Big Trip(2) 2026 Day 6 - Beaches

Today was typical holiday day for us in Mallacoota which involved a beach walk in the morning, a beach walk in the late afternoon and not much else in between.

Nick decided that Quarry Beach was our first walk of the day.

An imaginative name, Quarry Beach gets its name, according to Google, from the fact the car park of the beach area used to be gravel quarry. 

Like all good beaches (in my opinion anyway) it is a series  of large rock formations scattered amongst walk-able sandy shorelines. 1.1km of shoreline, again according to Google.  It's not a surfing beach which suits me because I don't, and can't, surf.

My walks on the beach tend to be contemplative ones.  Answers to the big questions in life mixed with more big questions mixed with reminiscences, all whilst trying to avoid tripping on a rock jutting out from the sand.

I am guessing that Nick does the same thing as me, only 20 metres away from me. Our standard practice whist beach walking is to keep a respectful distance from the other person.

Quarry Beach has a wall of rock that acts as a barrier for further beach walking, unless you are willing to climb over it. I introduced this to the family back many moons ago, however I am sadly unable to do this now. Nick, however, is not me and made the climb.

On the other side of this rock wall is the aptly names Secret Beach, a further stretch of rocky formations and sand for a few more hundred metres. You can access this beach from the road, however it isn't sign posted, and what's the fun in doing that?

Once Nick made it over the wall he then decided to do a bit of further rock climbing. If you look carefully below you will see him on top of that large rock. Oh, the rock wall I mentioned above cant be seen from this picture (I can get around that!) Nick mentioned that a rope had been installed to assist people with climbing through to Secret Beach. 

  

Once we returned to our car we drove to the bakery for lunch (review below) and then headed back to our place to relax for a few hours. It is our holiday, after all!

Late afternoon we hopped back in the car and drove to another walk-able beach with rocky formations, Betka Beach. 

"What, or who, is Betka Beach named after?" you may ask. I typed those words into Google and it informed me that it's named after the local Betka River that runs into the beach, "What is Betka River named after?" was my next question and it helpfully answered that it is named after the parish of Betka, in the Mallacoota region. A final query and it appears be an indigenous word meaning "Place of meeting" or "Come back again", which seems apt, because I keep coming back to this place.

Betka Beach is closer to the town and is a more popular beach for locals and tourists alike. It is also a more slightly harder walk in that there are obstacles to climb over if you want to make it to the end of this beach. Not a rock wall like Quarry beach, but you do need to put a bit of effort into it. Nick ignored my protestations and made me put a bit of effort into it.  I am glad I did because the end of this beach features some pretty spectacular geological features.

After this walk we were pretty hungry so drove back to our place to cook tea. However we had been encouraged to feed the wild birds by the owners, so they got looked after first.

 Food Review

Mallacoota Bakery is the place to go for pies and sausage rolls. Unfortunately everyone else thought so because when we arrived there for lunch, shortly after 1pm they had almost run out of hot food. Nick was able to buy a Chilli and Cheese sausage roll whilst I chose a Cheese and Bacon pie.

Nick didn't think the sausage role was too spicy.The overall taste was quite good. 8/10

I really enjoyed my pie. I think it had the right combination of mince, bacon and cheese and that one ingredient didn't overpower the other two. The addition of tomato sauce made this a magic pie. 8.5/10 

The bakery is closed this weekend so the pie/sausage roll reviews will start again on Monday. 

No music today - A quiet one

Km Travelled Today - 119

Km Travelled Total - 1,522

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 5 - Animals

Today we said farewell to Jindabyne and headed to the coast.

Driving conditions in the first part of the morning were wettish, meaning there was enough rain to be annoying but not enough to engage the windscreens wipers fully.

Driving through the towns of Dalgety, Bombala and Wyndham, the only unusual thing that happened was sighting a dingo whilst we were driving past one of the State Parks.  Am I 100% sure that it actually was a dingo?  No, but for the sake of the rest of this narrative I’m sticking with dingo (No photo, sorry).

We also saw a lyre bird and a wallaby, but they are more common, especially back up in the Ranges. It’s hard to get excited about seeing a wallaby in the wild when we had one living on our property a few years ago.

After a lunch break in Eden (food review below) we crossed back in to Victoria and finally made it to our accommodation in Mallacoota.

My relationship with the town of Mallacoota began back when I was in my early twenties (so early to mid 1990’s).  I had organised some time off and had made my way along the east coast; first to Loch Sport (south of Sale) and then on to Lake Tyers (just outside Lakes Entrance).  I was feeling a bit restless in Lake Tyers and cut my time short there and decided to head further east. I went as far as you can go and still be in Victoria. 

Mallacoota was a bit of a revelation. It was a quiet town (population of around 1,000 – it hasn’t changed much from then until now) and no mobile reception.  Telstra had installed about 12 public phone booths next to each other next to the round about as you enter the town.  This meant that communication with the outside world was limited, and blissful! Mallacoota became the perfect place to unwind and forget about the rest of the world, even when mobile phone reception eventually reached the town.

One of the first holidays we had as a young family of four was in Mallacoota.  I think Ben was around twelve months old, so maybe 2004?  That was probably not the best holiday experience we had due to a baby that just wouldn’t go to sleep at night.

Despite this bad first experience Mallacoota became our family’s holiday destination of choice.  The beaches were quiet, even during school holidays (we avoided the Xmas/New Year stampede where the town would swell to 10,000 people during that week).  We had over a dozen holidays in Mallacoota as a family.

