Mar 2 - 5: Cape Conran -> Lakes Entrance (GurnaiKurnai country) -> Paynesville -> Wilsons Promontory

 Day 10 - Mar 2: Today we headed from Cape Conran to Lakes Entrance but not before visiting the place that Pete found yesterday, Yeerong Lake/River. On the way we passed by some swamp wallabies - this gentleman did not want to show fear but in the end did hop away from the oncoming truck.

We arrived at the lookout for Yeerong Lake.  Beautiful, even without the sun showing off the daytime colours to full effect.

Upriver somewhere there is a gorge that we attempted to visit, but recent disasters (fire or floods - we're uncertain) has meant that the road to the gorge was not open (at least not from where we were). So, while the weather was rather cool and overcast, we decided to paddle up the river instead.  Despite the wind breaking up the waters at the start, in the relatively sheltered creek-like part of the river past the bridge that had been damaged, the water was still and black, making outstanding reflections. It was slow going, with plenty of snags and we had to paddle (not pedal) for some of the way to avoid our pedals catching on unseen logs below the surface.

At one point, the reflection looked so similar to reality that it caused both Pete and I to think we had reached a dead end.  I've never had that weird feeling before, where my intellectual brain knew I was nowhere near the end of the river by my sensory brain said there was no further to go.

When the snags allowed us to go no further, we headed back past where we had entered the river,  to the lake behind the dunes that we had looked down at from the lookout. In good weather this part would be such a lovely spot for a swim, but the thought of paddling back to the truck all wet was not a good one.We got out at the dunes at both ends of the lake to have a bit of a look around anyway.

Exercise done for the morning, we headed off towards Lakes Entrance via Ricardo's Beach, Marlo, Orbost and Nowa Nowa, but not before heading back to the Yeerung Lake lookout to see it in the sun, which is the view that attracted Pete yesterday.

Ricardo's Beach is just one spot along the huge expanse of beach west of Cape Conran.  The wind was blowing a gale and we met a guy who'd just been kite-surfing.  He reckoned the wind wasn't strong enough but when we got to the beach we decided he was just scared!  I can't think of too many who'd venture out alone in the kind of surf that was being blown up by the wind. We used to watch the kite surfers jump metres up in the air at Hearnes and that surf was not as big as today's down here.  But who knows, maybe the wind was just not right somehow...

Next stop, Marlo - where the Snowy River runs out to see.  What a beautiful spot.  The town is simple and unassuming but the estuary was teeming with birds and was beautiful.  We walked down behind the dunes at one point and then to a lookout just before town where the mouth of the system could be seen really well. I am having trouble understanding the extent of all the inlet and lake systems down here.  One could spend weeks exploring them but we are a bit time-constrained this trip. The next few photos and video are from just east of the Marlo township.

View of the mouth of the Snowy River from Mots (mouth of the Snowy) beach

View of the mouth of the Snowy River from Lovelock Lookout

A small patch of the river system heading towards Marlo township

We lunched down on the river at Marlo enjoying the birds, both sculptural and real.

There are lots of these bird sculptures around town, including outside a house with a very cute window.

We really just took a glance at Orbost, a much bigger small town than Marlo and happened upon a little craft shop where I was able to buy a bag for wool I have brought along with me this trip. The bag I had was falling to pieces.  I hope to return here one day because I would love to ride the Bairnsdale to Orbost Rail Trail.

As we travelled out of Orbost we passed hundreds of bikers being escorted through Orbost by the police.

From Orbost we continued along the Princes Hwy to Nowa Nowa where I hoped to have a walk in a little wetlands reserve there.  However, this was not to be.  We had the first evidence here of the recent flooding in eastern Victoria.

A little further towards Lakes Entrance we saw a sign to an historic trestle bridge only 1km off the highway.  The Rail Trail goes past it and the sight of this beautiful if dilapidated structure only makes me want to do the ride more.  There must be so much more.  I love these old marvels of engineering.

At Lakes Entrance we have treated ourselves to two nights camping at Wyanga Winery. In return for 'free' camping you pay for a $50 voucher each night to use at their restaurant or cellar door. We have booked for tomorrow lunch.

After taking the camper off the truck we headed into Lakes Entrance township.  It isn't getting dark until about 8pm so although we didn't get to camp until nearly 4pm we still had plenty of time up our sleeves.

