Lakes Entrance, Victoria

Ratings:  CP **  Surroundings ****

The Entrance in the distance is man made connecting the Gippsland Lakes to Bass Strait.  Lakes Entrance is primarily a fishing and tourist driven town.

Picturesque fishing boats in the port off loading their catches.

90 mile beach, one of the longest in the world, stretches as far as the eye can see while a tower used by life guards awaits the arrival of the post Christmas holiday crowds.

A treasure trove discovered in the small settlement of Nowa Nowa which used to be a timber town. This general store serves as a post office, petrol station, supply store and has a wonderful array of craft work, some locally made.

Idyllic Metung............waiting for a friend after fifteen years apart.

Mallacoota, Victoria

Ratings: CP ***** Surroundings *****

Morning light over Bottom Lake, Mallacoota...the view from our site.

Bottom Lake is home to a bird sanctuary. While flocks of water birds rose into the air and then settled on sandbars in a cacophony of song and beating wings, languid pelicans watched on.

Reflective images and silence in calm waters of the lake on a windless day.

White sands stretch north from Bastion Point to the inlet where the Tasman Sea and Bottom Lake meet.  Over a period of 10 years, a group comprised of  local organisations and individuals attempted to prevent the building of a large breakwater and boat ramp south of Bastion Point. They were concerned about the environmental impacts of the proposed construction but they lost their fight in December 2014.

Layers of colour emerge from the wet sand.. Mudstone, sandstone, silica and shales laid down over millions of years. Apparently most of these Ordovician rocks in Victoria are of deep water sedimentary origin and have been squeezed, exposed, baked, covered and eroded by currents and other environmental factors.

Eden, NSW

Ratings: CP ***** Surroundings *****

Mealtime for an egret as the tide rises in Lake Curalo...the view from our site. Eden has an interesting whaling history: the Thawa people of the Yuin Aboriginal nation were the original inhabitants of this area and had a special relationship with dolphins and whales, killer whales (Orca) in particular which were sacred and which they refused to kill. However the settlers exploited Aboriginal knowledge of whales, employing them in the whaling industry which began in this area around 1828. The Orca whales were used to trap humpbacks which entered Twofold Bay where they were harpooned and the Orcas were rewarded with humpback carcasses. Whaling was banned in Australia in 1979.

An solitary walk along the sweeping Aslings Beach returning from the Lake Curalo inlet.

Colours and reflections of the serene Merimbula River where we enjoyed coffee after a boardwalk.

The Pinnacles of Ben Boyd National Park. Surprisingly different to other pinnacles we've seen, this is a natural cliff formation of multi coloured sands and clays which were apparently deposited around 65 million years ago during the Tertiary geological period. The top of the white sediment marks the level of an ancient water table while the red colour is iron oxide.