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Day 78 (Tuesday 2nd January 2007)
Had to be out of our parking space by 07:30. so it was up early once again. Before we left the hell hole that was Melbourne, Sarah was hoping to do the Ramsay Street tour, but when we phoned them, it was fully booked for the day.
Sorry Harold Bishop and co., believe us there were tears, but Marc picked Sarah up and headed for the 'Prom'.
Having spent a fortune on accommodation and a night in the car, he decided the best thing to do was to buy a cheap tent. We sat and waited for the shops to open at Springvale and picked up a 3-man dome for just $50. We also bought a new Lonely Planet guide as our one still hadn't arrived!
We also made stops in Dandenong for a new 12v converter for the car after our other one had stopped working and some other shopping centre to grab some gas cooking stoves and cooking utensils...proper happy campers now!!
We finally arrived at the national park around 15:00 and paid $42 for 2-nights camping at Tidal River. Nothing could be that straight forward however, and the idiots double booked our site. After all the rigmoral was over we ended up with a spot next to a load of youngsters. Despite the occasional blearing of UB40 from the car stereo (don't ask), they turned out to be good as gold.
With the instruction book in hand, we put the new tent up for the first time and even here in the windiest place on earth, believe it or not we managed quite well. Like a couple of pros we then cooked tea on our new stoves...yum chicken soup!
We went for a quick explorerative drive and to catch the sunset, only to miss the turning. We ended up right back at the park entrance (30-minutes drive) but did find our very first wombat sniffing around in the scrub. we abandoned the car and ran off towards it with the camera. We took some snaps and footage before he legged it...boy can a wombat run!
Better late than never we returned to the lookout spot to watch the sunset. Whilst frantically making our way there it appeared in vivid reds and oranges through the windscreens. When we finally got there the damn thing had changed to a dull off-beige!! We didn't care - we'd just seen a wobat!!
The park itself is absolutely stunning and probably on par with Kangaroo Island for wildlife and scenery. As we went to bed in our brand new homes, we could tell we were going to have a great time here!
PS Better late than never thanks Monty and glad you got your card Ellen...well of course you're special!!
Day 79 (Monday 3rd January 2007)
Well a mattress or some kind of spongey substitute went straight to the top of our shopping list, but with the one and only shop in the whole National Park closed until further notice, it would have to wait, along with our brekkie!
We found some crisps to munch and headed for the 'Lilly Pilly Gully Nature Walk', where we saw many parrots and another, striking tiger snake, basking along the track in the sunshine.
When we returned to camp the shop had re-opened, so we bought some lunch and those well-needed sleeping mats. We popped into the visitor centre and booked an overnight permit for a hike the next day and some advise on the best walks to do.
We were going to head for Mt Oberon but car park but it was full to the brim, so we checked out the beaches (Norman Bay, Squeaky Beach and Whisky Bay) instead...great tan lines! At squeaky Beach the sand there actually does squeak when you walk!
We had tea (yum chicken soup) and went wombat watching. we sat in the scrub as if we were on stake-out and at first we saw a few hares and roos before seven of the big fluffy marsupials emerged!! Wow...gotta' be lovin' the wombats!!
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