Among the huge amount of luggage we carry around with us are both the Rough Guide and Lonely Planet guides to Australia. Between them, they give us a pretty good idea about any location - if one is a bit weak on a particular place then the other usually covers the gap.

Neither book, however, makes enough of a park in Victoria called Wilson's Promontory. It's about a three-hour drive east of Melbourne and forms the most southernmost part of mainland Australia. Long ago, it was connected to Tasmania by a land bridge in much the same way that Britain was once linked to mainland Europe.

We hadn't particularly planned to visit 'the Prom', as Victorians call it, but decided once we were en route from Melbourne that it might be worth a look. That said, we nearly changed our minds once again as we came near because of deeply threatening dark clouds which seemed to be fixed over the area. Given that the only camp site there doesn't boast much in the way of facilities, we thought it would be prudent to stay somewhere else for the night and visit the park the next day.

We therefore fetched up at a camp site in nearby Toora and for the ridiculously low price of $22, enjoyed the heated indoor swimming pool and Jacuzzi. Needless to say, Katy was in her element! Overall, the site was one of the best value we have come across in Australia with a perfectly good kitchen and TV/games room.

We were extremely glad that we hadn't stayed at the Prom when the rain absolutely bucketed down for about four hours. As well as the whirlpool etc, we sheltered inside and watched television, patting ourselves on the back for not being stuck inside our tent.

Mind you, we were a little too quick with our self congratulations. The next morning we set off for the Prom and left our swimming costumes on the washing line. We didn't realise until the following evening, so now we need to go shopping before we can hit the beach!

It costs $10.50 to visit Wilson's Promontory for a day, though if you stay overnight that amount is deducted from your camping fees. Our schedule ruled that out, but we decided to make the most of the time we had given that Katy wasn't completely recovered from her throat infection.

After passing through the park entrance, we drove about 30km to the main tourist area, called Tidal River. There we visited the information centre and embarked on a series of short walks. These took us up, over and through some of the Prom's beautifully varied terrain. Much of it is hilly and wooded, falling to wide sandy crescents and blue ocean waves. One of the beaches was made up of sand that squeaked as we walked on it.

Unique in our experience, however, was a dark brown river - not muddy brown, but the shade of a cup of strong tea before you put the milk in it. We discovered that the water's unusual colour comes - quite aptly - from tannin in rotting vegetation which then leaches into the river. Looking at it, we could well understand why our mugs are gradually turning brown inside.

We left Wilson's Promontory after a few hours, but it is a place which would reward a much longer stay. Many Victorians reportedly book holidays there a year in advance and it was easy to understand why, especially as we barely scratched the surface. There were many areas of the park which we simply couldn't get to in the time. Perhaps on our next visit…

From there, we continued east and spent the night in Lakes Entrance. This is a spot where various rivers meet the sea, but the waters are penned in by spits of land, thus forming lagoons. It was a reasonably nice spot, but really of most appeal to those who like fishing.

For our last day in Victoria, we drove to a coastal town called Mallacoota. This had a good write-up in all the books and we had a nice walk around the edge of a lake - nice, that is, apart from Katy getting a huge bite on her left elbow from some unknown insect. On the plus side, we took some good photos of a lizard.

We were going to stay in Mallacoota overnight, but couldn't find a decent camp site with shelter from the strong wind. We therefore decided to bid farewell to Victoria and drive over the border into New South Wales - almost back to where we started in May.

Richard