Squeaky Beach

Wilson's Promontory is a beautiful spot. It's a granite peninsula south-east of Melbourne and is the southernmost point of the mainland. I would have liked to go and spend several days camping there, but at least I got to see a bit of it. A year ago part of the national park are was badly damaged when a controlled burn-off got out of control. As you'd expect, the damage is still visible.

After breakfast at Amaroo Park YHA on Tuesday morning, I was driven back to the mainland to meet the Bunyip Bushwalking Tour bus on its way out from Melbourne. There were only three others on the trip: Suki from Germany and John and Lynn from New Zealand. It's autumn here now and in another few weeks a lot of the tours will stop operating until the spring.

Sophie, our driver and guide, was a mine of information on plants, wildlife and habitats. She grew up on a farm in south-eastern Australia, but says she only became interested in nature and ecology when she went travelling abroad after university; up until then she was unfamiliar with the diversity of Australian wildlife. She came back from her travels with a new outlook and interests, and a determination to 'find out what's in my own backyard.' Since then she's been doing just that, joining naturalist clubs and leading tours.

We stopped for coffee at a place called Fish Creek (known locally as 'Fishy'), just before we reached Wilson's Prom. Fish Creek is known as the gateway to 'the Prom'. According to Sophie, the town got its present name after the creek flooded in 1951. A lot of the locals took refuge in the local pub. When the flood-waters subsided, they emerged from the pub (so the story goes) to find a giant mullet marooned on the roof. And there it remains, precariously balanced on one corner of the flat roof of the 1930s style building. 'And it still doesn't smell - yet,' said Sophie. Now I looked closely at this mullet - or as closely as I could from ground-level - and I couldn't work out if it was real. I took a photo anyway. As one of the tourist brochures says, it looks quite Daliesque.

The weather was pretty good on Tuesday, although we'd been warned that the Prom would be cold. Monday on Phillip Island was actually much colder. We started out by doing a 7 km trek up Mt Bishop through dense rainforest. We ate our packed lunch at the summit of the 'mountain', with a view across to Mt Oberon and the bay below. Sophie corrected herself every time she said 'mountain' and changed it to 'hill' instead, in deference to the New Zealanders.

Coming back down the Mt Bishop trail, we saw several parrots and crimson rosellas. I also saw my first Gang Gang cockatoo. These cockatoos have grey plumage, with a red comb and are very well-camouflaged in the eucalypt forests.

After Mt Bishop we drove to the car park near Squeaky Beach. There were a flock of crimson rosellas there, being fed grapes by a woman. Suki got out her camera and was immediately pounced on by the rosellas, who presumably thought she was getting out some food. They perched on her head and her arms - which she wasn't too happy about. Then they turned on the rest of us. Sophie took several photos of me ( with my camera) adorned with a crimson rosella on my head, looking a bit startled and not entirely comfortable. I also had one perched on my hand eating an apple core. Not bad for an ex-phobic eh!

Sophie gave us directions for the 3 km walk along Squeaky Beach and Tidal River, then left us to drive the bus along to the end-point of the walk, where she would meet us in a little over an hour. There are some great place names in Australia and 'Squeaky Beach' is one of them! In case you're wondering, the beach really does squeak underfoot - honestly! As we walked along, Suki and I would suddenly catch each others' eyes and burst out laughing, because it was such a ridiculous sound.

As we were leaving the Prom, Sophie suddenly spotted an echidna at the side of the road and stopped the van. It was the first one I'd seen alive. They are a bit like hedgehogs, only bigger, prettier and with longer noses. I've read that they are related to platypus, in that - like platypus - they are 'monotremes'. I think I'm right in saying that what distinguishes monotremes from mammals is that they lay eggs but then suckle their young.

I saw a couple more echidnas yesterday (Thursday) in the Healesville Sanctuary. There was a young one there that had arrived at the zoo's veterinary centre having been the victim of a road accident. It had bare patches on its head and back. As I watched, it tried to climb the sides of the plastic crate that it was temporarily housed in. All of a sudden it feel over backwards, exposing its soft, furry belly, with its little legs splayed out sideways and a very surprised look on its face. It scrabbled about for a few moments, twisting and turning this way and that, before successfully getting right way up again.