Part 1: For once, I’m glad I went to the Prom

In high school I always hated dances and the Prom. People would tell me to go, that I would regret it if I skipped the prom. Then I would get all spiffed out in some ridiculous dress and hairstyle and be stressed and nervous and go to some hotel conference room decorated with streamers to have a boring time that was at best a let down and at worst a total disaster, all set to a soundtrack of Garth Brooks. I don’t think I have any high school readers, but if I’m wrong about that and you are a high school student, trust me, skip the stupid Prom. Unless, that is, you happen to be in Victoria at Wilson’s Prom.

The drive from Melbourne to Wilson’s Promontory is just a couple of hours and getting out of the city is fairly congested. It’s worth the traffic. The get away is a stark contrast to the city. The peninsula is beautiful wild national park with lake and ocean exposure. There are lots of Wallabies and Kangaroos and colorful Australian birds. There are supposed to be Koala there, but for now they proved elusive, not for want of my searching. (Koala freaks: stay tuned for Part 3). We stayed in a modern, hip cabin that was warm and bright and fully outfitted. There were huge screened windows that would allow you to basically open both ends off the cabin if it was warm. There were ceiling fans. There was a nice kitchen and hip little throw rugs. There were high ceilings and the top meter of all the walls were big windows, to there was lots of natural light. I started plotting how I could move in permanently. We hiked to Observatory Point from Telegraph Saddle, the highest point in the Prom. We could see the ocean on 2 sides. See it’s gorgeous there:




We also did a 20 K hike down to the beach. There were camp sites right down by the ocean, for those tough enough to pack in all their water and not need a shower. I saw at least 20 Crimson Rosella. It was tough to leave the prom.

After a fantastic day of hiking the drive to Mallacoota was 5 hours along the winding Pacific Highway in the dark and the rain. I did some screaming about the frequency of Roo carcass (they are a nuisance akin to deer on US highways) but we made it to Mallacoota. It’s a charming little town on the ocean with beautiful lakes and rivers in town. There were good café’s and bakeries. There were huge pelicans. They have these beautiful pink birds everywhere called Galahs. These are as common as pigeons.

Here is one of the thousand picturesque inlets in Mallacoota.

It was hard to leave but we had to hit the road. I needed to be in Sydney for camp by Saturday morning (see part 2). Another 4 hours or so up the Pacific Highway is Wollongong which reminded me a bit of St Louis. It is a Sydney Suburb that is trying hard but has more than it’s fair share of charmless retail. There were a lot of drunks staggering around downtown. Parts of it look like Atlantic City. When you come to Australia, go ahead and skip Wollongong. I also lost my Tennebaum-esque Adidas track suit top there when I left it in the hotel room and called later and the cleaning staff had never heard of it. Jerks. Now I guess it’s in heaven with the Triple 5 Soul Jacket I lost at Battle of the Beach in West Palm Beach in 2004 and the other Triple 5 Soul hoodie I lost in Copenhagen.

(Unrelated to my Tour, thanks to Tucker for passing on the Ultimate Ice-capades and to Paige for getting me hooked on this prison dance troop. She’s right, the best one is Thriller, but look around YouTube they’ve also danced to the Black Eyed Peas and something about a Jumbo Hotdog.)