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Big4 ashley Gardens Caravan Park, Near Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.  260km

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We got back this evening from 2 fun days at Wilsons Promontory, locally known as the Prom. It is a pretty national park, 3 hours south east of Melbourne. The park is surrounded on 3 ends by the sea, and is rich in flora and fauna.

We left Phillip Island early yesterday, on a chilly and cloudy morning. Paola was still sick, coughing and nauseous. The weather, along with our mood, improved 2 hours later when we arrived at the prom. We proceeded from the park entrance to Tidal River, the campground location. After choosing a site we went on a short hike along the river and discovered the water was a clear brownish red color. The contrast with the green trees and blue sky was beautiful. In the afternoon, after a nap, we headed over to Squeaky Beach, with pretty white sand that squeaks when you walk barefoot. Shir Orr and Ron enjoyed running around the large granite boulders on the side of the beach, dipping their feet into the shallow streams of water flowing to the sea. It was really fun except for the flies that kept hovering near our faces.

Towards evening we drove to Whiskey Beach (now that’s a name!) for some sunset views. Before that we had an early dinner on a picnic table at the parking lot. The beach was magnificent, the sunset not so much. Nonetheless we managed to get some good shots.

At night in the campsite we had to conserve energy because the site was without any hookups to electric power. In the morning we discovered that the fridge was not as cold as it should be and had to throw away a carton of milk.

I actually managed to get up early and go for a quick 2 hour hike around the the campground area to Pillar Point and Tidal View. The air was warm, but the sky was overcast and in exposed areas the wind was quite strong.

By the time I got back to the family at 8am, it began raining. Luckily it the rain was brief and we were able to get the kids outside for a bit before moving on. A bunch of beautiful red blue parrots seemed hungry so we rolled bread crumbs into little balls and fed them from our fingers. One landed on my shoulder while Ron fed him. When another landed on Orr’s hand, she wasn’t too happy. Luckily she got over the trauma, as I explained to the children how to hold their hand very low near the ground and wait patiently for the bird to arrive. They got the message and were quite successful in stuffing the birds.

We left the campground and headed towards the park exit when we decided to take a chance on the weather. We drove on a side road to the starting point of a 4km in and out hike. The path to Miller’s Landing was almost level, through a strange conifer forest with all of us straining our eyes to spot emus and kangaroos. We did see one kangaroo who was just waiting for us on the dirt trail. When we got too close he just hopped away gracefully.

We reached the halfway point at beach and a flock of cockatoos above us noisily left to find another place to chill. The views were lovely, with mangroves semi-submerged by the high tide. On the return trip to the car we didn’t see any more animals but driving towards the main road we spotted an echidna (kipod) scurrying along.

The afternoon was spent driving back to the Melbourne area. Tomorrow we head west towards the Great Ocean Road.

Good Night,

-Hemi

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 7:14 am and is filed under Australia, Big Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.