We decided to walk across to Lakes Entrance Beach (there is a walkway crossing the waterway) and then take the Lakes Entrance Nature Walk to the actual entrance.  This walk was so much more interesting than I had anticipated. Lakes Entrance is the first place we have been on this trip that has provided information about the local indigenous history.  On the town side of the walking bridge there are sculptures of the symbolic shields of each of the five groups of people belonging to the GunaiKurnai country. This is one of them - that of the Brabralung clan.

 The actual Nature Trail on the beach side of the walking bridge goes through a number of different vegetation types including a wetlands, a small patch of littoral rainforest and coastal ti-tree forest.

A magnificent ti-tree

Pittosporum fruiting everywhere

There were many birds, including unafraid Whipbirds.

Towards the entrance we learned more about the building of this artificial entrance to the lakes, which previously had opened to the sea only in times of flood.  There are still a few of the cottages that were built here as part of a large industrial settlement for the construction.

Originally the entrance itself was shored up using timber piers but Toredo worms or borers decimated the timber which eventually had itself to be shored up using heaps of rock and gravel. Huge concrete blocks were made on site to form the very seaward sides of the entrance. The original timbers are still there.

I watched the entrance and decided I wouldn't want to travel through it in a boat.

But then, lo and behold, after we had finished exploring more of the historic sections of the entrance, a yacht, under motor not sails, came through and made it look relatively easy.

At least the yacht didn't have to interpret an arrangement of coloured baskets that used to be used to guide ships through.  The captains knew how to attack the entrance based on the order/pattern in which woven baskets were shown and the colour of the same baskets. Today's captains line up lights.

There is a boardwalk along the waterway and here we saw swans (lots around here).  It is the first time that I can think of though where the water was so clear I could see the swans feeding.  Fascinating to see those long necks in action.

In the same area was a loop walk showing various things/buildings of historic interest. This old 'tractor' was capable of pulling 3 carriages, each carrying up to 5 tonnes of load!

One of the original industrial buildings still stands - the Rocket Shed.  I had never known about the use of rockets in saving people from shipwrecks.  Apparently, if a ship ran aground anywhere close to shore, a rocket would be fired above the ship with a rope attached.  Life saving apparatus could then be sent across to the ship to bring people on board back to shore!

No-one answered

We climbed up to a lookout to watch the yacht come in and have a last look at the picturesque view.

We decided to powerwalk the return 2.4 km and by the end I was completely stuffed trying to follow Pete's long strides with my short legs!

After watching sunset through the fishing boats we retired to camp.

Day 11 - 3 Mar: Today has been a fairly lazy day, doing a bit of a touristy drive around the area.  While I would have liked to kayak somewhere, the wind has been horrendous and being out on the water would have been little fun.

We first headed to Lake Tyers and then to Bunga Lake, both part of the incredible lake system around here.  Apparently Lake Tyers still occasionally breaks open through the dunes to the sea. That truly would be a sight.  At the moment it is slightly flooded but not enough to break through. The dunes are important nesting sites for Fairy Terns, Little Terns and Hooded Plovers. 

Bunga Lake is smaller and it travels towards the dunes more as a creek.

Both communities are growing with a huge number of new houses having gone up recently and plenty more land being subdivided.

We then headed to Lakes Entrance township to browse the local markets and have a coffee. We did get our coffee, but unfortunately the coffee place had to shut down because of the wind wreaking havoc on their market shelter.  As it was, our first cups of coffee went flying before they were served!  We then went to the surf shops.  Pete needed new T-shirts and a jumper and I needed new swimmers.  We were both successful.

Since we had lunch booked back at Wyanga Winery, we only had time for one last stop, the Entrance Lookout.  We hope to paddle around Rigby Island (he island you can see in the next photo) but if the tides are wrong or the wind tomorrow is anything like today that won't be happening!

Lunch back at the Winery was a lovely, slow affair and while the meals were nothing flash it was very enjoyable.  We walked off some of our lunch later in the afternoon by going down to the North Arm, a steepish walk down through the winery property.  Some lovely old boats at the jetty and one for sale nearby.  Check out its name! Only $17000!  I want it!

These are the vineyards here.  The covered vines have grapes that have not yet been picked.  The grapes have been harvested from the uncovered ones.

Day 12 - Mar 4: We are now heading towards Wilson's Promontory while the weather still looks decent.  The wind has been pretty incessant making kayaking not such an attractive option unfortunately.  In addition to that, the tides were just not right for a trip around Rigby Island at Lakes Entrance today.  Oh well, another time.

