paynesville – Tidal River (Wilsons Promontory NP)
With another long drive ahead we get up early today. Apparently too early for the staff of the campground, as there is nobody in the office, when we leave. That means we haven’t been able to obtain the Wi-Fi code necessary to get on the internet and therefore couldn’t check our mailbox nor send the e-mails we wrote yesterday evening. First we head north to Bairnsdale and from there west to Sale. With endless timber plantations and paddocks full of grazing cows the road in between these two towns is pretty boring and doesn’t offer a lot of distraction. On the way to the Prom (Wilsons Promontory) Sale is the last town offering good shopping facilities. We stop at the local mall to get all the necessary supplies for the coming days. Except for food we also buy a brush to clean the tent with. My sleeping bag made of down starts to lose so many feathers lately, there is almost more down flying around in the tent than inside the sleeping bag. After shopping we have lunch at McDonalds, not because we are in desperate need of a hamburger with fries, but because this fast food chain offers free Wi-Fi in its restaurants. We check our mailbox, send a few e-mails and have a quick look at the weather forecast for the coming days. Then we continue our way westwards to the Prom surrounded by the same boring landscape as before. Only when we reach the village of Toora, the view finally starts to change. The landscape is hillier than before and at the horizon we can see the waters of the Corner Inlet with the characteristically rounded mountain tops of Wilsons Promontory behind it. In Foster, the last village of any significance before the Prom, we fuel up one last time. There is no gas station within the national park’s boundaries, so you have to fill your tank before you enter the park. The closest gas station to the Prom is in Yanakie, a little hamlet about 30 kilometres north of Tidal River. From Foster it’s another 60 km to the campground at Tidal River. Wilsons Promontory NP is situated on a v-shaped peninsula separating the Corner Inlet from the Bass Strait. Soon after passing the village of Yanakie we enter the national park. On the first few kilometres within the park the road is lined by bushland with trees and shrubs blocking the view. According to the traffic signs along the road, this bushland must be full of wildlife. But as usual the wombats, kangaroos, echidnas and koalas on the signs are the only wildlife we are able to spot this afternoon. At the Darby Flats the bushland makes room for a more open and grassy type of vegetation. Behind this floodplain of the Darby River the road starts to climb and soon after we reach Darby Saddle, where we get a first glimpse of the sea and the beautiful beaches the Prom is famous for. Slowly descending we finally reach Tidal River, the park’s only campground and resort accessible on a sealed road. We leave the car on the enormous parking lot in front of the visitors centre and head inside for check-in. Although the resort offers more than 450 campsites, a few cabins, group accommodations and a luxury tented lodge, during the summer season it is often fully booked and you have to reserve your accommodation at the Prom months in advance. This being a Tuesday in shoulder season, there is still plenty of room on the campground. At least this is true for the unpowered sites. As there are only about 20 powered sites, they are almost always fully booked. The same is true for the cabins and huts. At the visitors centre we are told we are free to pitch our tent wherever we want, as long as it is on an unpowered site. We chose a site close to the visitors centre and even closer to the amenity block and the barbecues. Unfortunately the campground has no camping kitchen and there is only one picnic table with a roof, which has to be shared by all the campers of the campground. So hopefully it’s not going to rain. The facilities of the campground are ok, but far from outstanding. Considering the fact that this is by far the most expensive campground of the whole trip, one would expect more. At 56 $ on weekdays to 59 $ in the weekend we pay here almost twice as much as at all the commercial campgrounds we stayed at so far. And most of these commercial caravan parks offered better facilities than the campground in Tidal River. Although Tidal River Campground has never been cheap, Parks Victoria raised the prices for all its campgrounds again considerably in 2014. Even for a site on a campground with no facilities at all (even no dunny) you have to pay 11 $ a night. Of course I do understand, that Parks Victoria needs money to manage its national parks and keep them up and running. However I don’t think it’s fair to cash this money from campers alone. Day visitors to the park use the facilities (toilets, barbecues, hiking trails etc.) just as well, but don’t pay a single penny to enter the park. In my opinion there should be an entry fee for all park visitors, in order to spread the costs more fairly among all the users of the park.
