We were soon joined by some of the locals.
These Crimson Rosellas didn't seem to mind that we hadn't showered (or shaved) in more than a week! They ate out of our hands and one of the cheeky little fellas even came inside our caravan!
The weather was glorious and, being Victoria, we thought we'd better make the most of it. We headed out for a short walk across the Tidal River footbridge towards Norman Beach.
Tidal River
We chose the 4km walk to Pillar Point. This short walk resulted in blood and tears, but in this case not much sweat. The blood and tears were the result of running, pushing, shoving, tripping, stomping, teasing, sword fighting (with long sticks) and throwing of hand grenades (shorter sticks). I am happy to report neither Bruce nor I shed any blood or tears.
The views from Pillar Point, however, were most rewarding.
We spent quite some time enjoying the panorama from this outcrop of granite boulders which provided breathtaking views of Norman and Squeaky Beaches and the Prom's offshore islands. It is an unsecured cliff, however, and keeping Huey, Dewey and Louie away from the edge eventually proved too much for even the most fearless of parents.
The walk back home was of a calmer nature.
Jarrah was keen to do some shell collecting on the beach, so we left the others and headed on a detour to Squeaky Beach to do some foraging.
It wasn't a great shell beach, but we did find plenty of cool stuff - including crabs, snails and purple jellyfish. Oh, and the beach sand really did squeak! We've come across squeaky beach sand a few times in our travels, and according to Wiki, certain conditions have to come together to create singing sand:
- The sand grains have to be round and between 0.1 and 0.5 mm in diameter.
- The sand has to contain silica.
- The sand needs to be at a certain humidity.
Our short afternoon stroll had now stretched out to more than three hours so we decided to take the shortcut home.
Jarrah after our short scramble up the rockface.
Now ever since I can remember I have had a fascination for, and absolute love of wombats. So it wasn't by accident that we decided to camp in an area renowned for wombat sightings. We planned to take torches and head off for some wombat spotting after our BBQ dinner.
As it turns out, we didn't have to wait that long. While Bruce was taking care of dinner at the BBQ area with Jarrah and Fletch, Jack and I were back at the caravan. I was pegging up some towels when Jack gave a yell. We both watched a big fat wombat power walk right through the middle of our campsite. He actually brushed my leg as he went past!
Wombat Retreat
Of course I was enraptured! I grabbed the camera while Jack went to give the wombat alert to the rest of the family. We had a great laugh over dinner, not quite believing our luck that this little guy had strolled right up to us. Jack was the most excited, but I think that was because he got the prize (a big bowl of jelly) for being the first to spot a wombat!
The wombat spotting after dinner was great fun, and under the light of a beautiful full moon we came to realise just how many wombats live here. In total we spotted 14 wombats within a 200 metre radius of our caravan, along with four possums (one with a baby on its back). It was a real nature treat for all of us!
When we went to bed, we left a carrot out for the wombats. They are renowned for fossicking around the campsites for food in the dark of night and have even been known to get lids off eskies. Not long after we'd gone to bed, we heard one of them knock Jack's new bike over. Later Bruce got up to investigate what another one was doing thumping around under our caravan (another camper had discovered a wombat had eaten through their brake line and Bruce wasn't having any of that!) I think he might have just been eating my carrot!
So many wombats, so little time!
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