Instead I went to the Griffiths Shell Museum and Marine Display where this area's 'big' thing is the octopus on the building.

This collection is very impressive.  So many fascinating shells and sea creatures.  Some live specimens are also kept in aquariums, but not many.  I often think that when imagining aliens we don't need to imagine any stranger creatures than the insects we have in the world, but the same could be said for sea creatures.  While it is by no means the strangest creature in the display, imagine coming up against this crab!  I've come up against a little mud crab and that hurt a lot ...

 

Our next stop, a little way out of Lakes Entrance was Nyerimilang Heritage Park.  Another unexpectedly good place.  Once the holiday home of some rich Melbournian in the late 1800s, it is now owned by Vic Parks.  The homestead is not stunning but interesting enough. There are wonderful views (it is built on cliffs edging one of the waterways), forest, sandmarshes, interesting old farm buildings and machinery, bird hides and plenty of wildlife around.  We hiked for 5 and a half kms around the bush and water's edge and enjoyed the varied views.  By the end we had warmed up a little and my two layers of clothing felt a bit much.

Next stop was Metung, the Sanctuary Cove of this lakes district.  Some very upmarket yachts on the various moorings and lots of 'resorts'. It is a beautiful spot but not for me.  I'm too much of a pleb.

A stop at Bairnsdale on our way to Paynesville, where we are camped for the night, led us to the Catholic Church which was next to the information centre.  On the sign it said it was of historic significance because of the paintings inside and so we went in.  We were treated to a tour and a 'sermon' from the tour guide and to an incredible feat of persistence by an Italian migrant who painted everything in an unsuccessful attempt to earn enough money to bring his family out (which they only did post-war when his baby daughter had turned 22). The painting is not first-class but is still impressive.  It copies works by Michelangelo, from books and from memory.  The sermonising entreatied us to seek appropriate help if we ever needed it, likening the seeking of help to purgatory and the unwillingness to seek it to hell;  and to view the gaining of independence and the accompanying hardships is just like the awakening of Adam and Eve to reality in the Garden of Eden ...  All that,  and it wasn't even Sunday!

Our final stop was Paynesville where we checked into our caravan park before heading out to look at the famous Mitchell River silt jetties - long fingers of land between 6 and 10 thousand years old, formed, I guess, by the build up of silt. They extend for about 6 km into Lake King and are extremely narrow (maybe 20 metres) at some points.  Unbelievably one has houses on it.

The video below was taken at the end of one and looking towards another that is now an island.

We are spending the late afternoon lazing around camp and doing the washing.

I have also finished the first square of my first blanket for Wrap With Love. Only 27 to go ...

Day 13 - Mar 5: We had heard that Raymond Island, just a punt's trip across from Paynesville, was worth a visit so this morning we put our bicycles into action and took a trip over.  Another special place, the kind of place I'd have a holiday home if I could have a holiday home in each state. The place is known for its koalas, but it is the peaceful quiet of the bush, the proximity to water, and the proximity to a town for services that is so appealing. We rode around for just over 15 kms and saw a number of koalas.

There were swans aplenty, as there seems to be in most places around here and we were lucky enough to see one little cygnet.

There were plenty of other birds including a number of Great-crested Grebes.

After our ride we headed off to have lunch at Port Albert.  It is an old town that looks as if it is barely surviving these days, except for some 'resort-style' townhouses that look as if they have been built in hope of the lucky break for the town.  Port Albert was Gippsland's first port and as such as quite a number of old, mostly now decrepid, buildings.  Among them was another rocket store, built in 1878, this time in timber.  I'd never heard of rocket stores nor their use before a few days ago and now I've seen two! This one had a picture of the type of rescue equipment that may have been used with them.  This particular style was called the 'Breeches Buoy'.  No prizes for guessing why.

I've no idea what this next building may have been used for but it looks like an attractive storehouse.

Port Albert is open to the sea and is obviously very shallow in low tide! But as such it is a very important breeding place for shorebirds and national park or coastal park surrounds it.  I would like to have explored for a little longer (Pete would laugh here - I always say that).

After lunch we made our final journey to Wilson's Promontory.  Unfortunately we are only able to stay there for 3 nights as it is booked out over the weekend.  Nowhere else has been anywhere near booked out.  Oh well, we'll just have to make do.  We've also discovered that most of the northern section is outof bounds until Saturday, the day we leave, because of deer culling!  We just haven't timed it right. But I can't wait to start exploring.