In, on and by the Water

Today had us admiring the water from a variety of angles... firstly we drove to Lake Bunga, which is a small lake between Lakes Entrance and Lake Tyers. In fact, on a map it looks more like  a river estuary rather than a lake. Parking in the small car park at the end of a dirt road we went for a short walk. The Ninety Mile Beach looked a treat on this sunny autumn morning. With very little wind, it was an ideal time to put the drone in the air again.

Back in Lakes Entrance the kids donned wet-suits and we walked across the footbridge with boogie boards with the intention of riding a few waves. The sand ran steep into the water, meaning it got deep pretty quickly and the waves were absolute dumpers. Even a metre or two from shore, the kids could feel the strong undertow and after a short stint we deemed it too unsafe. There were no life guards on duty either.

So we retreated back across the footbridge and launched the single kayak into the safer waters of Cunninghame Arm, just across from the caravan park. The kids enjoyed it and it was far less worrying for the parent of the family!

Before dinner, we returned to the footbridge to sit and watch tonight's display of colours in the sky - another sunset beckoned. There always seems to be plenty of bird life around Lakes Entrance and tonight we had an up close and personal visit from an inquisitive black swan who waddled right up to us and looked us in the eye, politely asking for a feed. He was out of luck, and even if we did have food in our pockets it probably would not have been swan friendly anyway.

Caching Lakes

Today following a yummy camp breakfast we set out to locate the geocaches around Lakes Entrance itself. These took us to different vantage points around the town, including up in the less touristy areas. Some spots gave us great views. Others taught us something about features of the town.

One such lesson was about the carved tree stumps – six of them along the Esplanade. They were created by a local chainsaw artist using the remains of trees planted to commemorate locals who went to war. Some of the trees were dying, so this was a legacy to keep part of the tree.

We enjoyed fish and chips overlooking the water near the footbridge. We soon had an audience of sea gulls. Inspired by the collective names of pelicans, I researched gulls. Apparently they can be called a colony, squabble, flotilla, scavenging, or gullery. With food involved, they were certainly more reminiscent of a squabble out of those collective descriptions!

After lunch we walked across the footbridge and explored some of the lakeside coastline, the kids enjoying beach combing for shells, crab shells and all manner of other assorted evidence of sea life.

Back at the caravan park, the kids had a dip in the pool, but it was freezing cold, even for them, so that was short lived. Later in the afternoon a colourful sunset was evident back at the footbridge.

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.

Off the Main Highway

We’ve probably said it before, but I’m saying it again – geocaching takes us to places we would never have gone to, or in some cases to places we’d never even heard about. Most of the time that’s good… today it was terrific.

Heading out of Lakes, continuing west towards Nowa Nowa we left the main highway a couple of times in pursuit of small plastic containers with the help of our satellite technology on the smart phones!

The first stop was to Stony Creek Trestle Bridge. This impressive log structure was built 102 years ago when the rail line from Melbourne to Bairnsdale was extended to Orbost. The bridge is 247 metres long and 20 metres high. The last train crossed it in 1987, although it was damaged in a bushfire in 1980. It’s closed off as it is deemed unsafe to cross. So we enjoyed the view of it from either end. I then flew the drone over it for a different angle! You can’t help but be impressed by those builders and engineers who put this magnificent bridge together!

Further along this dirt track we found a small body and a weir. We met a large lace monitor lizard while enjoying the vista.

On the other side of the main highway, heading back towards Lakes Entrance we explored bush tracks off Burnt Bridge Track.  These tracks took us to lovely little spots on Lake Tyers. Lonely Bay and Pile Bay in particular. Burnt Bridge Track continues back to the highway, but there is no bridge so it is an incomplete loop. We were curious – was the track named because the bridge burnt at some stage? There was another sign advising of bridge works… we found very little evidence of a bridge, certainly no bridge works! 

Found another track to get us back to the highway, this one was more of a 4WD only track which was fun.