Because we think the sites near the beach might be too windy, we pitch our tent on the wide open field at the back of the campground near the visitors centre. It is just later on a stroll across the campground and along the river to the beach, that we realize the sites near Norman Beach are actually more sheltered than the area we pitched our tent in. The sites near the beach are situated behind a big wall of sand dunes and are almost entirely enclosed by trees and shrubs sheltering them from the wind. On the wide open space we are camping in, there are only a few scattered trees not able to stop the often gusty winds. Unfortunately it is too late to move now, as our tent is already pitched and most of the sheltered sites on the beach-side of the campground are occupied by now. So if you’re interested in one of the beach-side spaces, take my advice and come early.
On our stroll around the campground we have our first encounter with the local wildlife: We see lots of birds such as Crimson Rosellas and Superb Fairy Wrens, but more importantly also our very first living wombat! The cuddly, furry creature is even cuter than I imagined. You can tell the wombats here are used to being around people, as they don’t mind you coming close to them to take pictures. You can actually almost touch them. Unfortunately this relative tameness has a downside too: The wombats here are so accustomed to humans, they might break into your tent, if they smell something edible inside. Therefore the park staff warns all the campers not to keep any food in the tent.
After this first encounter with my favourite Aussie animal we return to our campsite to prepare dinner: steak from the “barbie”, rice- and green salad. Yummy! Once the dishwashing is done, dusk has arrived, but it is still light enough for a stroll on the Loo Err Boardwalk along the river. Here we are able to spot three more wombats. After a good day’s sleep they are up and ready to spend the night grazing along the river and on the campground. They are so cute, that if it wasn’t for the quickly falling darkness, I could have stayed here watching them all night.

Wednesday 19th of November: Tidal River (Wilsons Promontory NP)
An early start today. Even before breakfast I take my camera for an early morning photo-safari along the Loo Err Track. Unfortunately not early enough, as all the wombats seem to have disappeared in their burrows already. But the warm morning light and the reflection of the surrounding mountains in the waters of the river make the trip worthwhile anyway. After a quick shower and a proper breakfast we have to wait for the supermarket of the campground to open. We desperately need some ice for the “esky” (Aussie slang for a cooler). The little convenience store doesn’t offer too much in terms of food, but it does store a few camping essentials such as bags of ice. So if you plan to camp here, come prepared and do your groceries before you enter the park.
Once the cooler is fed with a new load of ice it is time for a first hike in the park. The weather is nice and sunny and the trail to Squeaky Beach starts right across the pedestrian bridge spanning the Tidal River behind the campground. So there is no car needed for this walk. After crossing the bridge the trail climbs slowly to the top of the ridge separating Norman from Squeaky Beach. Every now and then the trees along the path make room for some lovely views of the campground and of Norman Beach. It doesn’t take long before we reach an intersection with trails to the Tidal Overlook, Pillar Point, Squeaky Beach and back to the campground. We decide the Tidal Overlook to be our first destination. This path follows the top of the ridge to an even higher point, where the trees make room for grass and little shrubs and from where you have a superb view to both sides: the campground and Norman Beach on one side and Squeaky Beach on the other. While admiring the panorama Klaas suddenly spots a wallaby grazing between the shrubs just a few steps beneath us. After descending back to the intersection our next destination is Pillar Point, a big granite outcrop at the end of the ridge between the two beaches. From here you enjoy another fantastic view of the beaches, the sea and the islands further out. After backtracking again to the intersection we follow the winding path down to Squeaky Beach. Before we reach the sandy beach, the trail follows some interesting granite formations, one of which looks like a giant marble broken into three pieces. Between the granite boulders there are lovely patches of blooming wildflowers. As we reach the sandy part of the beach, we get rid of our shoes and socks and cool our feet in the waters of the sea. Then we have lunch, before we head back the campground the same way we came, but this time without all the detours.
