The luxury of a real bed
Trip Start
Nov 01, 2006
1
53
118
Trip End
Aug 29, 2007
Central Tilba,
Australia
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
(Just an aside on the trams: when I was here last it was no bother to buy a ten journey ticket and then validate it only when you saw the inspectors get on, and basically never pay for the thing (not that I ever did this, of course). Now however it's all changed. In my brief time here, we've seen inspectors multiple times, including plainclothes ones! And they move in packs so that if your mate gets nabbed, they'll also nab you as you stealthily try and validate your ticket... )
We spent four days hiking and camping in the beautiful Wilson's Promontory National Park, which is the southernmost tip of Australia. There'd been a big bush fire there a couple of years ago, and so lots of the vegetation consisted of lush green undergrowth with scorched black branches reaching to the sky all about the place. Quite eerie. Luckily it was a bit cloudy and overcast for the start so we didn't have too many problems with the heat. Camped at some beautiful beaches on the east coast of the Prom after visiting the lighthouse, and the weather brightened up just in time. The waters were beautifully clean and warm, just great.
After a hot shower at the Tidal River campsite, we headed for 90 Mile Beach. The Aussie one is actually ninety miles long, unlike the one on the north island in New Zealand which is but a mere 90 kilometres long - not even worth a look really (we thought). Between the tiny villages of Seaspray and Golden Bay, a stretch of about 25km, there were 25 separate campsites, each nestled behind the sand dunes from the beach. Just pick one for yourself. We chose number eleven, and it was ours alone for two days. We rarely saw anyone "invade" our stretch of beach either. Fantastic. Beautiful weather too, with bright moonlit nights for strolling on the beach... magical.
Next stop was the south-eastern tip of Australia called Mallacoota, where we stayed in a very nice campsite overlooking the lake there. This village was so relaxed it was horizontal, with a row of oldies fishing on the pier in companionable silence when we arrived, and the only sounds being water, wildlife, and very slowly driven vehicles. A beautiful place with some very friendly locals in the pub who insisted on telling us all the best spots in the areas to go and see. Repeatedly. I think they'd been there a while...
So after all of this camping we are knackered! Surprisingly, we are both getting a bit sick of it to tell the truth. Secretly I think that it was Scott and Rachel's wonderfully comfortable futon and fan in Melbourne that did it but the tent no longer cuts it. So we drove into a lovely quaint little tourist village called Central Tilba yesterday and decided to splash out a huuuge $105 on the beautiful Two Story B&B in the village. The house used to be the old Post Office for the village and was full of old knick knacks and lace doilies and that kind of thing (otherwise known as "tat") but I'll let that pass: the bed was amazing! At least two feet above the ground, you didn't stick to it when you sweat, it had pillows and sheets and blankets, and you didn't have to zip yourself in or out of it. In other words, it wasn't a tent, and we loved it. Hmmm, I thought I was more outdoor man than that, but it seems not.
So today we've been taking it slowly as we've two days to get to Sydney which is about three hours drive away from here. We went to a great animal and bird park today and played with kangaroos and all the Aussie animals, even a baby wombat named Dave. Awwww. Now it's on to Kangaroo Valley and eventually to Sydney. Will be good to see the old place again...
