Wilson's Prom

Here are some long-awaited photos from a weekend trip to Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria, Australia. 

 

 In the late afternoon on Friday, January 12th, we drove 2 hours out of Melbourne to the town of Foster (pop. 2,175), where we would stay for the night before 2 days of exploring Wilson's Prom. On the way over we got a call from the owner of the youth hostel where we had booked a room. He reported that two of their other international guests had had a problem with their  van, so our room would be given over to them that night. This meant that we would be placed in another accommodation next door - he assured us we would be happy with the change and apologized for the inconvenience of having to move after one night. 

When we arrived at the hostel we were surprised that the excellent upgrade we had serendipitously received. Instead of a 4 bed dorm we were staying in a 2 bedroom apartment! Complete with full kitchen, laundry, woodstove and tv! This turned out to be the perfect place to make our delicious, rare kangaroo steak dinner.

 

The next day, we set out into the Prom. Our first stop: "The Dunes." We didn't know much about what to expect, but we knew enough to put on sunscreen!

On the hike up to the entrance to the dunes, we met a little echidna. This spiny anteater, similar in size to a hedgehog, is a member of the monotreme order of egg-laying mammals. (The platypus is another notable monotreme).

It was like a mini Sahara, with massive dunes, blowing sand and mirage-type pools of fresh water. Curiously, this large dry drift is only a few kilometers from the ocean, with grassy plains and wooded forests in between.

Squeaky Beach

This beach is not to be missed on a trip to Wilson's Prom. The sand really squeaks when you walk on it!

The next day we took a hike in Lilly Pilly Gully, hoping to see some more wildlife. Alas, we didn't see any - save one unexceptional brown lizard. Here, the rest of our troop poses before the wake of a massive, destructive mudslide.

Is this THE END of our Australian Adventures?!

Not to worry, this tale is ...to be continued...

Tumbling Down

"The Dunes" at Wilsons Promontory National Park in Victoria, Australia

 Song by Roy Rogers and the Sons of the Pioneers - "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" c.1934

Road Trip

After spending New Years in Sydney, we realized suddenly that we would have to get back to Melbourne somehow. The Fiji-induced state of total relaxation took it's toll as our lax judgment caught up with us. All trains, buses and car shares were booked up. Flying was out of the question, so we started calling rental car companies. Our luck changed when we found a relocation deal offered by a motor home company, where we could pay $1 per day and be reimbursed for most of the gas in return for moving one of their vehicles.

Too good to be true? No! This beast was ours for almost $0!

 



 

The only problem was, the vehicle was to be dropped off in Adelaide, a city 775km west of Melbourne. So the trip got a bit longer when I took a detour to drop off copilot #1 in Melbourne...

and picked up copilot #2 - Ilona

We gunned it fast through the blazing hot desert

stopping only briefly to "step into the past"

and admire Beaufort's Imperial Egg Gallery.

 

With the heat of the desert and the rare, broken-down petrol station with a lonely lost traveler as an attendant spurring us forward, we made it in time to park on the shores of one of South Australia's gorgeous long, sandy beaches for the night.

 

The next day, we dropped off one the truck and picked up a rental car, which took us back along the coastal route to Melbourne in 1.5 days.

We saw the blue lake - an ancient volcanic crater with mysteriously azure waters, clearly even bluer than the sky. According to an informational placard at this lookout, the water changes color with any given season. However, the sign gave no explanation for why the water appears so blue. Suffice to say, I wasn't about to go swimming in it.

 

 

We continued along through South Australia towards Victoria, driving through towns that looked like the "Wild West" in the Gold Rush era. We passed roadside attractions, tourist traps and bad murals by an artist who apparently painted them with one eye closed and his good arm behind his back while falling off a ladder.

We saw a dead ringer for the star of the 2011 Australian film, Red Dog. He was testing fate, riding carefully yet eagerly in the back of a moving flat-bed pickup.

Victoria, at last! The Great Ocean Road and the 12 Apostles

 

   

Before getting on to the highway to book it back to Melbourne with only minutes to spare, we stopped off at the Grotto to try and take pictures of ourselves looking like Venus. (Which reminds me of the Grotto of Venus at Schloss Linderhof in Bavaria. I didn't take any pictures of that when I was there, but it was pretty surreal).