Clients Comments

(article from City Weekly Magazine with compliments of Ingrid Svendsen)

As the office's resident gym junkie and cycling enthusiast, the travel editor deemed me the only journalist fit enough to cope with a weekend of hiking along the hamstring snapping trails of Wilsons Promontory.

Forturnately, the editor - whose idea of 'exercise', consists of lots of deep elbow bends performed daily at various bars around town - didn't read the fine print in the invitation. If she han noticed the bits about luxury accommodation, gourmet meals, massages, open fires and spas, she may not have been as quick to delegate.

Hiking Plus is a new eco-tourism. company established to cater for folks like my editor, as well as those who actually enjoy the great outdoors. It offers weekend and longer packages that combine the Wilsons Prom wilderness with Daylesford-style pampering.

The company owns a guesthouse about 30 minutes drive from the Prom. It's here that the gourmet dining, massaging and lolling in the spa happens. The outdoors component varies between day walks or overnight hikes, either camping or staying at the famous Wilson's Prom lighthouse. Best of all, someone else carries all of the supplies.

Our weekend consisted of fairly easy day walks, a sort of Wilsons Prom's greatest hits.

Saturday's expedition was to Sealers Cove, on the east side of the Prom. The 10-kilometre track meanders through mountain forests and ferny gullies, ending in a boardwalk through the lowlands along the route of an old logging tramway.

At the end of the line is the lush emerald beauty of Sealers Cove, where the sand is pearly and the water comes in more shades of blue than there are names for even in a paint manufacturer's catalogue.

Satisfaction goes no way to describing the feeling of sitting on a remote beach, tucking into a delicious picnic lunch under brilliant sunshine, while watching other hikers staggering beneath heavy packs.

On Sunday we ventured into the Prom's less well-traipsed north-west coast, taking in majestic forests, wild flower-strewn heath lands and improbably sculptural coastal rock formations.

At the end of it all, aches and pains were absent. There was just a pleasantly heavy feeling in our legs that served as a reminder of a very satisfying weekend.

Ingrid Svendsen of city Weekly Magazine enjoyed her escape courtesy of Hiking Plus.

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"A blissful four days down at Wilson's Prom.  Lots of hiking, way too much gorgeous food and beautiful things to view and brilliant company." 

Angela Rice Aug 01.

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"Dear Mary and Robert, Big thank you for your effort in making our long-weekend most enjoyable, relaxing and inspiring (e.g. 20 km walk).  Promise we will do it again and encourage others to do the same, best wishes,

Rosemarie, Reg, Nev, Linda and the rest of the clan".

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"What an amazing time away! Fantastic walk, accommodation and scenery". 

Roslyn Anderson Feb 02