Tidal river Rain!

Braving the weather and exploring Tidal River at Wilsons Promontory

“This is awesome” was the boys catch cry as we:

   Traveled up the ramp into the depths of the Spirit of Tasmania and saw trucks and motorbikes strapped, extra levels of cars winched up above us.

   Discovered our cabin was at the very bow of the ship. It had an extra deep shelf in front of the porthole, which accommodated all of us as we lied on pillows and watched Devonport disappear and we sailed towards Melbourne.

   Had a picnic on the deck of the ship in very warm sunshine and toasted the start of our holiday adventure.

Fortunately it was smooth sailing across to the big city and we and we disembarked at 0640 into the busy traffic.  We made our first stop for breakfast at Racer Café in St. Kilda, which is a café primarily for cyclists.  It had hooks on the outside where people could hang up the bicycles before eating a hearty breakfast. There were cyclists everywhere both inside and outside on the road negotiating the morning traffic on their way to work and school.

I will never quite cope with 5 lanes of traffic going in one direction but seeing as Jon was driving we survived!  Navigating the multiple lanes can be tricky though especially when “Karen” our Garmin GPS lady tells Jon to go one direction and I can see a much more camper trailer friendly version on my map. I may need to download a lovely Scottish gentleman’s accent for our Garmin – he may be easier to tolerate!

I think we had all pictured arriving at Tidal River, Wilsons Promontory, differently to the reality.  We had a brief period of fine weather when we could see how beautiful it was with granite outcrops and tannin stained water in the river and then the weather turned!

Our little camper is truly being tested.  The gusts of wind last night would have been at least 70 – 80 km. per hour and heavy rain lashed about us.  Jon got up about 1am and tied extra guy ropes from the camper to our car in the hope both vehicles wouldn’t be blown away. 

Last March Tidal River had a once in three hundred year flood and you can see the evidence of that all around us.  The riverbanks were severely eroded, roads washed out, walking tracks washed away, the riverbed scoured, landslides and bridges washed away.  Many walking trails and roads are still closed and repair work is ongoing.  Lets hope that the heavy rain we are experiencing at the moment and which is forecast for the next week does not cause a “2 in every three hundred year flood”!

So after a brief walk in the rain, being blasted by gusts of wind which blow off all your freckles, and exploring the river we are now back in our cosy camper doing homework, eating lunch, reading books, cooking snags, and about to watch a movie all curled up in the warmth of a doona. 

Jenn