But there was another reason for the early start, which only Marc knew. As we pulled up to the ferry port on Mornington Peninsular, Marc pointed out the Moonraker Dolphin Boat.
This turned out to be a big surprise for Evelyn as Marc had booked it as a ride as an early Christmas present - this was to swim with seals and hopefully dolphins. Although I am sure Marc thought the weather was going to be a bit better, we still had a great time.
On this boat they took us out in the bay and you we got to swim with seals. These creatures are so smelly - they eat, sleep and poop all in the same place - & thankfully with your snorkel mask on you can't smell them. We swam around them for a while and it was quite scary when the big ones jumped into the water with you. They were just as interested in us, and they came up really close and you could almost kiss them if you wanted...
After our chilling swim we headed off to a disused war barracks made of black rocks. This was home to a colony of very rare birds and some other kinds of seals. We then went in search of dolphins :D The boat we were on was in contact with all the other fishing boats in the bay and if dolphins were spotted we would head for them and if we were lucky enough we would be able to swim with them! We all kept an eager eye out to sea and tried to spot them for a good few hours, shivering in our wet suits as we were wet from the water and the chilling breeze didn't help ;( But unfortunately lady luck was not on our side today.
Once we warmed up, we headed up to the view point for some snaps of the bay, and carried on to the maze – there are two mazes in the area, but this one was closer and quicker to do. The maze itself was a bit disappointing and a bit easy (we didn’t get lost and found the centre without any major dramas), but there was also some gardens to wander around and they had some giant games to play – a mini maze in which you can only turn left, and another you had to jump between barrels and make your way to the centre but by only going from red to blue to yellow in that sequence only. You can tell that many an adult has been outsmarted by their kids and more embarrassingly their partner/spouse/friend/relative. Marc won quiet a few of these challenges ;)
View of Mornington Peninsula Bay
We then hit the road again, after being warmed up by the games and headed towards Wilson's Promontory which is a dedicated National Park. We decided we didn’t have enough time to enter the park for walking and sight seeing, so we stopped at a lovely area called Torra about 100km's down the road. This was a really nice stop, and as there was no rain today we opted for the tent again. In fact the sun started shining!!
View from camp - Wilsons Prom in distance
The park had some great facilities – indoor pool & jacuzzi, tv room, cheap pool, arcade games (Marc attempted the shoot-em-up but the gun didn’t aim properly ;) and it also had a good kitchen. There was a nice view point just above the camp site, so we took a walk up through the farmers fields, dodging the lama and the bull, and got a really good view of the ocean and the surrounding fields from up here.
We then headed down to the beach to sit in the bird hide and check out the wildlife. Needless to say we didn’t have the patience to sit and watch birds, so we went for a wander around and saw quite a bit of wildlife anyway.
This was a really nice, peaceful place, and could have also stayed here longer. It was becoming clear we could have done with an extra week to do this trip, and do it a bit more relaxed with a few more gaps between driving. We’re looking forward to Lakes Entrance and we’ve got the Chrissy tunes playing almost constantly in the car ;)
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