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| 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
