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Oct 27
| Getting up
early from our industrial park campsite, we headed back into
Melbourne for an early breakfast with our friends from
Maxtrax. We then
visited the Queen Victoria market, the Melbourne Gaol (Jail) and
the Exhibition Hall. We ended our Melbourne visit with a trip
to a Japanese restaurant for lunch where we had grilled octopus
and baked mussels covered with a cream and cheese sauce, yum.
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We then finally headed out of Melbourne towards Wilson's
Promontory finishing the day in the village of Fish Creek.
Staying in Fish Creek was unintended, but we stopped at the
public restrooms on the highway and happened to look down into
the park below. Driving around to see what was there, we
discovered a camping sign on a small patch of grass, next to the
old train terminal and along the "rails to trails" line that
runs through Victoria. We spent a lovely evening, BBQing and
enjoying the quiet.
Oct 28
After a walk
down the trail, we headed to our destination Wilson's Promontory
(Prom), which is a piece of land that juts out into the Southern
Ocean. This was once an island, but sand silted up the
channel with the mainland. With ocean on three sides, there are lots of
opportunities to walk on beaches and explore. Our first stop
was Darby Creek where we hiked along the creek to the ocean and
then watched the surfers catching waves.
| Our next
stop was Whiskey Beach where we had lunch and once again hiked
to the ocean. This was a particularly beautiful beach with
granite outcroppings on either end. On the south end there was
a trail up and over the rocks to a viewpoint out to sea and to
the next beach down the way, Picnic Beach. |
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We then made
our way to the one and only campground on the Prom, the Tidal
River campground with its 450 sites! Fortunately, it not being
a school holiday, the campground wasn't crowded and we found a
nice site. While we were registering at the Visitor's Center,
the rain that had been threatening all day, finally decided to
come down. And down it did, the most rain that we have seen at
any time the entire time we've been in Australia. The weather
forecast also called for gale force winds, but fortunately there
were no sign of them.
After
waiting out the rain, we headed out for a hike in the wetlands.
The campground is situated in a very interesting location, with
a tidal river running along one side and the ocean on another
side. A trail has been constructed running alongside the river
from the ocean, inland, with a boardwalk protecting the fragile
wetland area that exists there. We very much enjoyed our hike.
| At dusk, we
grabbed our umbrellas, and went out walking through the
campground in search of wombats. This is the one animal in
Australia that is legendary and we have yet to see. After
walking for about 10 minutes, we sighted our first wombat! It
was unconcernedly munching on the grass at the edge of a parking
lot and we were able to get very close to him (her?). Not
surprisingly, the animals in the campground are habituated to
humans so they are unafraid which is nice for photos, but is
unnatural behavior for wild animals. We watched him until he
wandered off into the bushes and then spied a second wombat
across the parking lot. It disappeared before we could reach it
however, so we started heading back to our campsite just as it
started sprinkling. But along the way we spied another wombat.
This one wasn't quite as habituated and wouldn't let us take his
picture, but he was interesting to watch just the same. But
because we had stopped, we ended up getting caught in a downpour
and hiding out in an amenities (restroom) building for about 15
minutes before we could return to the Fuso. |
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Oct 29
|
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The next
morning we went for a hike down the river and across the beach.
It was amazing to see how much the river had swelled due to the
previous night's rain. After returning for breakfast, we
decided to pack a lunch and do a hike from the campground across
to another trail through an area of warm temperate rain forest.
Considering that the Prom contains Australia's most southern
point, it is amazing to think that there is rain forest there,
but that is the amazing thing about Australia. Along the way,
we spied three new birds. All through the campground are
beautiful, bright colored Crimson Rosellas. Apparently
people feed them as they are quite aggressive as they landed
right on us! |
In the
evening, we once again went out in search of wombats. This time
it was more difficult to find one, but once we did, he stayed in
the same location for quite a while and we got a good chance to
watch him.
Oct 30
| Once again
in the morning we hiked down the river to the ocean and enjoyed
its beauty for the last time before leaving. We then headed out
and up to the highest viewpoint in the park, Mt. Oberon. This
would also be the furthest spot south that we would drive in
continental Australia. We then headed back down to Cotter's
Beach where you can walk along the shore and explore the flotsam
and jetsam that get washed up on the long beach. It was then
time to leave the Prom and head north. We found a nice spot to
camp in a state forest. |
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Oct 31
|
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In the
morning after doing a hike around our forest campsite, we headed
off toward Paynesville and the Lakes District of Gippsland. In
Paynesville we unloaded our bicycles, got on the ferry and took
the five minute ride across to Raymond Island. There we
followed the paved and unpaved tracks looking for birds and
koalas. Surprisingly, we didn't see any new birds, but we did
see quite a few koalas resting in the tree tops. |
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Heading back
across on the ferry, we debated about city camping or trying to
find a more secluded spot. Don remembered seeing a possible
spot, so we headed back along the road heading toward Jones Bay
and found a free campsite right along a river! We don't know
what this area used to be, but it was along a paved road that
dead ended at a bike lane and ran directly along the river
There were turnouts and tables and the site we picked had a
small dock. There was one other motorhome that had found this
lovely spot and we spent a quiet evening watching the birds on
the water. |
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Nov 1
In the
morning we once again got our bikes down and rode down the bike
path. After a couple of kilometers along the water, the trail
abruptly ended at a landslide. This area got heavy rain back in
August and this was one of the areas that was damaged. There
was heavy equipment working to shore up the hillside, but it
ended our bicycling early. We then headed into Bairnsdale and
ran some errands. After lunch we headed north onto the Great
Alpine Road toward Snowy River National Park. The drive was
beautiful as we were finally in the mountainous area of
Australia and it was a beautiful change of scenery for us. We
ended our day at the Little River Gorge, camped in the parking
lot for the gorge hike. The road was closed beyond this point
(more storm damage) and we knew it would be a quiet evening. We
had our first campfire in ages as the temperature, fire rings
and availability of wood all created the perfect excuse to have
one.
