Mallacoota Moments

 After an enjoyable three nights at Orbost, we packed up for the reasonably short drive to Mallacoota. We stopped at Cann River for morning coffee. We also located all three geocaches in town. One was on an old gun as part of a war memorial. It was rated a 4/5 degree of difficulty but Ethan & Gemma found it quite quickly. While we were looking though, a lady came up and said hello... it was both Ethan and Gemma's grade 6 teacher! She was on her way to Pambula in NSW! 

In the local park the kids posed next to a 'Loch Ness Monster' which they climbed over and were photographed on many years ago on our way to Merimbula. 

This is Cann River... a bit of a what came first, the chicken or the edge. Was it the River named Cann or the town named Cann River first?

The winding road into Mallacoota left no doubt as to the ferocity of the fires just over a year ago. 

We set ourselves up in the Shady Gully Caravan Park, just outside town. In town there are four other caravan parks including the foreshore camping which is the largest campground in Victoria. We figured we'd prefer the peace and quite away from all of that. When we did go into town, we discovered the foreshore was very busy, so it was a good choice to camp elsewhere.

We were able to have lunch after setting up, then we went into town to have a look around. We ended up at Bastion Point Beach where Ethan got himself quite wet! The fires destroyed homes in this area and the trees are burnt right down to the beach - much like it was at Cape Conran.

This is the MV Loch Ard, a restored 1910 vessel that does tourist trips around the lakes of Mallacoota. She looked great in the late afternoon sunshine.

We drove the scenic route back along Lakeside Drive and stopped a couple of times, with the late sun lighting up the sky in pink and orange hues. The water was still and the jettys mirrored in the water.

Next morning we returned to town and looked around the main street area. A couple of small supermarkets, the usual sorts of shops you would expect in a small town. 

After lunch the three kids rode their bikes into town and enjoyed the board walk / bike path along Lakeside Drive. J and I drove in and walked along the same path. There was birdlife to photograph including this duck that appeared to be sporting a mullet...

This part of the boardwalk has been rebuilt recently as it was destroyed in the bushfires. It is amazing how close to the town centre the fires got. 

Back at the Mallacoota Wharf we watched the local pelicans get a little bit excited when a fisherman was cleaning and gutting his catch... they honked and pecked each other in the race to catch the bits the fisherman did not want!

This brings us to today... Zac went off on a 30 something km bike ride along some fire trails and tracks which sounded far to strenuous for the rest of us!

The rest of us went for a drive along Betka Road which runs along the coast heading west out of Mallacoota. It is also where the airport is and a WW2 bunker. The RAAF used the airfield as a base and the bunker was to protect this south eastern corner of the continent. 

There were many lovely beaches and clifftop views to enjoy along this stretch of coast. Here's a selection of what we found:

This rope helped the kids 'abseil' down to Pebble Beach!

Some of the patterns in the rock were interesting and unique.

We all met up again at the caravan for lunch. After lunch we picked up a surf board we hired for a couple of hours. Ethan had a surf lesson while on his year 8 camp a few weeks ago and had enjoyed it, so we let him have another go today. Gemma enjoyed boogie boarding and gave the surf board a go too. The rest of us enjoyed the beach from a drier perspective. 

There were a couple of 'pop up' eateries in town... so we went there for burgers, souvlakis and other treats for dinner, sat on the waterfront and enjoyed the chilly evening. 

Tomorrow is meant to be cold and wet, but the weather is looking good for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, so we look forward to what else Mallacoota has in store for us!