Bottom revisits Oberon

We visited Wilson’s Promontory (Victoria, Australia) this Easter Sunday and did the obligatory trek to the summit of Mount Oberon.

The Prom had become tent city for the Easter holiday weekend, and access to the Mount Oberon car park, from which one begins the ascent, was closed. Visitors instead were bussed from the Tidal River tent city and back by a free half-hourly service.

Along the 3-odd kilometre hike, we admired the bush surrounds that were slowly regenerating after the conflagration of 2005, which had engulfed the southern half of the Prom. (Many will recall the ‘controlled fuel reduction burn’ last year that went horribly wrong.)

After about 40 minutes of slog, we achieved the summit and the breathtaking vistas thereupon. My only complaint was that the weather was a tad grey and hazy, but that really is small potatoes. The summit was quite busy with our fellow thrillseekers... including the person pictured below, who had donned the equine headpiece.

I didn’t get an opportunity to quiz the gentleman concerned regarding his exotic headgear. Afterwards, however, it occurred to me that Oberon was the king of the faeries in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Further, the plot involved an artisan called Bottom, whose head had been transformed into that of an ass by the mischievous Puck. Hmm, I thought, that must be the meaning of this strange demonstration...

So, full marks for literary allusion to the Bottom impersonator – whoever you are – who enlivened the Mount Oberon experience of some of us that Easter Sunday.

Click to enlarge.
NB: Bystander’s face pixellated to preserve privacy.