Wilson's Prom Lighthouse Trek

The last weekend in May was the end of Ed and Myra's visit to Australia and the start of Carmen and Heidi's - so to commemorate the occasion we decided to get out of Melbourne and head for Wilson's Promontory, a nearby national park and host to some amazing bushwalking. We had been there before and scoped out the options, the key find being the Wilson's Prom Lighthouse where bunks and cooking facilities were provided so you didn't have to haul as much gear with you down the trail. We thought it was a perfect option and booked in for an overnight stay. We packed Heidi and Carmen into the car soon after they touched down in Melbourne and met Ed and Myra down at the park after they had toured country Victoria and New South Wales for a week. Everyone was fairly tired, but knew that a good nights sleep would help with the next days walk so it was off to bed.

Saturday morning brought some scattered clouds but no rain (luckily) and before long we were dividing up food, water and backpacks and hitting the trail. Wilson's Prom was hit with fires this past summer and walking down the trail there was not only a lot of blackened trees, but many with new growth and sprouts as the autumn has provided rejuvinating rain to the area. The traditional owners of the area have used fire for many thousands of years to manage the forest and grasslands, so the burn last summer was nothing that the area hadn't seen before. Many plants actually looked more green and vibrant as the fire provided lots of nutrients back into the earth and cleared away some of the competing plant species. We followed the old telegraph track most of the way to the lighthouse, with a stop near the 'Roaring Meg' stream for lunch among the gum trees. After lunch the group split as Ed and Myra chose to continue straight to the lighthouse while the rest of us couldn't pass up an opportunity to see the southern-most point of mainland Australia. At the time the additional 8k round-trip didn't seem too bad and the views were quite amazing; however, once we were back at Roaring Meg with another 7k to go until the lighthouse we weren't quite so sure. The final portion of the trail to the Lighthouse was amazing, coming from high on the mainland down a small jut of land near the water and then ascending up to the rocks around the lighthouse in a breathtakingly short amount of time. The end of the trail was all the more exciting in that we were racing the sunset and needed to get to the lighthouse before dark as we only had one headlamp between the four of us! Thankfully it didn't take long and we did beat the sunset (barely) and had quickly taken off boots and bags and huddled up by the fireplace to catch up with Ed and Myra and relax for the evening.

The following morning brought beautiful sunshine and blue skies for our walk back to the car. We had decided the night before that we were going to take an alternate route for the way back, mainly so that we could see some new sights and also as a way of avoiding some particularly challenging stretches of climbing that we'd enjoyed on the way in to the lighthouse. Ed and Myra set off to blaze the trail with the rest of us trailing behind to take pictures and finish last-minute packing. The return trip brought us through marvelous rainforest with many ferns and another older area of bushfire where the trees had mainly recovered. Our lunch stop was just off a gorgeous white sand beach before we turned inland to join with the telegraph line again.

For being just 3hrs away from Melbourne it was very peaceful and quiet - after leaving the lighthouse we didn't see anyone until we were back at the carpark 22 kilometers later! It was a very beautiful walk and it was fun to be able to spend such a large amount of quality time with family. There's nothing like walking 50 kilometers in two days to bring a family together. It was a great experience and we have plenty of pictures to prove it - folks wouldn't have been smiling as much if it wasn't a good time!