Last weekend I was finally able to badger Luke into coming with me on an overnight hike as we both had a few week days free –  he from editing contracts, me from school as I have taken leave this year.

I have also recently bought a set of ultralight camping gear – a two man (barely!) tent, quilt, mat and cooking gear. I wanted to try it all out away from home. I did spend one night in the backyard, much to our dog’s confusion, and everything seemed to be in working order. Now it was time to take it out for real!

I had picked Sealers Cove at Wilsons Prom as it looked to be a doable 10km walk. I read the park notes and found a few other blog accounts of walk too. The pictures all looked very inviting.

We left Melbourne at 10am on Monday, stopping for an early lunch in Leongatha.

We reached the Prom in about three hours, listening to podcasts most of the way. We only saw one wombat on the side of the road as we drove in. Last time we saw dozens, but then it was early evening.

I hadn’t booked our campsite ahead of time as I’d phoned the day before and been assured there would be space. The website is a bit confusing, It seems to say there is camping for 12, but it means 12 campsites and the number of campers can be up to 60. We bought our permit to camp ($13.10 pp/pn) and then drove back to Telegraph Saddle, where the walk to Sealers Cove starts.

I had divided our things into two backpacks – the lighter but bulkier stuff went into my big travel pack and the water and food went into my day pack. I took the bigger pack and Luke carried the water to start with. We weren’t really sure what the water situation along the trail was going to be so we took about 7 litres to last us the 24 hours.

Although the car park was full, we had plenty of time on the trail by ourselves. The first 2km of the walk in on a fairly exposed and dry north facing path that has some ups and downs but nothing exhausting. I was very glad I’d brought a hat and sunscreen. Eventually trees start to cover the path and then after about 3km we reached Windy Saddle. This is the only point on the trail where any distances are marked by a sign.

After this point the landscape changes to a damp and shady south-facing path that winds down to the coast. There were still some up hill parts and lots of short flat sections. Nothing tortuous.

The walk through the forest was beautiful. Luke wasn’t so impressed, but then he’d started feeling a pain in his knee. We swapped bags and that sorted out some of our discomfort. For some reason, carrying a smaller, heavier bag suited me much better, and Luke liked the bigger bag that had better support.

The forest section made up about 5 or 6 km of the walk but after a while it felt more like 10 as there were lots of roots and rocks to negotiate. We also started to notice the huge March flies that circled us every time we stopped moving. We weren’t sure if they would bite us but they looked nasty and wouldn’t leave us alone. I’d brought my walking poles so we had one each to swish around our arms and legs while we took the occasional break.

Although there weren’t many places where the trees opened up, when they did it was beautiful. There was one stream, about half way, where we definitely could’ve filled up our water bottles, and another running pipe at the camp site too. All that weight we didn’t need to carry!

The last two or so km of the walk was boardwalk through Sealers Marsh/Swamp. Some of it is very wet but as it gets closer to the beach it become quite dry.

There are lots of interesting plants to see, particularly epiphytes. We also spotted a few little lizards sun baking on the boardwalk. I was surprised at how overgrown the boardwalk was considering the amount of traffic – dozens of people pass through here most days. At some points the boardwalk was almost invisible beneath ferns.

After the boardwalk the path immediately opens out to the beach.

And what a beach it is! Over a kilometre of golden sand in a perfect crescent. The signs at this point are a bit tricky to understand, but some people in the water pointed us to the campsite further down the beach. It’s not at all obvious from this point which way to go.

The sand was easy walking up to Sealers Creek. Although it was low tide the water was still calf-deep, so we took off our shoes then left them off as we walked up into the forest and to the camp.

The cool creek was a welcome treat for our slightly sore feet.

The campsite is up a small incline and each camping area is surrounded by ferns. It’s very cool and pleasant… apart from the enormous flies. We set up our tent then took a short walk along the beach, where we spotted a small group of black cockatoos with yellow under their tails. I couldn’t get a decent photo but they were quite magnificent. They were doing the same thing they do when they visit my backyard in Heathmont – shredding the seed pods and branch-tips of the tree they were sitting in.

The flies continued to annoy, so we made dinner (inadvertently burning pasta to the bottom of my new jetboil, sigh) then, as the sun was going down we lay in the tent and read an interactive, graphic novel-style Sherlock Holmes book that Luke had downloaded onto his phone.

Feeling tired, we tried to get to sleep early but neither of us slept very well. A lot of screeching birds during the night, plus my noisy mat, were not conducive to a great rest. I also had a series of strange and disturbing nightmares, which didn’t help.

In the morning we cleaned the jet boil as best we could then had porridge before packing up the tent and heading out at about 9. I think there were maybe 30 other people camped at Sealers Cove that night and we were the first ones to be up and out. With the weather predicted to the high 20s I wanted to get as far as possible before the day properly warmed up.

The information for the walk says that it takes 3 hours one way. We took 3.5 coming in and at least 5 on the way out. Partly due to carrying packs (lots of people walk in and back in one day), and partly because Luke had a sore knee. Also partly because the walk back is about 80% uphill, although few parts are very steep. There were also a few boggy sections that required careful navigation.

When we got back to the car we were both quite tired and dirty, but I felt proud that we’d walked the distance carrying our loads and the weight hadn’t felt too onerous. I think I could manage one night carrying all my own gear – although I might start with shorter distances, or give myself more time.

We made it back to Telegraph Saddle by 2, and were home before rush hour started in the city. Not bad going!

Highs: perfect weather, great views, estimating the food pretty accurately, spending time together off the couch!

Lows: Luke’s injury, the flies, discovering my legs were covered in red, itchy bites when I got home, bad sleep.

Next time: long sleeves and pants and a head net just in case. Eventually buy a proper hiking backpack. Bring less extra clothing.