Walking Wilson's Prom...with Wombats

  Foster, Australia
Friday, February 8, 2008

We came to Wilson's Promontory on the advice of a work colleague (who we've since learnt uses a pseudonym in the UK - spooky) and weren't disappointed.  It's the southern-most point of mainland Australia and is mostly a national park, home to lots of birds and other animals.  Not that we saw much the first afternoon - a rabbit (dead) and a feral cat - probably not a co-incidence as they were next to each other (not that the rabbit was moving much to be fair).

The next day we decided to do some proper walking but lacking the proper clothes for proper walking we had to wait in the van for the rain to pass (we don't have rain coats even) before setting out for a short hike to a boardwalk under a temperate rainforest canopy called Lilly Pilly Gully (they do like silly names out here).  Very nice. 

Then we ventured further, or rather higher, as we walked up Mount Oberon.  It's only an hour up and an hour down according to the rangers but still quite a climb and we were puffing by the time we made the summit only to find some steps hacked out of the rock face and further to go.  We did it in 50 minutes so not bad although I swear you could have driven the entire way bar the last bit I mentioned if they'd just open the gate at the moment.  I guess that's not the point.  The view was well worth it though.  We could see our walk from earlier, a few million trees and the beach we visited previously - indeed the sea from three sides.  Hopefully the photos will do it justice.

On the way back we took our time as the place is littered with signs for kangas, koalas and wombats "every X kms ahead" - we wanted dusk: playtime.  We went to Darby River first just to have a read on the beach but on the way I almost stumbled into a little grey wombat and gasped "Whoooaaaaaaaah!".  The little fella wasn't bothered at all though as he truffled around and even let me pet him on the back while Sarah snapped away.  On the way back we walked dead slow and looked everywhere but didn't see anything (clearly walking into them is more effective - see below!)

We carried on and saw some rabbits (live) and some wombat droppings in a field (they somehow do cube-shaped poo so quite distinctive (unless someone's dropped their chocolate (very unlikely in this household))) and then came to this big open plain - prime kanga territory and sure enough there were about 30 kangas hanging around, chewing some grass, man.  We played with them for a bit and then Sarah spotted a wombat which we investigated further.  Nice one, lot darker than the other.  It was getting late and darker now - 8pm for all you winter readers - so we followed the kangas into a field out the back which had countless wombat burrows but no wombats.  Boo.  We wandered about a bit and then on the way back Sarah found one with a joey in its pouch and I managed to startle one and it get it to trample over my foot and run into the bushes, scared witless (it and me).  So we hung around and eventually found my wombat and being patient we followed it slowly and then waited stock still and it eventually came up to us, sniffed my feet and even truffled between my legs.  Despite them being herbivores I thought I might lose a toe at one point so eventually I moved and it trotted off but we couldn't stop smiling.  No photos as it was too dark by then.  Great though.  They are huge animals but dead cute and we shall be looking for more on our travels in this country!

Oh and we've passed the 3,000 kms mark.