The Great Getaway

What exactly is a promontory? It is a good question, and before I visited Wilson Promontory, I had absolutely no idea. It turns out a promontory is a mass of land that overlooks lower land or a body of water. That definition seems oddly general to me, as there are many places that overlook lower land or a body of water, but we'll work with what we got.

And what we got is Wilsons Promontory (a.k.a. The Prom) (So yeah, I went to The Prom last weekend, which makes it sound like I was a huge creep and went to a high school dance. I didn't, I went hiking.). Whenever I would talk to the locals about my travel plans and sightseeing adventures, they frequently brought up The Prom. "It's Victoria's landmark national park." "Oh mate, it's awesome, you'd love it there." "I have no idea what a promontory is, but it's unbelievable." So, I decided to do a little research and see what the fuss was all about. I began researching the possibility of a trip on Wednesday, and that following Friday, I was sitting on a bus headed for The Prom. In between that I bought a tent, hiking boots, food and packed my bag for the weekend.

My bag for the weekend.

It was a 2.5 hr bus ride to Fish Creek, a tiny rural town, then an hour bus ride into the park. I'd love to tell you that the Australian countryside is incredibly scenic and all, but I was asleep for about 2 hrs of the 2.5 hr bus ride, so I didn't get to see much. Once I got into the park, around 5:30 p.m., I found my campsite and set up my tent.

Home sweet home.

As you may notice, my tent isn't exactly spacious. I bought a small, two-person tent, which turned out to be a very small, two-middle school persons tent. I had to lay corner-to-corner in order to be able to fully stretch out. But since I was the only person in the tent, it actually worked perfectly.

After setting up my tent, I grabbed some dinner (a candy bar and Vitamin water), and then headed out to check out the campsite. I knew there were some scenic locations closeby, so I decided to venture out and see what I could find. On my way, I found a wombat!

The head is on the left, the tail is on the right. Just in case you're confused.

The Prom is known for having a large wombat population, and the wombats are very used to humans, and so they freuently come into the campsite to look for food. It is very common to wake up in the morning and find that a wombat has ripped a hole in your tent or kncoked over tables looking for food. Luckily, that didn't happen to me. My only experience with the wombat was touching him and taking this picture. Still, it was pretty cool to be able to see Australian wildlife.

Seeing a wombat was pretty cool, but it ranks pretty low on the list of things I saw over the weekend.

This is high on the list. No explanation needed.

I probably stood at this point for ten minutes, just taking it all in. The beach in the background is Squeaky Beach, which is named after the fact that the sand squeakes when you walk on the beach.

This is caused by the characteristics of the white quartz sand, which is so fine that there is an incredible amount of friction between the sand particles, causing it to emit a squeak whenever you step into the sand. All in all, it makes for an interesting experience walking across the beach.

A quick side note: I took over one hundred pictures over the weekend, so I want you to know how much of a struggle it was for me to select only a few for this blog.

The next morning, Saturday morning, I packed up my gear, caught a shuttle to the base camp, and headed off for my two-day hike.

I was going to Refuge Cove, via Sealers Cove.



The weather was perfect for hiking. It ranged from high 50s at night to high 70s during the day, with little rain and partly cloudy. You worked up a sweat when you were hiking, but then were able to cool off whenever you were taking a rest. It was perfect 'jeans and a t-shirt' type of weather.

Pictured: Jeans, accompanied by a t-shirt.

The hike was gorgeous. Lush, rich forests with thick underbrush. As you would expect, it was an amazingly calming and peaceful place. I was truly able to get away from it all and get into nature. 'Nature' includes the trees, rocks, ferns and....wallabies!

Smile! You're on Candid Camera.

The wallaby and I did the whole "stop and stare at each other" thing, then he decided I wasn't a threat and went back to eating. Of course, that all changed when I decided to try and get closer, and he bounded off into the woods. This was about an hour into my trip, and it was a fantastic way to start the hike.

Initially, the trail was very open and very well marked. But as I got further and further into my hike, I started to hit the less traveled parts of the trail. The trail would change from rocks, to mud and then it would disappear into the ferns, leaving you guessing where it went.

It's there, you just can't see your feet when you're walking through it.

Walking to a remote campsite on a remote trail was one of the most fun things I've done. It feels great to be able to stop, pause and listen for sounds, and all you hear are the birds and the wind. No planes or car horns or people talking. Listening to nothing was an awesome experience. But the listening had nothing on the looking, and I was able to look at some pretty awesome views.

Sealers Cove, in all of its majesty.

You know in the movies when someone washes up on a deserted island and you think "I wonder if those places really exist?" Well, they do. Now, I wasn't on a deserted island, but it was pretty awesome being able to stand on a beach and know that the nearest restaurant or traffic light or even electricity source was three hours away. This was nature in all of its original glory.

It took a little over three hours to get to Sealers Cove. I stopped there, had lunch, took a nap and then went on my way. Refuge Cove, my ultimate destination, was another 6.2 km away, or about 2 hours.

10.2 down, 6.2 to go.

The hike from Tidal River (the base camp) to Sealers Cove was entirely in the forests. However, the hike from Sealers Cove to Refuge Cove followed the shoreline of the park, which made for some stunning views. About an hour into the hike, I reached the summit of one of the bluffs on the shoreline, and was in awe of the beauty.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

I stood here and admired the beauty and took pictures for probably ten minutes. Most of the pictures turned out great, although not all of them were winners.

Best picture of the weekend.

I'm cool.

Despite the injury to my pride, I was able to shrug off the photography mishap and keep on hiking. An hour later, I finally made it into Refuge Cove, my home for the night.



You could do worse than having a home here.

I arrived at Refuge Cove around 5:30 p.m., unpacked my gear, pitched my tent and then took a nap. Naps in the wilderness are awesome. During the three days I was gone, I took around 7 naps.

After I awoke from my glorious rest, I decided to hike up to Kersop's Peak. It was an hour one-way hike and during the hike, I saw another wallaby! This guy wasn't messing around though; the second he saw me, he gave me a quick glare and then bounded away. No photos for this guy. Still, the mini-hike was a lot of fun, mostly because I didn't have my pack on, but also because of the scenery.

You don't get this in Missouri.

I made it to the top of Kersop's Peak at about 7:30, when the sun was getting lower and lower in the sky. It made for some awesome pictures.

I stayed at the peak for about half an hour, then hiked back down to the camp, and went to sleep to the sound of the waves crashing against the beach.

The next day, I did the exact same hike as the day before, just backwards. I didn't take many pictures on the return journey, mostly because I had already taken pictures of everything on the way there, but also because I was dead set on getting home and I didn't want to stop and waste time. I made surprisingly good time on the way back, and was on track to make it back to the base camp three hours before I was supposed to catch the bus to head back to Melbourne. So, since I had all of that extra time, I took another nap.

It was high 70s, sunny and breezy. Pristine napping conditions.

I took a nap at the Windy Saddle, pictured above. An hour later, I woke up, thought about going back to sleep, decided against it, and headed back onto the trail. Another hour later, I was back at the base camp, tired and sore, but feeling great.

Check, check, and check. Did all three. Booyah.

It was a great weekend at a great national park, and I would definitely go back. The weather was perfect and the views were stunning. If you're ever in the area of Fish Creek or Foster and you feel like getting out and working up a good sweat, I totally recommend Wilsons Promontory, even if I have no idea what it means.