Ship to Shore

While Daz caught up with an old work colleague over a coffee, Jet and the kids went and visited the Griffiths Sea Shell Museum – something of a Lakes Entrance icon, having been there for many, many years.  The kids in particular were amazed by the varieties in shape, size and colours of the shells.

Another popular activity at Lakes Entrance is hiring a ‘putt putt’ boat – one with an engine so un-powerful and slow that a boat licence is not required.  We secured ourselves a little blue and white boat and climbed aboard, with enough snacks to last the four hours we’d paid for.

Armed with a map of the lakes and where we were permitted to go, we headed off, under the road bridge, past the sea wall and entered the larger body of water where the kids all had a turn driving the boat, trying to get their heads around turning the rudder left in order to turn right and vice versa!

Just past a privately owned island a small sand spit on the end of public Flannagan’s Island caught our eye. There was a group of pelicans and other birds gathered. We approached slowly to take a look and get some photos. A flock of pelicans… got me wondering whether there was another collective name for a group of pelicans. It turns out they are referred to as a squadron, pod or scoop. Personally I like the sound of squadron… sounds very air force like! So we approached the squadron of pelicans from the water. Got our photos and decided to beach the boat a little further along the sandy spit and observe the squadron by foot! Got the drone in the air for some aerial photos and video, ensuring it did not become the victim of the pelican squadron!

We ended up spending an hour or so on our own little island, watching the squadron of pelicans take flight. They really do look like awkward old bombers of about WW2 vintage! Beautiful though.

The kids had fun creating in the sand. Gemma in particular, with her creative spirit crafted a lovely mosaic pelican on the sand, using white and orange shells found on the beach.

Ethan claimed the island as ours, and without a flag to plant, used a bit of driftwood and wrote a message in the sand to ensure future arrivals knew we’d claimed it!

Of course, snacks were devoured throughout our visit!  Climbing back aboard, we motored back the way we came, went past the boat hire place and headed up another inlet, following the ‘shipping’ markers which led us to a winery and the end of the area we were permitted to visit. It was then just enough time to get the boat slowly back to the hire place, just in time after four hours of fun and adventure. 

The guy there was impressed with Daz’s effort in getting the boat alongside the jetty, commenting that I must have done that a few times before… well no, not really! I’ll take the compliment though!

After lunch back at the caravan we took the short drive to the township and beach at Lake Tyers for a few more geocaches. Lovely spot again, with great views of the Ninety Mile Beach, especially from Red Bluff.