A cruise on the Lakes

That evening we walked along the Esplanade window shopping and checking out the carvings on the foreshore on our way to 'the freshest fish and chips' in town  at Wild Catch fish and chips. The fish was lovely, melt in the mouth, but the chips were not good.(some were barely cooked).

 We looked at the options for cruises on the lakes and decided to take one the next afternoon.
The next day, as the cruise started at 2pm we went into town for lunch.
We ate at the "Bloody Good Coffee" cafe. The name was right - it was bloody good and the Pasty was very, very nice too.
Then we walked across to Post Office Jetty for our 2 and 1/2 hour, 70Km scenic cruise through Reeves Channel, Bancroft Bay, around the shores of Metung, across Lake King into the housing canals at Paynesville, around Raymond Island, into Lake Victoria and Chinamans Creek and back to Lakes Entrance.  It was a 'warm' (Aussie for HOT) day but as there was lots of space onboard we were able to stay pretty much in the shade.

                                         THE Entrance, out into Bass Strait

                                              Rounding Raymond Island

 The chain ferry - Paynesville to Raymond Island

 

It was a wonderful, enjoyable day out.

The next day we drove down to the supermarket (Aldi, of course) for a few more supplies and then headed out of town. Continuing Eastwards. We were going to stay in Orbost, "The Heart of the Snowy", but decided to continue out to the coast and have a look at the little coastal town of Marlo.
We drove along the banks of the Snowy River through some lovely farmland and reached Marlo.
We drove to the foreshore and went for a paddle in the Snowy River - a must!

 We checked out both caravan parks and decided on the Marlo Caravan Park and Motel rather than the Marlo Ocean View caravan park - the 'ocean views' only being available from cabins not powered sites. The CP and Motel offered slightly more shady sites, quite important as the temperature was heading upwards -  over 35 degrees.

It was a nice little caravan park but when we sat in what shade was available the mosquitos joined us and were most persistent.
We retreated inside the van and ran the a/c.
The heat abated a little overnight but the next morning was hot and humid so we decided to press on.
We drove back along the Snowy into Orbost. It was still early in the morning and we checked out the shops  on the main street. We decided that the mosquitos of the area had had enough of us so we continued eastwards.
We drove through Cann River to Genoa and turned down to the coast again - to the coastal town of Mallacoota.

It was a very twisting, winding road but well worth the effort.
We ignored the 2 caravan parks in the town, heading to the Mallacoota Foreshore Holiday Park.  We enquired about a waterfront site but these were an extra $12 pn. The very nice lady gave us a site one road back from the waterfront and as the place was not very busy we had waterfront views anyway.

The place was really beautiful, I'm sure that it would be packed during school holidays but 'out of peak season' it's definitely going on our list of places to return to.

In the early evening I went for a walk around the huge caravan park site and was surprised and delighted to see some kangaroos happily grazing on the grass sites.

 I might have seen a lyre bird too - something ran swiftly across the path in front of me; could have been a pheasant but I'm going for a lyre bird in the lack of firm evidence.
It was a beautiful, mild, peaceful night but the next morning was overcast and by lunch time it was raining. Forcing us to spend the day inside reading and surfing the net (and doing the blog).