Will you go to the Prom with me?

The road trip begins! First stop, the supermarket to pick up food... Ok, next stop Wilson’s Prom! We were initially planning on spending two nights at this national park on the Southern tip of Victoria, but we ended up extending our stay an extra night as it was so nice! We arrived in the afternoon and found a nice site a short walk from the beach and it was our first attempt at tent set up... In a case of doing the thing you sort of know you shouldn’t do we’d bought a blow up tent, which would have been fine, except that we’d bought a 12V car pump instead of a proper hand pump. This pump did not have the juice required to pump up the supporting struts, not even close. After a few failed attempts (no panicking or tears spilled of course, ahem ahem) I attempted to ask some of our neighbours for pumps alas, no one else had been foolish enough to rely on anything as fickle as air power! So at half 5 with nowhere to sleep we headed to the site shop which closed at 6... I have never been so happy to see a pump in my life! Once we had the correct tool we were set up with lunch (yes, I am aware of the time) in less than three quarters of an hour!

- Nailed it! (don't do that, it's inflatable).

We had a nice walk along the beach and around Tidal River to decompress after what had been a rather stressful day, but we were so relieved that it had all worked out it was actually quite pleasant! Camping burritos (same as regular burritos, but outside) for dinner went smoothly and the camping side of the trip was great after our initial hiccup. Saying that, we were rudely disturbed at 1AM by a cheeky wombat who had decided to have a wee look through our bin! Fortunately Sophie was on hand to elbow me in the ribs and let me deal with it!

- Camping burritos (note the lack of walls).

The next day after booking our extra night we went for a four and a half hour hike. We summited Mt Bishop (three hundred and something metres, so hardcore) and hit several other viewpoints. On our final day which was a lot sunnier we decided to hit Norman beach which was good fun and the water was warm enough that you didn’t need a wet suit at all, a bit different from home!

- Summit of Mount Bishop.

- View of Norman beach from Rangers memorial. 

- Pillar point. 

Overall Wilson’s Prom was a great spot to get a feel for camping and the fact that it has been booked out (484 sites) every weekend since November gives you an idea of how much Australian’s love getting outdoors. Interestingly most sites seem to have a large majority of sites unpowered, which is quite different to being in the caravan at home, but it suits us, it just means less phone/iPad time to save battery!

Nature Watch

We saw three Wombats on our first night and then had our tent raided by another... We also saw a baby kangaroo (or was it a wallaby!?) on our hike... Nature Watch!

- Suspect number one. 

- Baby kangaroo/wallaby.