Down Southern Victoria

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There was quite a lot of driving yesterday through the thick state forest which edges the highway. We drove around the once old whaling port of Eden, now it's main industry is timber. We drove around town, this time by-passing the very good whale museum which we went through last time. We did enjoy fish and chips down by the waterfront though and saw another seal in the water. I'd forgotten I'd seen them in the 'wild' at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco but here, only in zoos.

Sometime during the day, we drove across the border into Victoria, still in heavy forest country until it began to clear and the scenery changed to green paddocks, lovely to see as when we last drove around Victoria a couple of years ago, it was in drought and so different to the green we expect down here. We decided we’d have the night at Orbost in a very nice caravan park full of autumn leafed trees and very green grass around our motor home.

This morning we had a look around Orbost, another old timber town and also once a supply centre for the gold mines in the mountains. From there we made our way towards to coast to the town of Marlo, where the Snowy River ends its long run from the Snowy Mountains into the sea - though the river was reasonably wide as it flowed beside the roadside, it wasn’t much more than a trickle as it entered the ocean.

We came to the Gippsland lakes and at Lakes Entrance we decided to have lunch and then walk to the beach. The long Lake is separated from the ocean by a narrow sandhill. We parked and walked over a footbridge which crossed the lake, photographing the many black swans, until we’d come to the main beach. Being Saturday, there were quite a few people around town and walking to the beach, though not that many in the water. The lake had many fishing trawlers, charter and family boats - a popular spot and a great waterway.

From Lakes Entrance the scenery was mostly farmland with cattle which further on changed to less fertile ground with sheep and shearing sheds in quite dry paddocks- they obviously hadn’t got the rain that a lot of the state had received this summer.

We saw the sign to Woodside Beach - the start of Ninety-Mile Beach - and drove the 10 klm off the highway to there. It is at the caravan park at the beach where we’ll spend tonight - electricity and TV service but no water. It’s good that we’re self-sufficient and have a good water tank so no worries!

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