There are a few small towns along the coast. I stopped at Port Albert and noted how large the swells were and very choppy waters! Then moved to Port Welshpool. This has among the longest jetties in the southern hemisphere. It is over 900m long. The piles were driven in with a pile driver. It is wooden and built with a long arch as to allow trains to get all the way to the end. Though it never had a train line constructed on it.
A fire damaged a large portion of the jetty in 2010 before many fund raising efforts were made to get it to the restored state it is today.
The drive to Agnes Falls winds through dairy farms. With the rain the grass is all luscious and green and the dark skies made it very dramatic. Agnes Falls has a drop of 59m .
Driving down to Wilson Promontory (the Prom) I stopped by for a walk to Whisky Bay and the lookout. The views to the wild seas were great but coming on to the beach I got beaten and sandblasted so I got out quick!
I was excited that I’d get a non-rainy window to set up my tent !
I booked a powered site for 3 nights.
After setting up I went to go read up the info at the visitor’s centre. I was there for a little while and ending up running o the car because it had started raining. The wind picked up a lot and I moved the car to try and block the wind from the tent a bit. It seemed to come from all directions however!
As I sat in the car I thought to myself Ï don’t think this tent is going to make it through the night. I was recording how damaging the winds were when the whole tent lifted and got blown in to a nearby pole. I threw the phone down and ran after it in the driving rain and gale winds!
I dragged the tent back to the car and also caught the tarp which flew up. As i kept fighting the winds i unzipped the tent to get the mattress, sleeping back and pillow bags out. I’m very glad that I hadn’t made my bed or everything would be covered in mud and wet!!
The lady next to me had pity on me and got out of her caravan to help when I was about 70% done. I was laughing, she said she would have been crying if it was her!
All was thrown into the car, i locked it and ran to the visitors centre before they closed to see if any accommodation options were available.
I got a hikers hut (4 bunks) for 120 per night but shared camp amenities. At least there was a heather and kitchenette. So I spent the evening cleaning my tent and checking for damage.
It wasn’t bad actually. some of the poles had been bent but actually I could still pitch the tent.
The wind howled the whole night! As a matter of fact the highest gust was measured here at 154km/h and steady winds of over 100km/h were measured during today!!
