Ipapashiwe: 25.05.2017
At the end of our Australia trip, we had another absolute highlight with a visit to Wilson Promotory National Park, the southernmost point of the Australian mainland.
Depending on traffic, the park is about a 3-hour drive from Melbourne and in our opinion should definitely be visited. In addition to beautiful beaches, beautiful day and half-day hikes, as well as multi-day hikes, the park is especially known for its incomparable wildlife paradise. Where else can you see countless wombats, wallabies, kangaroos, and emus in their natural habitat with a 100% probability?!
We decided to spend a day in the park and wanted to do some shorter hikes in addition to visiting some small lookout points. In addition to the viewpoints along the road, we also enjoyed the view from Telegraph Saddle. From here, you could also hike up Mount Oberon for a great view, but we decided to skip that. Instead, we had a lunch break in the Picnic Area in Tidal River, which, as is usual in Australia, has many free barbecues. And behind a bush, we actually saw the first wombat of the day. The cute, nocturnal creature was asleep during the day, but that didn't make it any less impressive for us =D
Afterwards, we planned to do a 2-3 hour hike (Lilly Pilly Gully), but we ended up aborting it prematurely due to the quite boring route and simply turned around. Instead, we took the opportunity to visit Squeeky Beach, a beautiful white sandy beach that was so fine that it squeaked under our feet - hence the name ;-)
After that, we still had hope to see wild wombats, kangaroos, wallabies, and emus during the Prom Wildlife Walk. We arrived at the Wildlife Viewing Area, a large meadow right next to the road, at around 4:00 pm, as this is the best time for wildlife observation (just before dusk).
However, what we experienced during the Wildlife Walk and afterwards in the Wildlife Viewing Area surpassed everything we had seen before. In addition to countless kangaroos, emus, and wallabies, we especially saw numerous wombats, which moved around in complete peace and had no fear of humans. We even observed a mother with her young and had a photo session with a particularly cute specimen. :-)
This very photogenic wombat wasn't bothered by our presence at all and even enjoyed some gentle touches. We could hardly believe our luck and reluctantly left this special place after dark, heading towards our campsite. The campsite was located just outside the national park, as the accommodation within the park was ridiculously overpriced for basic facilities ;-)
Wilson Promotory National Park was truly something special to conclude our Australia tour.