09.01.2013
Day 3 began with a 100km journey to the Platypus Reserve in Bombala, NSW. Up there with Kangaroo's, Wallabies and Koalas (which there will be lots more of in future posts on the blog), the Platypus was one of the quintessential Ozzy animals we really wanted to see. The Platypus is a fascinating and very strange creature with many unique features (It is an egg-laying, venomous, duck-billed, beaver-tailed, otter-footed mammal) and which can be found only in Australia. Unfortunately for us, they are only active early in the morning and late at night, and bad timing on our behalf meant we arrived slap bang in the middle of the day. Despite there being no platypus-sighting for these two disappointed tourists, we did enjoy a nice lunch in quiet & beautiful surrounds, under the sun.
On an unsuccessful hunt for Platypus' in the Platypus Reserve
After lunch, we continued the drive with 106km left to go until we reached Orbost, where we presumed we would be spending our third night. It was another testing day for Priscilla - our camper - with lots of steep ascents & descents through the rolling landscape, and she received her first injury when we drove past a giant speeding lorry (truck, in Oz speak), which flung loose gravel from the road at the van causing a number of cracks in the windscreen. We would later learn this was $285 of damage, through no fault of our own! Despite the speeding lorry, it was a lovely drive through the mammoth 284,659 acres(or 1,152 km²) of the South East Forest National Park. We took advantage to enjoy the views of the surrounding tree-ladened mountains, standing next to a shallow stream at the bottom of a valley. During this part of the journey, we also crossed the border into Victoria for the first time, our third state of the road trip so far.
We spent all of 5 minutes in Orbost before swiftly deciding (with not a lot going on there) to move on & not spend the night as planned. Instead, we drove another 207km to the next planned destination. This meant we had travelled over 400km in just one day, and the camper was as tired as us by the time we arrived. Whilst we hadn't enjoyed the first destination Victoria had to offer, we instantly fell in love with the second. Paradise Beach is one of Victoria's many free camp sites, and has only the very basic facility of a toilet. No power, no shower and only limited space, but there were plenty of other campers when we arrived. And all of this is more than made up for by being right next to a hell of a beautiful beach and the sound of the waves of the Southern Ocean crashing into the shore. We had finally made it to the ocean after 3 days on the road and what an amazing site it was. On the southern coast, you can look out at the big blue expanse in front of you knowing that only the island of Tasmania lays between you and Antarctica. We made sure we were on the beach to watch the sun set slowly behind the rugged cliffs behind the beach.
More about Paradise Beach in the next post, and a trip to Phillip Island to see the penguins!
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