We have now arrived in St Kilda after 2 lovely days at Wilsons Promontory National Park. We left Melbourne Thursday morning and drove to Wilsons Promontory - on arrival there was nobody there to pay so we got in for free. On the 27km drive through the park to Tidal River, Lisa saw the first kangaroo of the day - although it was road kill - and we arrived around 1pm in time for lunch. Having fought off some hungry birds (the red ones in our pictures), we set off on a 2 hour walk along Norman Bay Beach, around Mount Oberon to Little Oberon Bay and back. On the way we saw a wombat, a few birds of prey, 2 big dead fish and 3 dead seals! As late afternoon was approaching, we went to squeaky beach and made it to Picnic Bay in time for sunset. Here we saw our 2nd kangaroo of the day, although it boinged away as we drove into the car park!

We then drove to our YHA hostel in Foster and saw lots of wildlife on the way, including a wallaby, a wombat and lots of kangaroos. The hostel was scary but great! It was a small and cold hut/bungalow and we were the only people there. When we arrived it was pitch black and no-one was home (the light on the YHA sign wasn't on so we had driven past it). We pressed a number on the phone by the door and a man appeared from the side of the hostel who showed us inside. We were basically allowed to have whichever room we wanted so we chose the only one with a heater! We took the internet cable out of their password protected PC and put it into Lisas's laptop for free internet all night (genious)! We spent the evening on the internet and watching TV on our rocking chairs with blankets wrapped over us like old people! Anyway, it turned out not to be some scene out of a horror movie and we survived to face another day in the National Park.

We got up early and went on a walk through the Lilly Pilly Gully rainforest (90 mins), before venturing on a circular path past Pillar Point which overlooked Tidal River, Norman Bay and Squeaky Beach. Lisa loved this because of the boulders in the orange river and took 198 photos! It took ages! We saw 2 kangaroos fighting (again) but didn't quite get the camera out in time dammit. We then had lunch. This time Lisa sat in the car to escape the cold, the wind and the red birds, but I braved it out on the picnic table. The birds flew onto the car and followed me around, until eventually one flew at me and I ducked and managed to hit it away! We got stuck in traffic on the M1 on the way home and I took Lisa out for a steak dinner at an Italian restaurant. The sticky date pudding was great!

We got the train to St Kilda today and have walked around the shops and esplanade - it's quite cold and Lisa's legs are still aching from the 40-50km we have walked in the past week. We're staying here until Monday, then two more nights in Melbourne before flying to Tasmania on Wednesday. Good times!

Paul