Would You Be My Prom Date?

(karen)
We capped off our outdoor adventures on the chilly south-east coast of Australia with a jaunt down to the lovely Wilson's Promontory, known locally as "the Prom". This is one of Australia's oldest national parks thanks to a handful of early naturalists who fought to preserve this lovely Victorian penninsula from commercial development.


We had a long drive in from Geelong, just west of Melbourne on the Great Ocean Road, so our first day was cut a bit short. Couple our late arrival with a winter sunset around 5:00 and we had little daylight to play with, but at least the local critters start getting active at dusk. The first thing we noticed as we pulled into the park is that there are beautiful yet perpetually moody storm couds that blanket the penninsula. Fortunately the dramatic clouds allowed for some breathtaking crepuscular rays.


We were eager to stretch our legs after being stuck inside the car for so long. (After the compact scenic beauty of New Zealand we are still trying to readjust our sense of scale; Australia is about the same size as the continental USA.) We started with the Lilly Pilly Gully Nature Walk, mostly because of our choices I thought it had the coolest name. The walk took us through some surprisingly diverse ecosystems, from heath scrub to paper bark eucalyptus and sheaoak forest, and even temperate rainforest within the gully. The skies were unstable and it poured rain on us but at least we were prepared with long underwear, boots, fleece jackets, rain jackets, gloves, and wolly hats. Honestly, who knew it would be so frigid down under? Certainly not what I was expecting.


We started on another hike through wombat territory, however despite signs of burrows, scat, and deep scratches in the hillside we didn't see any animals. It was getting dark so we got back in the the car and drove out to a grassy field often frequented by wombats, emus, and kangaroos. The light rain and dark clouds coaxed the animals out and we were delighted to find them grazing across the field. It was too dark to take photos so you'll just have to be content with a couple of the posted warning signs we encountered.


The next day we came back to the park and walked out to an area called Millers Landing. We found ourselves on a small, private beach at low tide, lined with mangroves and muddy flats. After a bit of exploration we came across fresh kangaroos tracks in the sand, but I was most impressed with the emu footprints in a muddy patch. The mud perfectly preserved the pebbly texture of its foot and a large claw at the end of each toe, like some kind of modern day dinosaur.


Later in the day we drove on to the Tidal River area and went on a hike to Squeaky Beach, so named for the white silica sand that squeaks when you walk across it. It was too wet from the constant rain to do much squeaking, but I brought back a sample in a film canister to share with my science-buff mom. The beach itself was dramatic with the storm frenzied waves and the black clouds. We watched as thin sheets of rain moved quickly across the surface of the sea, until suddenly the wind whipped up and it passed over our heads, then momentary sunshine as it continued on across the surrounding hillsides.


We were surprised to find the beach littered not with shells but with giant cuttlefish backbones. There were literally hundreds across the sand, most small, but some reaching from my elbow to fingertips. I would love to see the size of the actual cuttlefish that these come from.

Again we found no large marsupials while hiking but we did encounter numerous birds including galahs, magpies, the elusive (for us) black cockatoo, rainbow lorekeet, and flocks of noisy, cheeky crimson rosellas. These birds are like kea, the New Zealand parrot, in that they are very intelligent and have completely taken over the visitor center. We snapped this photo as he was inspecting out our car tires, probably looking for a tasty rubber snack.



The Prom was good to us and I wish that we could have gotten the chance to look around in better weather because we could easily spend a week backpacking into some of the more remote areas of the park. I suppose that will just have to wait for our next trip.