Wilsons Prom Trip

Well after a lot of looking forward to the walk to the Lighthouse happened!

This was a fun trip to plan. Uma and Ramesh where novices as far as walking with back packs is concerned. So we had to decided what to take. The list of things grew and shrunk based on weight. The advantage was we did not have to take any tents/stove or sleeping bags, as we had already requested for the doonas. So the food taken was
Aloo Parathas courtesy Ms U
தச்சி மம்மம் (have to keep the tamil brahman genes going)
Lots of dry fruits/nuts
Crackers and Cheese
Soups for Saturday lunch (dry mulgutwany, and some tomato etc)
Besibelah houli (rice/dry vegies/dhal) with a premixed masala in another bottle
Vermicille பாயசம் (the MTR quick mix variety)
Milk Powder
Coffee/Tea etc
And the most important 4 bottles of Wine
about 7 Lt's water for each day when starting out

With the clothes and what not, the bags weighed in at 14 Kg /12Kg / 12 Kg/ and 7 Kg

All the workouts and core training paid off. The new backpacks were a great fit , and Mr R was not too badly off with his borrowed bag. The start was a very early morning drive through Melbourne suburbs (a 5:30 Am start) to reach tidal River by 9. Finally started walking by about 9:45



Ms U who kept threatening that she was not sure if she could do this... took off in a furious pace. We had covered 5 kms in one hour, That with all the wight I have just described... This was our first stop for the well deserved drinks/scroggin break For the novice Boardwalker's, Scroggin is a mix of dry fruits, chocolate, nuts etc, that gives you instant sugar/energy and has no calories when you are walking :-)
The walk was sensational as the weather was perfect (about 10 C or so, with some breeze) and the scenery great. Reached our lunch spot Roaring Meg by about 12:45 Here had the peanut butter sandwiches and the crackers and cheese. ofcourse the scroggin was a ever present goody you had to have. Also Ms U had brought in some 'மொரு' buttermilk for those of you who do not understand, and this was really welcome!

As you can see we were all really happy and in great spirits with the walking. The final 6Kms of the walk was the hardest (in that it had a lots of up and down stuff ) and took us almost 2 hours. The extreme bit at the very end was funny... in a way. The sign said .8Km to go then we hiot on thsi extermely steep concrete path. At the end , of what we thought is the end, (this one lasted about 0.2 Kms) we saw an even steeper concrete path!
It doesnt look much here, but this was a killer at the end of a 6 hour (18 Kms) walk, and the only thing that kept us going was the fact that we had hot showers awaiting us. It was a great feeling to be the first for that day to reach the lighthouse, and Scot our park ranger showed us the place. The cottages were sensational.
We were very soon settled in the sunroom (with great views) and the heating on! Saturady was supposed to be a day for some short walks. Managed half an hour in the morning as the weather went nasty on us! It was superb views here


These were the type of views we got from the cottage as well. On saturday we realised that we had bought all the soups etc but forgot to pack bread. So had to raid the surplus food cuboard for some rice. This meant we had a lovely meal of ரசம் (முலகதன்னி சூப்) and rice with the dry beans/peas போரியல். Rest of saturday was spent just chatting/eating/playing cards and generally relaxing. Our falt mates had been there before and were cooking things that made our mouths water! They had even carried eggs, and made fresh pancakes for brekky (while we were having cereal with milk mad eout of milk powder) They had brought along a perculator (the type which you put on stove top) and enough coffee to feed an army. Our puppy dog expressions bought us some lovely expresso coffe, which was great! They even baked some fresh bread for lunch.

Now we know what to pack next time around! Sunday was walk back (weather was very condusive and cleared up again) along the coast with constant views of the light house. This time the first 10 Kms were hard and then it was anothe 12 kms of steady walking... Atleast the packs had each reduced by 2 Kgs or so.




The thing is while you eat all the food, you still have to carry out the rubbish. The only access to the Lighthouse is by walking or the choppers that deliver stuff once in three months! Even the gas bottles (used for heating and such) are brought in by shoppers. Guess next time I will contemplate transferring the wine into plastic bottles that weigh less. The final stretch was a bit of a drag as it was on the same path as before. WE did it and were in the car driving by 3:30 pm and in Melbourne by 6 Pm. Great trip and am looing forward to doing it again!

Why I love this place

I first came to Australia, rather Melbourne in March of 1987. since then we have lived and travelled extensively. I am a Nomad as the blog suggests, but yet when someone asks me where is home I say Melbourne. Often get asked "why". Guess here is an example of why.

This city has somehow managed to become a big city with a fair few small town characteristics. This Sundays incident is another example of the same.

The two of us, as is usual for the crazy nomads, went for our long run on Sunday morning. This meant running hard for an hour and a half or two. After the run, feeling very good about it, and in the smug knowledge that we still had two days of weekend ahead of us (it was a long weekend here) got home and after getting lunch ready, decided to have a nice soak to soothe the aching muscles. However, at the end of this had a minor slip in the bathtub, leading to a 2 cms long gash on the scalp on the left forehead, just at the start of the hairline.

Mr Nomad, checked that I was not concussed (by ensuring I knew what day it was etc) and then cut the hair out a bit to see how bad the damage was. I played it down and after cleaning it put on some savlon. However, when the blood kept seeping after an hour, and since it was very minute, refused to go to the 24 hour clinic and wait. As a compromise, hubby decided that we should walk into the chemist and ask their opinion. Did exactly this at the Epworth hospitals chemist which is about 3 mins walk. Here the pharmacist cleaned the wound with some disinfectant solution, and said, '... I think this is a bit deep and may need sutures' Initially she had said she would put on steri strips (a bandage type sutures) So she just gave me a swab, and said why don't you walk across to the hospital emergency. Now of course Mr Nomad would not agree to what I say, and we did exactly waht the pharmcist suggested. Before going, did ask the lady what we owed her (she had spent about 5 mins of her time and a vial of antiseptic some swabs etc...) her answer came pat, don't bother, its only about a dollar or so! I thought that's a pleasant surprise, Glad the materialistic world has not got caught up with Melbourne.

Then we walked to the emergency department, thinking hope there is not much of a wait. Epworth is a private hospital, which means that usually there is a charge of $200 for emergency. May be that had something to do with it, as there was no wait. The nurse asked me to come straight in. She had a look at the wound and said she can get the doctor to suture it up, or apply 'glue' This apparently is a new fang treatment, where they apply a polymer glue, when a cut is not too deep and long, but deep enough to need some assistance. I said, you tell me, so she said she would put the glue, and went away. In a couple of minutes she came back, and broke this tiny vial and applied it, and held the two side of the wound together for about 30 secs. The whole treatment took less than 2 mins.

Then came the pleasant surprise, she says, I cant charge you $200 for a couple of drops of glue, so just go, and don't worry about it. Just keep it dry for a couple of days, and the thing falls off in abut a week's time with normal washing.

It is good to see practical human values in action, rather than following process or being materialistic inst it. So now you can see why I love Melbourne, and though I like the whole wide world and will continue to travel and experience, will keep coming back here.

Good on you Melbourne/Mebournians, please don't ever change.