Date: 16-19/5/2025
Trip leader: Adam
Party: SUBW: Carlos, Theo, Terry (Wing Chun), Jeff; MUMC: Ella, Katie, Zafri, Sudarshan, Zeping
On the 17th March 2025, an email titled “Sydney Uni Bushwalkers Collab??” was sent to our rivals down south, Melbourne University Mountaineering Club (MUMC).
The back and forth that ensued manifested in an awesome 3 day walk through Wilsons Promontory down in Victoria that saw 5 from SUBW and 5 from MUMC head through “the prom” down to the southernmost point of mainland Australia.
We each made our own way to Melbourne, some (just Terry) opting to brave the 11 hr XPT and the rest of us flying down at our own times. My flight was already pretty late and graciously further delayed by runway congestion. Air traffic control must’ve heard it was a SUBW trip and tacked on the delay. It wasn’t until 1:15pm that I was in our hired Camry and ready to press onforth to Wilsons Prom. I reached Glen Iris to meet Terry, Theo and Carlos (Jeff had hitched a ride with MUMC) by 2:00pm, but due to a run-in with a Myki inspector they weren’t in the car until 2:30pm. With a > 3hr drive ahead of us, this now meant that we would not only be walking in dark but also starting our walk in the dark. Nothing we weren’t prepared for, but it still would’ve been nice to see the scenery we had come so far to see.
The walk to our first campsite was downhill and approximately 11.6km. About half of it was along fire trail too which meant we had pretty good pace. Somehow along this fire trail I ended up sharing some blood with the first (and only) leech of the trip. Under torch light, it took us 2hrs 10min to reach Little Waterloo Bay campground and our tents were (somewhat) up by 9:30pm.
We said our first hellos to MUMC and finished our setup. In between shooing away a possum that had clearly been fed by less responsible campers, we cooked our dinners and headed to bed.
The next morning began with a 6am wakeup to watch sunrise from the nearby beaches.
After our little sunrise expedition, we returned to camp and had breakfast with the MUMC troop. Someone from SUBW who will remain nameless (Theo) went back to sleep and ended up delaying our departure from Little Waterloo Bay. It wasn’t until 10:30 that we (Theo) was packed up and ready to go.
Day 2’s walk was just over 17km down to Roaring Meg campground. Our pace wasn’t amazing, taking us over 7hrs to complete the walk (granted this includes a 90min stop for lunch at the South East Point Lighthouse and the 993m elev gain). Actual moving time was 4hr 41min for a pace of 16:33/km. The walk was fantastic and the museum inside the lighthouse was well worth the prolonged stop.
We left the lighthouse just after 4:00pm and we were on our way to Roaring Meg.
For the second night in a row, we had reached camp in the dark. Not ideal but is it the worst thing in the world to be delayed because you were soaking up the views? Camp was up, dinners were cooked, and some headed to bed while others indulged in some South Australian Cabernet Sauvignon. This was an exclusive bagnum procured from Leongatha Beer Wine & Spirits (BWS) by myself on the condition that Theo would carry it in his pack. This prestigious bag from the Coonawarra region paired well with our dinners and feels like temps of 5 degrees. Notes of blackberry and plum. Aromas of reincarnating the beer officer as the wine officer.
We once again rose nice and early to head down to the very creatively named South Point, the southernmost point of mainland Australia. We were once again delayed by an anonymous individual (Theo) but ended up making it down for sunrise. It was only 3km from camp and we made pretty good pace.
We headed back to camp and began the walk back to the cars relatively early again that day. We had lunch as a group before MUMC, Jeff and Carlos split off at Telegraph Junction to complete the loop around Oberon Bay. Terry, myself and Theo walked back to the car to make sure Theo would make his flight that evening.
We made excellent pace, logging sub-10 min kilometres and made it back to the car with heaps of time to spare. After the 3hr 30min drive, we were back in the comfort of the Melbourne CBD. We said goodbye to Theo and Terry showered in my hotel room. We caught up with the rest of the SUBW troop once they were back at ~9:00pm for some Instagram famous souffle pancakes, went to bed, and all flew back to Sydney at different times on Monday.
Many thanks to all who came along and Ella from MUMC for organising her half of the group. Special thanks to Wilson Parking for slogging us with a $94 fee for < 24 hours of parking when it would’ve been $63 cheaper if we booked online. Lesson learned. :/
