Wilson's Prom...in search of the Eckythump

Well we had to come here - Wilson's Promontory National Park. Stopped on the way in, for a cheesy pic next to the sign, then stopped a few more times before we got to the camp site - for emu, wallabies and bushfire damage. The park was hit quite badly, with more than 50% of the area affected. It was quite shocking, seeing large swathes of burnt bushland, but at the same time it was regenerating fast, and there were sparks of green everywhere you looked. Whilst the fires covered a large area, they were quite patchy, so much of the park looked undamaged.

It was a lovely place. Rugged and wild, with gorgeous beaches. We probably didn't see it at its best - the weather was a bit rugged and wild as well! We went for a walk to Squeaky Beach (so called because it squeaks, apparently - I think it has to be dry!). On the way back we spotted a wombat - he was so close that we could have poked him. I think if we had poked him, he probably wouldn't have cared much - he was totally absorbed in munching on a particularly juicy tuft of grass. After A LOT of close up wombat shots, we thought we should leave him to his dinner.

All of the animals in Wilson's Prom seemed to be very tame - there were loads of birds around the campsite (probably waiting for scraps - nothing doing from us!) - parrots, kookaburra, robins, lots of others, unidentified. We saw a couple of other wombats when we were there as well - equally as oblivious to onlookers. What we hadn't seen was an echidna. Until we saw a road sign telling us to watch out for these creatures, we had no idea that they existed. In their pictures they look like a little round ball of fluff with a long pointy snout. I mused that they might be a made up animal - just the sort of joke that might go down well with Aussies - but then we saw a photo of one in quite a straight visitors centre, so they must be real. Having 'ticked off' most of the other major Australian mammals already, the hunt is now on.

We're focusing our wildlife watching on the fluffier specimens. Happily, we haven't seen much in the way of invertebrates, or reptiles. I was a bit worried about camping here, but I soon tired of checking each step for snakes, and have even started putting my hand into darker corners of the campervan without thinking too hard about funnel web spiders waiting for me. I've been pleasantly surprised with the lack of cobwebs in the showers (puts the NZ East Coast to shame, I'm afraid), and apart from checking under all toilet seats with my foot before sitting down (a trick learned from Damo, I might add!), I think we're coping quite well. So far so good.