Nov 2
In the
morning we hiked to the gorge overlook. This 500m deep gorge is
the deepest in Victoria and had an incredible view. On the hike
back to the campground we got a very brief view of a Superb
Lyrebird (as it ran across the path, quite a ways ahead of us),
which if we had gotten a good view of it would really have been
superb!
We drove
back out to the main road and headed north on the little used
dirt road that heads into Kosciuszko National Park. For the
rest of the day we oohed and ahhed at the gorgeous scenery along
the Snowy River. But the scenery was flawed. In December of
2002, 166 forest fires started in the National Park. By the
time the fires were under control, it was March, 2003 and 90% of
the southern part of the park had burned covering 321,000
hectares (793,000 acres). But despite kilometer after kilometer
of burned trees, eucalypt growth was coming back. Sadly
however, the other major tree in the area, the Alpine Ash may
not come back. A fire in 1984 had wiped out much of the Alpine
Ash population, which had triggered seeds in the ground to
spring. However, the new trees normally don't drop their own
replacement seeds for 20 years, so the fires of 2002-03 may have
wiped out the ash before it could reseed itself.
There were
several free, organized campsites along the road, some closer to
the Snowy River and some on side rivers. We chose the site at
Jacobs River, and despite the fact that it was a Friday night,
we had the place all to ourselves. While enjoying the remainder
of the day, we sat outside wearing our usual fly nets as
protection from the tons of flies.
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Snowy River |
See all of the flies!! |
Nov 3-4
| The next
couple of days were spent enjoying the beauty of the National
Park. The weather didn't really want to cooperate however and
the view that we were hoping to see of the tallest peak in
Australia, Mt. Kosciuszko at 2,228m (7,300ft) was completely
obscured, but the park had a different kind of beauty in that
weather. |
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We spent a
night at another campground right on the river with a huge
meadow right behind it. The meadow was full of kangaroos and
more seemed to materialize out of nowhere. The scenery was so
beautiful that we didn't want to miss it, so when it started
raining, we pulled out our "sun" shade and used it to shelter
against the rain which fortunately, was falling straight down.
We also
visited the Murray 1 Power Station which is the first station in
line for the Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme.
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The Snowy
Mountains Scheme is a hydro-electricity and
irrigation complex. The waters of the Snowy
River and its tributary, the Eucumbene, are
captured at high elevations and diverted inland
to the Murray River and the Murrumbidgee River,
through two tunnel systems driven through the
Snowy Mountains. The water falls 800 meters and
travels through large hydro-electric power
stations which generate peak-load power for the
Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales
and Victoria. The Scheme was completed by 1974,
after twenty-five years of construction, and is
the largest engineering project undertaken in
Australia. The Scheme's construction is seen by
many as a defining point in Australia's history,
and an important symbol of Australia's identity
as an independent, multicultural and resourceful
country.
Source: Wikipedia |
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Our visit to
the power station was very interesting and the displays nicely
done to emphasize the difficulty of the task and the effort that
people from so different cultures put forth to make it happen.
Nov 5
After a
windy and cold night, we finally headed off down the mountains
and out of the park. The temperature got only slightly warmer
as the wind continued to blow. By early afternoon we had
reached the Australian Capital Territory, the name given to the
region that contains Canberra, the capital of Australia. We
drove around Capital Hill, looking over the new buildings that
were constructed in 1988 to house the Parliament. We then drove
down the hill to the Old Parliament Building (which in our
opinion is much more attractive) and then around the city
looking at the sights. One of those sights commemorates Captain
Cook's travels around the world and is a stream of water that
shoots straight up into the air for 147 meters.
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Old Parliament
Building |
Cap't Cook fountain |
We then
continued on to the Australian Mint and looked at displays about
the history of money in Australia.
After
leaving the Mint we drove north out of town along the highway
towards Sydney. We found a really nice rest area off of
the highway with a wall of trees to cut the road noise.
This would make great camp spot, but first there was a sign for
a winery with free tasting just up the road. At the
winery, we had a long talk with the tasting employee about water
rights and land values in the area. |
