Entry 4 - Lakes Entrance Victoria, travelling south

Entry 4 – Lakes Entrance Victoria – Travelling south through the coastal regions – “19/3/18 – 3/4/18”

The skies turned grey whilst we were in the Lakes Entrance region. It rained on and off with the temperature dropping to below 20 C and with the wind chill effect helping it to feel a lot colder than the actual air temperature. We enjoyed driving around town viewing the lakes with its suburban look with plenty of boats, jetties, foreshore structures and housing with water views. Lakes Entrance was a busy place with plenty on offer to tempt you to spend money participating in various activities.

We walked the Entrance track along one of the sandy barriers separating the lakes from the sea. It was a return walk of about 5 kilometres through coastal bush. The trees were awash with birds flying about overhead, darting from tree to tree seeking out the sweet nectar from the tree canopy brimming with flowering wattle. The air was full of happy bird chatter. We sat resting up for the return hike watching out to sea where the lakes and ocean connect. Retracing our route, we spent time looking at the “Carpenter Cottages,” originally built in the late 18^th century to house the workers for the construction of the permanent entrance opening. On our return walk the bird life seemed some what quieter which we suspected was due to the birds initially being out enjoying the rain which was falling just prior to the commencement of our walk.

In the evening we had a meal in the Tavern whose carpark we were camped in. It was a Tuesday night and unbeknown to us there was a live band performing whom were most enjoyable. The meal was good too.

Lakes Entrance was another beautiful location. With dreary weather predicted for the rest of the week dampening any spirits to be out and about we decided to move on to return another day. Leaving Lakes Entrance, we propped at about the 10-kilometre mark to look around the historic Nyerimilang Homestead and grounds. We were under the impression the homestead was open for inspection Saturday and Wednesday. It was a Wednesday but unfortunately, we were not able to gain access due to no volunteers available on the day to provide this service. We did spend a couple of hours walking around the grounds viewing some of its attractions.

We viewed some of the old structures and thought Mary had found her dream home, from the outside at least. Unfortunately, the kitchen & loo were not quite up to her expectations.

Moving on we next propped at a free camp location at Fishers Camp Site. There was one other occupant at the campground who happened to be Colin & Robin whom we were camped alongside at Lake Brou for 5 nights and hadn’t seen one another for 11 days even though we were both travelling in the same direction during the same period. Naturally we had a wow of a time catching up. And we experienced another one of those special moments, coming across another unique Australian animal - an Echidna whilst exploring the camp ground.

Interesting nose end

Looks like ears

It was time to consider a location to stay with the approach of the very busy period of Easter, where we would be swamped with people wanting to experience our current ongoing lifestyle for themselves over the Easter work break period which also coincided with the commencement of school holidays. We had pencilled in a few possibilities for places we thought sounded nice and decided it was time to start inspecting our potential options. Our first choice was a stretch of National Park at Ninety Mile Beach with about 20 camping areas scattered over about a 20-kilometre section. We propped at the town of Sale where we filled the pantry and topped up our water tanks in preparation for an extended bush camp location. Ninety Mile Beach camping locations were predominately located at the base of a large vegetated sandhill separating the ocean from the land. Most of the camping areas were occupied with some appearing to be able to cater for around 20 individual sites. Few were suitable for our needs due to overhead tree canopies mixed with a soft sandy surface. Site 14 was empty, rather small and had some open overhead skies, ticking off many of those items on our wish list. It was tight getting in, but we did it and we would deal with getting out when that time came. We were hopeful the small site might help to minimise our exposure to the rat bag element one can get exposed to over the Easter period.

We loved the setting of our camp site with bush views all around. Unfortunately, the sand under foot was making our feet black from years of charcoal from camp fires and apparently black rock not far down. Colin & Robin were travelling with similar thoughts, camped not far away, also loved the location but hated the black feet. Colin had heard about another camp site about 30 kilometres further along with grass under foot. We all relocated, setting camp together at McGauran’s Beach enjoying the grass under foot but we were more exposed to nature with open terrain. Our second day at McGauran’s Beach the wind started blowing at gale force, damaging Colin & Robins awning. It blew for two days with nearby wind speeds recorded at 117 kmh. Our caravan regularly rocked due to the force of the wind.

The wind let up after 5 days in time for Easter. Wednesday, 2 days prior to Easter the camp ground started to get busy with people jostling for camping positions and the commencement of “people behaving badly!” With the wind finally letting up (late Wednesday) we were able to share a fire with Colin & Robin for the evening. We cooked a very delicious leg of lamb in the camp fire oven, providing enough tucker for 3 days.

It was a normal Easter Thursday with the campground becoming very busy with new arrivals failing to look ahead to see the campground was already looking congested, continuing through the camping area with most stopping unnecessarily close to us at the other end of the campground, realising there was no room for them and subsequently the many near misses of vehicles colliding with our caravan and tow tug when these people struggled to turn around. It would have been so less stressful for them (and us) if they had stopped in the big open parking area about 75 metres prior to our caravan and walked in for an assessment.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before our caravan was struck when a young girl riding an out of control mini motor bike, crashed into us with the bike coming to rest on the ground very close to our recently acquired tow tug. When mother eventually arrived with a beer clenched in her hand, she directed the injured girl (upper shirt sleeve soaked in blood and a leg with an area of skin missing) into the back seat of her car and drove off without a word spoken, still holding onto her beer.

Attending to injured bike rider prior to arrival of mother

Sadly, it has become a common sight to see rubbish scattered about free camping locations and this location was no different. A large dining table dumped near our camp site was put to good use, instigated by us as a focal point inviting the neighbours to happy hour. Steve did have an ulterior motive using the table as a barrier between us and approaching vehicles. During happy hour Steve did produce a map with pen and paper to obtain recommendations for nearby locations provided by some of the locals seated at the table for us to visit! And in answer to questions about the table, we duly informed our visitors we cart the table all around Australia to share happy hour with others.

We were provided with a wonderful spiritual lift near the end of the Easter weekend when a couple we hadn’t spoken with asked where we stored the dining table. Evidently word had spread around the campground we travel Australia carrying the dining table, utilising it for happy hours. Nothing like a bit of state rivalry between Victorian and South Australians being alive and performing well. We were surrounded by Victorians and as the South Australian saying goes, “kick a Vic,” and when we bust out laughing and mentioned the truth, resulting with a humorous response; “bloody South Australians!”

And an extended stay in a location like McGauran’s Beach just wouldn’t be right without a damper. Yum.

We enjoyed our time at 90-mile beach with some early morning walks along the beach, inspecting plenty of different varieties of shells scattered along the beach, coming across a seal and enjoying the beach environment.