Wilsons Promontory

We left Inverloch on Wednesday 23rd November becuase we had been watching the weather and we thought that the best chance of having a dry stay at 'the prom' was if we had Wed-Fri nights.  We did pretty well with that, because we had perfect weather most of the time.  We drove through some really lovely countryside toward Wilsons Promontry.  After a lunch stop (and play stop!) at Yanakie we headed to Tidal River to setup camp with our tent!  We weren't really sure how it would go with 5 of us in a pretty small tent!

Lunch at Yanakie

Our camp site

Once the tent was setup we headed out to the beach for a walk.  Norman Beach is a great spot and because it was low tide we walked from our campsite to the mouth of Tidal River.  We got prepared for dinner and ate at our 'normal' dining room table (our collapsable camping table).  After dinner we went for a walk to look for wombats because Wilsons Promontory is renound for its wombats, however we didn't spot any.  But when we got back  to our campsite we saw our first wombat just next to our tent!  We can now add wombats to our list of Native Australian animals that we have seen in the wild :) We saw wombats each night we stayed at the Prom and we all loved seeing them as we don’t get to see wild wombats much.

When living in a tent, you pretty much get up with the sun and go to bed with the sun (which in Summer, in the southernmost point of Mainlaind Australia, makes for some pretty exhausted children!).  So we got up early on Thursday and wanted to head for Squeaky Beach.  It was a beautiful day with lots of sun, but the wind was a bit cold.  The water was also a bit cold (for Liz and Mike), but the kids were very keen to splash around (no surprise there) so they had a great time spashing in the surf and playing in the very fine sand of Squeaky Beach.  The sand does Squeak when you walk on it, so it lives up to its name.

fun at Squeky Beach

That afternoon we thought we would go for a walk and so headed along Tidal river.  The track headed up a hill and gave some great views of Tidal river.  We found the ‘Overlook track’ which headed up a big hill with a huge boulder at the top.  We hiked up to the top of the boulder and all stood on the very top.  It was a great effort by the kids to do such a big walk and Sam only needed a ride on dad’s shoulders on the way down the hill.

Tidal River

Looking back to Norman Beach

The Overlook

On Friday (our last full day at Wilsons Promontory) we went to Picnic bay and found another beautiful beach which we had all to ourselves.  We took a long stroll along the beach and the kids had a great time jumping down from the sand dunes.

Picnic Bay

Sand dune fun

After Picnic bay we thought we’d do one more walk before lunch, so we headed for Lilly Pilly Gully.  We walked about 1km, but then the kids (and parents) were too trashed from the previous day’s walks that we turned around and headed back to the car.   After lunch, we all had a big rest time.  Natalie and Sam slept, and Josh kept himself entertained with his Nintendo Dsi.

That night it started to rain.  The Tent held up very well in the rain, but the packup on Saturday morning (also in the rain) was not so much fun.  We had breakfast in the tent, popped the kids in the car, and then packed all our things into the car from the tent, and then folded up a very soggy tent.  This gave us a whole new appreciation for the amount of space we have in the Caravan!  We’ll never call the caravan small againJ.

We drove out of Wilsons Promontry and we were talking about what a wonderful spot it was when we spotted an emu by the side of the road.  We stopped to have a look and a mob of Kangaroos jumped past too.  More wildlife for our list J