Mallacoota to Melbourne

MALLACOOTA

Imagine waking up to the clanging sounds of boats launching (some even before sunrise) and a random man walking around EVERY morning whistling the SAME tune over and over. You're glad the night is over due to the gusty winds that shook your bed all night, and made the camper poles creak and groan and don't forget, the constant flapping canvas. After a leisurely breakfast, and a chat with a passerby or two, the boat is launched, but 'someone' has forgotten to put the bungs in the boat. The boat quickly fills with water but luckily it's still on the trailer so it is quickly retrieved and all the water disperses. It takes 3 mins to sink a boat without the bungs in -you now know that to be pretty accurate! Fanging along in the tinnie on the chocolate brown water, the boat suddenly comes to an abrupt, jerky halt - you've hit another sandbar. You slowly putt your way to where you think the water is a darker shade of chocolate.

After another successful day catching fish (mainly black bream and flathead), you head to the fish cleaning table with your trophy of fish. You turn your head for just a minute to throw some fish scraps away to the pelicans, and a cheeky seagul steals your beautiful boneless fish fillet from right in front of you. Knowing you have copious amounts of fish (and the freezer has again defrosted), you shrug your shoulders and walk the 100m or so back to the camper trailer. When you arrive back at the camper, you're totally surprised and puzzled to find a bag of kumquats and 2 massive slabs of frozen fish on the kitchen bench. After trying one of the kumquats, you consider the possibility that someone could possibly be trying to kill you and you start speculating who it might be. 

Action down at the boat ramp then catches your attention as you watch a man who has somehow caught a snake on his fishing line hitting it against the Mallacoota Jetty sign again and again trying to get it off, someone's boat trailer has somehow fallen off the car and a tracker is trying to pull it out of the water, and someone has dropped their fishing rod into the chocolate brown water and is trying to retrieve it using a long pole. You smile as you take a huge, gluttonous bite of your chocolate eclair which you have just purchased from the Mallacoota bakery just a few hundred metres up the road. As your finish the eclair, you watch 89 yr old Jim in the caravan next to yours struggling with this boat. Deciding it's great PR for your public image, you rush over to Jim and lend him a hand using your own boat trailer.

 After helping Jim, you once again sit back, sip your cheap, cask red wine, watching the sunset, as tonight is your last night in Mallacoota...

Back on the road again... A Trestle Bridge built in the 1920's near Orbost (south of Mallacoota)

LAKES ENTRANCE

 From Mallacoota, we drove south to Lakes Entrance and stayed there for 2 nights. Geoff said he wanted to stay in a caravan park as our car had issue's starting the morning we left Mallacoota and he wanted to be in a town. It just so happened that the next morning was some big golf tournament on TV and Geoff was able to watch it in the TV room at the caravan park (as we don't have a TV). He still swears that's not the reason we stayed there...

An amazing sand sculpture at Lakes Entrance... wondering how much concrete was used...

 One night while we were at Lakes Entrance, we were able to watch some fishing boats come in from a few days at sea and unload their catch. It was quickly processed onto a truck bound for the Sydney fish markets the next day...

As we continued our way further south a poor bird took on the car bull bar and lost.

 Geoff had to untangle it... 

Finally, it was my turn to drive. Geoff says I drive like a grandma and I havn't been allowed behind the wheel again since... At least we see the scenery when I drive!!

WILSONS PROMONTORY

The floods we mentioned in an earlier blog really destroyed Wilsons Promontory and many campers there had to be airlifted out due to damaged roads and bridges being completely destroyed. It's the southern-most point of mainland Australia and is highly talked about for camping. We were bummed to learn it was closed except for a small northern part which you could drive through only (no camping)...

We decided because we couldn't drive very far into Wilsons Prom. that we would do an Australian Wildlife Safari on some dirt roads still open there... We founds lots of emu's and roos... 

And we were SO excited to finally find a wombat!!  

It was a beautiful area, even with all the rain that day.
Too bad we could only see such a small part of it. 

SHALLOW INLET

As we couldn't camp at Wilsons Prom. we camped just near it at Shallow inlet (so aptly named)...

That day at Shallow Inlet was voted the most miserable of our WHOLE trip thus far! It was raining and SO SO COLD. We spent the whole afternoon sitting in the car playing boggle on the phone and reading, as it was the warmest place to be. We only ventured outside to make lunch and dinner before racing back into the car to eat... not fun.
I may have, in a moment of weakness, also called VIC an "ice hole"
(be careful to pronounce that correctly!)...

The next morning the rain stopped long enough for us to pack up and hit the road. The last few places we had camped was the same. Praise God for stopping the rain when we've needed to pack up camps!

SHELL MUSEUM AT INVERLOCK

Once again, a testament to God's awesome creation...

One thing we love about VIC is the architecture!

The coastline near Inverloch...

The coastline just before Phillip Island... 

PHILLIP ISLAND

Nobbies Point was beautiful and we finally had some sunshine! It's a fur seal colony but today we couldn't see any. We weren't too fussed though as we had seen a few cheeky ones further north.

Phillip Island coastline...

Grand Prix track on Phillip Island... 

And of course, you can't visit Phillip Island without seeing the fairy penguins!! I rugged up in so many layers of clothes bending my arms was difficult but it was totally worth it. They were SO cute as they waddled up the beach, some right along side the boardwalk to their burrows among the hills. To protect the penguins there is no photography at all allowed, so I did what I could...

 

MORNINGTON PENINSULA

After spending a couple of nights on Phillip Island we headed over to the Mornington Peninsula and found a campsite right on the water at Rye.

Geoff, as is becoming custom, hitting a few golf balls around near our camp... 

It was a beautiful area especially towards the end of the peninsula... 

(it also helps alot to see it on such a beautiful day)

 

MELBOURNE

On monday we drove our big rig into the big smoke of Melbourne. We picked up my mum from the airport and settled into my Uncle's holiday townhouse near the city. What a treat it is to stay in a house after camping in cold, quite wet weather! Here's a few pics of our week so far...

 

We hope wherever you are spending easter, it is a blessed time as we celebrate Jesus. It is because of his sacrifice of dying on the cross, that we can have a personal relationship with God and even spend eternity with him in heaven! Life on earth is but a breath, but eternity is for forever! How blessed we are to know and be loved by the creator of the universe, for he takes delight in every detail of our lives and continually leads us.

"If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by confessing with your mouth that you are saved"
Romans 10:9-10