We had called ahead to the Shallow Inlet Campground which is located on the coastal reserve. They had allocated a couple of sites to us with one being a fairly large site near the entry to the park. This is a beautiful bush camping area but the site access roads are quite tight with a lot of overhanging limbs. There is a dump point, drinking water taps, and several drop toilets. The drop toilets are the cleanest and best smelling ones we have experienced to date in our travels. 4 Stars and credit to the Ranger/Caretaker Noel who keeps everything spotless. The sites cost $15/day which is very economical compared to the local caravan parks and camping at Wilson Promontory itself($70/day). Once we got setup we enjoyed a nice long walk down the beach. Lots of birdlife and as the name implies the water is shallow.
Wednesday morning we all loaded into the Jeep and headed out to Wilson's Promontory. We headed straight to the Telegraph Saddle parking lot. From here we did the 7Km return walk to the summit of Mount Oberon. Was a fairly steep climb but with a good gravel path for most of the journey. The last bit involved stone steps and some railing. Luckily the temperature was still cool and much of the path was shaded. That being said I had still worked up a good sweat by the time we made the summit. Rans couldn't make it all the way to the top as he got a spell of Vertigo when we got to the stone step/railing section. The remaining 3 of us enjoyed a wonderful view of Tidal River area with some sunshine although it was still windy & cold.
We retraced our steps picking up Rans on the way down. We made it down safely although I almost stepped on a small Tiger snake. Got a picture and gave it a bit of room. Also came across a dark wallaby.
Once back at the car we returned to Tidal River where we enjoyed our picnic lunch. This is the main centre/campground in the park. We took a quick tour around the camping ground which didn't look that good for the price they charge. We walked down onto Norman Beach which was beautiful. Such lovely clear water with multiple shades of blue. Also got a good view of Mount Oberon which we had climbed earlier.
Next stop was Squeaky Beach which was also lovely. We did a short walk through the trees to get to the beach before trekking further down the sand. Some wonderful rock formations near the end of the beach which reminded us a bit of Elephant Rocks near Denmark, Western Australia. The only downside to the beaches was the proliferation of March flies. There was large numbers of them and they were very aggressive.
Our last stop was at Picnic Bay where we did a walk to a lookout overlooking Picnic Beach and Whisky Bay. A bit of work with a sand walkway and several steps but well worth the effort. This would be one of the nicest beaches we have seen in our travels. Comparable to the many beautiful beaches we saw in West Australia. The water was so clear with several shades of blue. Wonderful!
We had an uneventful trip back to the caravan park where we enjoyed a BBQ dinner. It was a fairly early night as we were fairly worn out from our day. I think we did some 14Km of walks throughout the day with quite a bit of climbing involved. We all slept well!
Thursday we had a fairly relaxed morning before taking a drive into Foster. This was a lovely little town that was very neat and tidy. The locals were friendly and they had herb gardens growing in gardens along the main street that were free to pick. The girls did a bit of shopping before we headed back to the campground for lunch. After lunch Carol took Stephen and I back to Picnic Bay where we went for a swim/surf. A little bit rougher than the day before but still lovely and clear. Had a good 30 minutes fun in the surf before returning home. The sand trail returning to the carpark was good exercise as the sand was deep. Sandra had stayed back at the camp to get our baked dinner started. The baked dinner was a team effort and turned out great. Another great day and a very enjoyable stay at Wilson's Promontory. We will definitely try to return here and would highly recommend the campground we stayed at.
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