Unfortunately I seem to have caught some kind of eye infection overnight, as one of my eyes has been burning and watering all morning. And as a consequence of the constant flow of tears, I can hardly see anything and on top of that my nose started running too. First thing back at the campground is therefore another trip to the store, where we manage to purchase some eye-drops for me. It is only early afternoon and we don’t want to spend the rest of the day at the campground. Therefore we decide to ignore my sore eye and explore more of the park’s lovely beaches this afternoon. This time though we take the car to get us there. From the car parks along the road the beaches are only a short stroll away. They are all different. Picnic Bay has a lot of marble-like granite boulders with thousands of little mollusc shells attached to them. The boulders at Whisky Bay are even bigger, one of them looking like the head of a seal. Darby Bay finally marks the borderline between the granite mountains of the Prom and the sand bridge, which links the Prom to the mainland. On the mostly sandy beach we discover something, that looks like a big boulder. But as we come closer, it turns out to be the carcass of a dead seal.
Our next and final stop today is at the wildlife viewing area closed to the northern border of the park. The car park here is looking out over an open grassy field, where lots of kangaroos and wombats seem to gather at dusk. Unfortunately it is only late afternoon and the field is still completely empty. We are not the only ones hoping for wildlife though. Next to us parks another car. Its owner is armed with a big camera and a huge zoom lens. He’s crossing the open field and disappears in the bush at the other end. As he looks like he knows what he is doing, we follow him. On the edge of the open field we find a sign saying that this is the trailhead of the Woodland Trail. Following the arrow on the sign we enter the bushland. Soon after we meet the guy, that we just saw disappearing a few minutes ago. He turns out to be a local resident working as a cameraman filming tv-commercials. In his spare time he loves to come to the Prom and photograph the wildlife around here. Today he is after his favourite animal of all, the snake. He knows a big deal about the different species of snakes living in the park, about their customs and hangouts. He also has a good knowledge of all the other animals around here and he is willing to share it with us. The coming hour he is taking us on a photo-safari along the Woodland Trail. Although we don’t manage to find his favourite animals today, we spot lots of “roos”, emus and even a blue tongue lizard instead. At the end of this fantastic free tour he tells us, that if we want to see wildlife on the open field in front of the car park, we have to come back between 18.30 en 19.00 h in the evening. For today we’ve had enough though and we decide to return another day.
Back at the campground we have dinner consisting of pork meat with beans, roasted capsicum and couscous. While Klaas is doing the dishes (don’t you think I have a wonderful husband?), I take my camera to the Loo Err Track in search of wombats. On the way there I don’t see any, but coming back I spot three of them right next to the boardwalk. One of them seems to be shier than the rest. As soon as he spots the human on the board walk, he turns around and disappears in the ground, thus giving away the location of his burrow. I stop and wait patiently for him to reappear. Luckily I don’t have to wait long and this time he doesn’t seem to be disturbed by my presence. Once it gets too dark to take pictures, I return to my husband. Together we take a little walk on the campground, spotting two more grazing wombats with our torches. Although it only 21.30 h, it is completely dark by now and thus time for us to go to bed.

Thursday 20th of November 2014: Tidal River (Wilsons Promontory NP)
It has been a rather turbulent night with gusty, hot winds harassing our tent. The sky this morning is clouded and the air is hot and damp. But as it isn’t raining, we decide to go hiking anyway. My sore eye is still swollen, but feels a lot better than yesterday. The plan is to do the Lilly Pilly Gully Trail today. As the car park with the trailhead for this walk is situated less than a mile from the campground, we decide to leave the car behind and walk to the trailhead. We cross the bridge over the Tidal River and follow it upstream to the trailhead at the foot of Mount Bishop. The first part of the Lilly Pilly Gully Trail is gently climbing following the southern flank of Mount Bishop. Because of the dense forest on the flank, there isn’t much of a view on this leg of the trail. But there are lots of blooming bushes and other wildflowers along the way, some of which we haven’t seen before and thus have to be documented with the camera. After about 1 km on the Lilly Pilly Gully Circuit, we leave this trail and take the steeply zigzagging path to the top of Mount Bishop. Klaas, who is walking behind me, suddenly grips my t-shirt and forces me to stop. He saw a snake on the trail in front of me and wants to prevent me from stepping on it. But luckily the snake soon turns out to be the tail of a wallaby. After about 2 km of climbing we reach a granite plateau with a nice view of Mount Oberon on the other side of the valley floor. Thinking that this is the end of the trail we have a seat, enjoy the view and have a sip of water. But then we see a couple disappearing in the forest at the other end of the plateau and realize, we haven’t reached the top just yet. Luckily the real top is only a few more steps away and the view is worth every drip of sweat we shed on the way up. Huge parts of the west coast of the Prom with all its lovely bays and islands are visible from here.
