Lane's Ramblings

I left early Saturday morning and right away noticed that something wasn't right - umm, it was raining. I'm in Victoria and we're in the middle of the worst drought in recorded history and it's raining on the day that I decide to go camping? That's ok because it's early and the storm will blow over soon. But as I drove closer to the Prom the rain got worse, and worse, and worse. It got to the point that I couldn't see and I had the wipers going full tilt. Should I cancel? Should I go back? No. I'm going, I'm at least going to make it to the trailhead and decide from there. Then about 10kms from the gate it just stopped.

I pull up to the gate, tell the girl my plans because you need a permit to hike overnight - "Have you heard about the high wind advisory?" "Uhh, sure. What about the rain?" "Oh, we're going to have some showers. You need to check in with the office at Tidal River." And that's where I met the ranger from hell - it's not completely her fault, I'm sure she doesn't want to drag my dead body out of the woods but she just asked question after question and reminded me time and time again that there was going to be rain and wind and thunder and lightening. Yes yes yes, I'll be fine.

And I'm off, a quick 10 miles down to South Point. There wasn't too much to see on the way down because the track goes right through the forest and then there wasn't much to see once I got there because the storm was coming in. I had decided that I was going to camp at Little Waterloo Bay so I had some miles to do. Came back from South Point, headed towards the lighthouse but couldn't see a thing and that's when the rain started.



Wilson's Prom has very beautiful coastline and some nice mountains for their size. The views are amazing but today I had visibility of about 25 meters and at this point I was walking around with my tent's rain fly over my pack and myself. It was mile after mile, the bush grew thick, and the rain didn't stop. When I was fixed on just walking, 30 feet in front of me, a kangaroo jumped right across the track and scared the crap out of me. As I kept walking kangaroos would run around in the brush around me; sometimes i would see them and sometimes not. I felt like I was being hunted. And then I rounded a corner and had a kangaroo standing there looking right at me. He let me get closer but soon ran away.. or I guess I should say hopped away.



Then the thunder and lightening started. The hill that I was on became exposed and I had to dodge lightening bolts and cover my ears for thunder. I moved quickly and finally got back into the cover of the forest. The storm was huge and was quite impressive over the ocean. Then the trail dumped me out on the beach - "You've got to be kidding me" (that's not actually what I said but I'm trying to keep this clean) - now I had almost a kilometer of very exposed beach to cover before I could get back into the trees. The surf was huge, the rip looked like it would suck you in and spit you out somewhere around Antarctica before you could even think about sharks, and the lightening kept coming but I had no choice but to keep moving.



Finally I walked into camp and quickly set up my tent and got in. Everything was drenched and the rain started coming down stronger. I slept through the rain, thunder, lightening, and a river rushing under my tent. Later I found out that the Prom got 4 inches of rain that night.

I woke up to water everywhere but the rain had stopped. The plan was to take the quick track back to the carpark so that I could make it home for the St. Kilda music festival that night. I moved south from camp and immediately hit a tidal river that wasn't very difficult to cross the night before but now - it must be high tide - it was next to impossible. I kept looking for a safe area to cross but the water was at least waist deep and I had visions of myself being quickly swept out to sea. Normally it is possible to cross this river even at high tide but the storm was still offshore and preventing me from an easy walk home. I did some bushwhacking and headed into a swamp but that required a river crossing too. It wasn't as deep but the second step sunk my foot 4 inches into mud and now I was afraid that I would lose my shoe but I made it to the other side. But now I'm in the swamp and another river needs to be crossed and this one is deeper, faster, and probably has the same mud as the last. Now I'm stuck, I can't get to the trail, I can't cross the tidal river and I have two choices: wait for the tide to go down or take the long way through Refuge Cove and Sealer's Cove. I decided to go the long way but first that meant crossing the first river again and once I was across I took off north.

It wasn't long after that that I lost the track because it was so overgrown and I found myself bushwhacking through some very sharp bushes. But I found a stream and was able to painfully follow it to the track and then I just took off. Going up and down mountains, along the coast, and across beaches. I turned onto the last trail and hoofed it through the swamp, over flooded trail, and then a long climb up Mt. Oberon. Hours later I jumped into the carpark on top of Mt. Oberon and took the shuttle back to my car.

Overall the trip was a success. Despite the rain, the waterlogged clothes and gear, the unbelievable blisters that I got, and missing the festival; I was able to make my first hiking trip here in Australia, I was able to collect my thoughts and push out some of the craziness that's been driving me, well, crazy, and I met some cool people along the way. I will be doing this hike again but let's hope that next time it's a little drier.

Pictures with comments:

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