Mallacoota

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As we travel, we ask the locals or other travellers about the “must see”places. Mallacoota has received high praise and having seen it featured on the ABC Back Roads travel program we felt this is a place not to be missed. And we were not disappointed.

Our day started early, getting to Wizard Appliances in Bairnsdale by 8.30am for our fridge repairs. Brad was ready and rearing so we were in and out within an hour. All seems to be working ok now.

Brad was off to a funeral in Salisbury, SA this weekend. He had no idea where he was heading. Greg was careful not to tell him it was not the best end of town.

We took the Alpine Highway which was more direct to Mallacoota than going back to Lakes Entrance. As the name suggests it was through mountains. It passed through a large National Park of native forest. Strategic but quite significant logging was taking place in typical Victoria style. There was evidence of bushfire activity, but when it went on for almost the complete 3 hour drive and we came across signs warning of smoke across the road we realized most of the damage was probably from controlled burns.

We passed through a town called Bell Bird. If you blinked you would have missed it. This was obviously not the setting for the Bell Bird SitCom we used to watch back in the day. Bell birds serenaded us beautifully as we ate our corn chowder for lunch. Thanks Fee we still enjoy a bowl of this on a regular basis.

Eventually we left the main highway to detour approximately 20kms into Mallacoota. This road was much windier, much narrower, with many more signs for kangaroos and had a surprising number of vehicles on it.

We think everyone must have been heading for the same Local Council operated foreshore caravan park as us as there were far more caravans here than we have seen in any other park for quite some time. It has over 700 sites, not all powered and not all open at the moment but it is cheap and in a stunning location.

Like a number of other locations in Victoria it has a series of interlocking lakes fed by rivers linked to the sea via a relatively small inlet. This allows for lots of water frontage, calm waters suitable for lake or surf fishing, kayaking and boating activities.

Greg unsuccessfully dabbled a line for a while. He’s been doing a bit of this so far.

Towards evening kangaroos joined the ducks, magpies and other fauna grazing on the grassed areas. One lonely kookaburra had a good laugh … perhaps at all the crazy people in shorts and singlets thinking the weather quite warm or maybe the other way around …. those in jackets and beanies thinking the weather quite cool. A stunning place and one worth coming back to for a longer stay in the future

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Photos

Where there’s water there’s got to be fish
But not this time