Day 1
It was now a couple of months that I had been in Melbourne, and it looked like I was nearing a bit of an impasse with the consulates. It was the typical thing that a lot of government departments do, where they point the finger of responsibility at each other, passing the buck as not to get too involved. This is not new, and not only experienced here in Australia, I’m sure. But frustrating to say the least. Especially when it happens to you.
Looks like the Melbourne consulate wasn’t going to progress things further and wanted me gone. I was becoming too much of a hard case, and they were fobbing me off to he only other consulate in Australia, which happened to be in Sydney. As it was, to try expedite things and attack it from all angles, I got a copy of every paperwork I did for the Melbourne consultants, put it into a pack, and pre-posted it with the Sydney consulate. Now we keep waiting….
I felt my days in this region where numbered, and I may have to move my base to Sydney to continue the fight. As my days become numbered in Melbourne there was one place that everyone was telling me that I should tick off my bucket list – Wilson’s Promontory. This a place where it was visually told as magic, by my friend the photographer. After much prodding and happy harassing him, I convinced him to come to a trip with me to visit this place.
Due to some unusually un-rainy weather I packed the bike and took off for down towards the Prom and southern Gippsland areas. I would meet my friend there as he had some things to attend to.
Friday I took my time fluffing about the southern coast, taking in every nook and cranny to see what was around. I then got to the point and took every coastal road possible to get to Yanakie. This showed me that there were some cliffs just like the smaller cousin of the Great Ocean Road. Harsh seas battering at the coast line have created an impressive coastline.
With strong winds coming from the sea, the vegetation growing on a lean on top of the cliff faces and the pasture lands adjacent, rather flat and unprotected. This much wind brought in many grey clouds almost threatening to rain.
I got to the Yanakie public hall and amenities and proceeded to wait for the riding partner to arrive. I spent the time looking at google maps to the places I wanted to go next and things I wanted to tick off my ever growing list. Wasn’t too long that I had to wait before I was now accompanied. We didn’t faff about too much since daylight was going to get tight to do all that we wanted to do. So we set off towards Wilson’s prom, pronto.
When we entered the park, it didn’t take long to start seeing smaller mountains and vistas, and hills and lookouts. The further south we rode the nicer it became.
I followed my friend until we parked at the bottom of Mt Obeon somewhere and secured the bikes. All I know is that I secured all the stuff on the bike, got my feather down jacket with me, and we started walking up the hill. In Queensland when you read bushwalking signs it generally tells you the total round trip distance. What I didn’t know with this one is that it seems in Vict, it only tells you one way distance. So I looked at the 3.5km on the sign and thought that wasn’t going to be bad at all in full moto gear and boots and we’d make it up top with plenty of time for photos and then back down to get on our bikes and get to accommodation before sun down…..
The views as we were climbing up were getting nicer and nicer. However what I didn’t know is that this info was so very wrong!! Walking for ages we realised that his was way longer then the 1.75km it should have been on the way up but in fact it was 3.5 just to get up to the top! At this rate we wouldn’t make it so we had to hold on to our pants and start power walking up the ever increasing steepness hill! I didn’t care how much my lungs were about to explode, this was a summit I wanted to make before the sun went down.
And we made it!
The moment I summited, will be etched in my mind for ever, as I forgot that my lungs were burning, and my heart was about to explode. That I was sweaty and cold at the same time, or that my feet hurt from the boots. This was one of those moments that it takes you in so much, that you just go quiet. I stopped chatting with my walking companion and just needed to sit down and stare at nature. Just simple – be.
After a while when the chill started getting to me I stirred and began chatting again. We took heaps of photos and then decided to take off downhill at a rather rapid pace. We had a lot of ground to cover to get back to the bikes, and then ride away to our accommodation.
The walk down was much easier and better than the walk back up, but there was a certain amount of urgency that we didn’t dwell too much on the sights down.
As it was it was quite dark by the time we got back to the bikes. I was just happy that they were there and nothing had been taken from them while we were up. I layered on with as much stuff as I could and still doing the jacket zip up and we were off on our way. I put on the GPS directions into my phone and simply followed the line. It took us a good 45 minutes riding to get there, in many back mountainous roads. Quite the nervous ride at 100kms/hr at night, with a pretty shitty bike light and sooooo much wildlife on the roads! But we made it, cold, and hungry, but so glad that the Airbnb family we were staying with had left overs and were nice enough to invite us to have that as well as a very welcome hot cup of chocolate!
Can’t wait for what tomorrow brings and what I’ve seen of this place just blew me away!
Touring Valvoline 