Wilsons Promontory National Park is one of Victoria’s most popular parks, and arguably also one of the most beautiful national parks in Australia. It offers many great walks for all different fitness levels, as well as stunning vistas of pink granite boulder mountains, turquoise water and squeaky-white sand.
That is why we chose Wilsons Prom for our first-in-Australia overnight hike.
The whole idea was to check are we able to walk with food, water, tent and all other hiking things for 2-3 nights. If someone says ‘hey, guys, what are you talking about, it is easy!’, I’d like to remind him that we have a 9y.o. son who physically cannot carry 15+ kg backpack, but needs water and food as an adult (I am not saying that he need clothes, a sleeping bag and some other stuff as well). This basically meant that we, as parents, had to carry some of his belongings, as well as ours.
Again, this overnight hike was more a training hike rather that a real one. We successfully walked it from the Tidal River campsite to the Oberon Bay, returning next day back to the base camp via Telegraph Track.
Here is a map of how we walked:
If I do this walk again, I’d rather walk it clockwise, from Telegraph Saddle to Oberon Bay via Telegraph Track, returning to the Tidal River on the next day. In this case it is much easier as you’ll walk downhill most of your way.
Anyway, what's done is done.
We started our trip from Melbourne to Wilsons Prom on Saturday morning. After we arrived at Tidal River, we got an overnight parking sticker for the car, parked it on a special car-park and headed Oberon Bay.
Wilsons Prom’s landscapes are gorgeous, made up of tidal mudflats, mountains, hidden sandy beaches and woodlands.
Stunning coastline lines the entire peninsula: coastal cliffs, sand dunes and wetlands. Have a look at Little Oberon Bay beach:
After this point look out for a yellow marker, as it marks further path to the Oberon Bay.
The peninsula itself provides habitat to many plant and animals species. Marsupials, of course, are found everywhere; there are wombats, wallabies, koalas, kangaroos and potoroos. Birdlife includes emus, rosellas, seagulls and ducks. As for us, we met this lovely skunk:
Further the path, we had to cross this small creek.
If you’d like to stay at Oberon Bay camp site, it is very important to book your stay via Parks Victoria website before you go for a hike. The camp site isn’t anything special - sandy soil, but sheltered and not in need of a fancy pitch. There was water at Oberon when we went there last - the Parks Victoria website told us there wasn't. Anyway, we had plenty of water with us, so we used ours.
The real gem was Oberon bay itself. We enjoyed the sunset and twilight walk.
Next morning it was quite windy and cool. The walk from the campsite to Telegraph Track Junction was quite easy, but sandy.
From the Junction the road becomes a real road - unsealed and wide.
I was busy shooting wildflowers on my way:
Last part of the path - to climb to the Telegraph Saddle Carpark:
From the Telegraph Saddle Carpark we hopped on a free shuttle bus to Tidal River campsite. An ice-cream for a young master and coffee for us from Tidal River campsite shop was a real delight. 3 hours more and we safely got back home.
To sum up. The walk itself is easy and can be done in one day. If you’d like to follow our steps, start from Telegraph Saddle carpark, walking it clock-wise. In fact it is a walk #30. Telegraph Saddle to Tidal River, via Oberon Bay (16.9 km, 5.5 hours. Easy / Moderate) from attached file:
As the map in the pdf is not an ideal, I'd like to attach another one that might be more informative:
As for us, we are keen to walk a whole course from Tidal River to Sealers Cove, Waterloo Bay, Lighthouse, Roaring Meg and back.
Looking forward for good weather and long holidays :)