After a break to take in the view and have something to eat we start to descend the same way we came up. Unfortunately about half way down to the intersection with the Lilly Pilly Gully Circuit I trip and twist my ankle. Although at first I’m afraid I won’t be able to walk any further, the pain soon abates, once I put a firm bandage around my ankle. Back at the intersection I even feel strong enough to complete the rest of the 5,8 km long circuit trail instead of heading straight back to the car park. A walking stick made from the branch of a tree is helping me walk. About half way the circuit trail we reach the boardwalk leading us across the actual Lilly Pilly Gully, known to be the most southerly located patch of temperate rain forest in Australia. Having seen a lot of rainforests during the past few weeks, the Lilly Pilly Gully isn’t that spectacular to us and after a quick look around we continue our way back to the car park. This part of the circuit is a rather dull, straight path across the forest. But considering my sore foot I’m actually rather happy with it. Back at the car park we still have another kilometre to go before we reach the campground, but luckily my foot perseveres and we get back without any further incidents. Back at the tent I put a new bandage around my foot and then we have lunch. Soon after that it starts to rain and we decide to get an ice cream at the supermarket and have a closer look at the visitors centre, in order to stay dry. As we plan to return to the wildlife viewing area tonight, we then prep ahead for dinner. In order not to get wet, we prepare the pasta salad sheltering under the backdoor of our car. Then we put everything back in the car and drive to the wildlife viewing area.
Because there is nothing to see, when we arrive, I start updating my diary while Klaas is reading. Our patience is rewarded. At about 6.30 pm the first two wombats appear on the field in front of us. Armed with my camera I get out of the car slowly approaching the two little creatures. They don’t seem to care at all about my presence and keep on grazing, while I get closer and closer with my camera. While my camera is clicking a third wombat enters the scene on the other side of the open field. This one isn’t as tame as the other two though and disappears in the bush, when I try to approach it. Klaas forgot his camera and while he’s back at the car to get it, he spots an echidna crossing the road in front of him. However - just like last time in the Grampians - he doesn’t manage to take a picture of this shy creature. As the kangaroos don’t seem to be ready to come out of their hiding places in the bush just yet, we decide to pay another visit to them instead. We don’t have to walk far to spot at least a dozen of them. We take a few pictures and return then to the car. While driving back to the campground we spot at least two or three more wombats, a kangaroo and even an emu along the road. Back at the resort we eat the pasta salad we prepared earlier this afternoon, have a cup of tea and coffee, do the dishes and go to bed. Luckily my eye is almost back to normal and my twisted foot isn’t causing too many problems so far either. Hopefully I’ll still be able to do some hikes these coming days. It would be a shame, if I had to stay on the campground all day because of a sore foot.

