Walking around Australia's southernmost point

Trip Start Apr 26, 2010

204

207

Trip End Nov 16, 2010

Loading Map

Map your own trip!

Map Options

Show trip route

Hide lines

Where I stayed

Norman Beach Campground

Flag of Australia Wilsons Promontory, Victoria, Australia
Saturday, November 13, 2010

We were on the road at 7am again, driving for 3 hours until we arrived at Wilsons Promontory in more rain. We had a little time to check out the tourist centre to look at the walks around the park that we could do during the afternoon, before checking into a school campsite and setting up out tents. With the rain still falling we had little hope of drying the tents out before we would need them in the evening.

Driving into the park we'd seen the road up to the Mt Oberon carpark was open, so everyone got back into the truck and headed back out past the tourist centre, but in the hour and a half we’d been setting up camp and looking at our options they’d closed the road down, with the only access up being a free mini-bus running from the tourist office. Looking at the thick cloud shrouding the top of the mountain Adele and I decided to do it later and instead took a walk out to Pillar Point.

Overlooking Norman Beach

Starting at Norman Beach we found several dozen dead mutton birds washed up on the beach (apparently having exhausted themselves during their migration and fallen into the sea) before heading up along the tidal river and out onto the headland for some nice views along the coast, although a stiff breeze and light rain made taking photos tricky. An alternative track brought us back via some nice views over Squeaky Beach which looked like it might have been a good swimming spot if it hadn’t been so unpleasant. We eventually ended up on a raised walkway through the wetlands not far from the campsite where I spotted an echidna just off the side of the path.

Continuing thick cloud at the summit of Mt Oberon saw us spending the afternoon in the camp cafe instead, and trying to dry the tent when the rain would occasionally break, until dinner. Steady rain even made eating dinner inconvenient, but to top that off Adele insisted on a wombat hunt (being desperate to see a wombat) in the rain, and we did have some success and found one behind the cafe, snuffling through the wet grass in the rain.

Once everyone had taken to their tents we could hear the wind picking up, and you could hear each gust approaching through the trees before it hit the camp. Luckily ever since the windstorm in China everyone has continued to make a point of correctly pegging their tents, so there was only one casualty, Norrie and Edna’s old tent which they’d donated to Claire suffered an ignominious death, blown into and around a railing after she had been forced to evacuate to the truck.

Slideshow