Friday 21st of November 2014: Tidal River (Wilsons Promontory NP)
Another stormy night with gusty winds lies behind us. I even had to crawl out of the tent at 3 am, because our tent was in danger of flying away. One of the pins nailing the tent to the ground had gone loose and one of the plastic hooks clipping the fly to the tent poles was broken. Luckily I was able to fix the problem quite easily and a few minutes later we were ready to go back to sleep. Sleeping in till the alarm clock wakes us, we only get up at 8.30 am today. As one pair of socks and clean underwear is all that’s left in my suitcase, we will have to do some laundry today. So after breakfast I head to the supermarket to get some washing powder and then to the visitors centre for some change to put into the washing machine. While the machine does the hard work, Klaas and I take a leisurely stroll to the beach. At ramp 5 on Norman Beach we meet a bunch of kids taking surfing lessons. I don’t think this would be my cup of tea. Although the weather improved considerably since yesterday and the sun is shining again, the air is still cool and the sea water freezing cold. On the way back to the laundry room we have a closer look at the wilderness retreats, luxurious safari tents you can hire for 300$ a night. I really don’t understand, why you would be willing to spend that much money on a tent, which hasn’t even got its own kitchen. At our return the laundry is ready for the drier. While we are waiting for the laundry to dry, we have a look at our trail guide trying to find a suitable hike for this afternoon. We decide on a combination of the Vereker Lookout and the Millers Landing Trails. Once the laundry is dry and stowed away, we have a burger for lunch at the café next to the supermarket. You would expect this facility to be open for dinner as well, but actually the café as well as the supermarket close their doors at 5 pm. The visitors centre is even worse closing at 4:30 h in the afternoon, when most of the campers haven’t even arrived yet. In case you arrive later, they expect you to find your own site on the campground and check-in the next morning. But I’m afraid lots of people, who stay just one night, will leave the next morning before the office even opens and thus don’t pay for their stay at all. Considering the exorbitant prices of the campsites at Tidal River I can’t really blame them for doing so.
After lunch we head north to the trailhead of the Millers Landing Trail, which is situated on the unsealed Five Mile Beach Road branching off the main road a few kilometres south of the park entrance. On the way to the car park at the trailhead we almost hit a big lizard crossing the track in front of us. From the trailhead a broad sand path gently climbs through banksia woodland and stands of grass-trees towards the Vereker Lookout situated on a granite ridge overlooking the Corner Inlet. Once the path starts to climb towards the top of this ridge, it becomes steeper, more narrow and scattered with stones. Unfortunately the uneven terrain has its impact on my sore foot. Despite of the wonderful views of the Corner Inlet unfolding in front of us, we decide not to take any risks and turn around. Luckily we don’t have to go all the way back to the car park. About halfway down a link track to Millers Landing branches off the Vereker Lookout Trail. The broad track gently descends through banksia woodland to the shores of the Corner Inlet at Millers Landing. There are plenty of wallabies sheltering in the shadow of the trees, most of which we only see, once they are hopping away from the human intruders to their territory. About halfway down to Millers Landing we suddenly hear a rustling. Taking a closer look at the vegetation flanking the path it turns out to be an echidna digging the ground with its long snout for something edible. Although usually very shy creatures avoiding the confrontation with humans, this particular one doesn’t seem to feel disturbed by our presence. It keeps on foraging, sometimes even leaving the sheltering shrubs to pose in front of our camera. Can you imagine our excitement?
Unfortunately we can’t stay here all day, so after a good look at this funny looking beast we continue our way to Millers Landing. Back in the 1920s Millers Landing was the disembarkment point for the first tourists coming to the Prom by boat from Welshpool. The Corner Inlet at Millers Landing is also the site of world’s southernmost stand of mangroves. At our arrival it is low tide, which makes it possible for us to reach the mangroves and a few little granite islands full of beautifully blooming wildflowers without getting our feet wet. The mud-flat we have to cross over is full of shells, jelly fish and little crabs. The shores of the Corner Inlet are also a haven for all sorts of waterbirds, some of which can be spotted further out on the mud-flats. The Prom is a paradise for birdlovers anyway. So far we’ve managed to spot fairy wrens, cockatoos, crimson rosellas, galahs and many other species of colourful birds. On the way back to the car we can add another species to our list: the beautifully coloured eastern rosella. Luckily we have a very handy application on our tablet helping us to define all the birds and other species of wildlife we spot during this trip.
Back in Tidal River the campground starts to be busy with people coming to spend the weekend at the Prom. This being our last night on this campground, we take another stroll on the Loo Err Boardwalk after dinner (pancakes with fruit and apple sauce), in order to say goodbye to the local wombat community. When the night falls and it becomes too dark to spot the little creatures, we return to our tent. Usually it would be bedtime for us now. But with all the new arrivals around us, some of them still trying to pitch their tents in the spot of the headlights of their car, it is far too noisy to go to sleep. We decide to take another walk to the beach and do some star-gazing instead. On the way back we are lucky enough to spot two more wombats. I guess they knew, how much I love them and that this might be our last chance to encounter them during this trip.