Once the two boys stopped wanting to go on holidays with their parents I had the opportunity to visit here a couple of times.  Then Nick became interested in going away with me again (He had left his teens and I think appreciated not having to pay for a holiday).  Our current trip makes it three times that Nick and I have been on holiday here (well, two times – in 2023 we booked a holiday to Mallacoota that had to be cancelled due to heavy rains causing a landslide that blocked access to the town.  We then spent a very wet and rainy week in Eden before stopping in Mallacoota briefly on the way home.

I was devastated when the 2020 Black Summer bushfires hit Mallacoota.  We had booked accommodation a week after those fires, which was obviously cancelled.  Due to my experiences back home I was initially very reluctant to return here.  I was pleasantly surprised when I finally made it back here that the destruction appeared limited and that regrowth and rebuilding had seemed to occur relatively quickly.

Our accommodation overlooks the Mallacoota inlet, because it should. The unit itself is a mixture of mudbrick, and old bottles.  Quirky yet comfortable.

 

Tea tonight was takeaway from Lee’s Pizza & Takeaway.  I have made it a tradition to get at least one meal here every time we visit.  It's a classic takeaway with fish and chips, burgers and pizza with the addition of Chinese cuisine.  Nick normally gets fish and chips.  This time with additions.  I normally get the Mallacoota Special pizza, which has – shrimp, ham, chicken, salami, olives, mushrooms, onion and cheese.  Not healthy but that’s the point.  

We will be cooking the rest of our meals during our stay.

After tea we played a couple of games on a Nintendo Switch that Nick brought along to allow me my once a year game console experience.  When we turned off the lights to start playing Nick noticed some movement through the air.  We turned the light on to investigate and saw nothing so we switched the light off to and returned to play.  More movement.  This time, after turning the light back on we discovered a small bat hiding behind the wood heater flue.  A quick check with the owners, and no, it’s not a normal part of the eco-experience here and someone will deal with it in the morning.

After we finished playing I sat down to start typing my blog when something hit the window from the outside.  Here he/she is:

 As Nick turned around to head to his bedroom he noticed another visitor:

Enough animals!

Food Review

The bakery in Eden we visited was Martin's Pie Place. The name sounded promising.

A man of few words, Nick said the sausage roll was good. I was a bit disappointed as he had chosen the "standard" sausage roll and not the pizza topped one that they had. 8/10

I chose a Hot Mexican pie. There was no Old El Paso seasoning in it, so that was nice. I think the only thing "Mexican" about it was the inclusion of chillies, the heat of which crept on up me. The cheese on top was a nice addition 7.5/10

 Today's Album Cowboy Bebop (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

Kms Travelled Today 311

Total Kms Travelled 1,403 

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 4 - Takayama

The last time I stayed any more than one night in Jindabyne was back in 1988.  As a 17 year old just before his last semester in VCE I travelled by bus, with the Box Hill City Band, to perform in Australia’s highest Octoberfest. Over the course of a very long weekend we stayed in Jindabyne and everyday travelled via skitube up to Mount Blue Cow to perform a variety of German folk songs and some non-German pieces as well.  Apart from all our travel, accommodation and food being paid for by the organisers, we were given free beer, wine and schnapps every time we completed playing a set. 

Aaah, good times.

Fast forward 37 ½ years.  As a fifty something year old accountant,  the days of drinking and playing seemed like a distant memory when Nick and I decided to spend a good few hours exploring the area.

When we were last here (2023) I made a last second decision to turn right instead of left when we departed our accommodation. We spent the next hour or so driving through the Kosciuszko National Park until we reached Charlotte’s Pass and the base of Mt Stilwell (2,054m at its tip).  On our way back from that drive we told ourselves we would be back for a longer explore.

The weather gods were smiling on us as we made the journey out there this morning.  After heavy rain the previous day, and night, the forecast offered the promise of a relatively dry day.  The sun even wanted to came out!

We followed Kosciuszko Road until it ended.  Our idea of having a good look around and maybe even a walk was an idea shared by quite a lot of people, given the amount of cars parked on the side of the road.  Unfortunately this mean we had to park about 250 metres from the base point of Mt Stilwell and then walk up to that point.  Trekkers, complete with their gortex jackets, hiking poles and guides were at various stages of readiness as this was a popular stepping off point to walk to Mt Kosciusko.  I enjoyed watching all those fit, crazy people set off.  That’s an activity for other people to do, I thought.

We started our own exploration by taking the 400m boardwalk to a sightseeing vantage point on a rock. The views there were spectacular.

Kosciuszko in the background somewhere

There's the path we took

Snowy Gum - One of my favourite guns

Nick admiring the view

After completing that walk Nick suggested trying the walk to the top of Mt Stilwell.  The level of difficulty increased a few hundred percent.  I agreed, warning him that a) I will stop when I don’t think my body wants to go any further and b) this should not stop him from completing the walk to the top.

I think the walk itself was 860m from base to top, and I think I made it about a quarter of that distance before I’d had enough.  Nick, continued and made it to the chairlift located near the top of Mt Stilwell. He only stopped there because his water bottle was back in the car, and he didn’t want to go any further in case he got thirsty (fair enough).

Nick's up there somewhere

The view of Charlotte Pass from up above

After completing this activity we got back into the car and did a bit more exploring by road. We took the turn off to a place called Guthega. At the end of that road was a building called Base Camp. The scenery, again, was stunning.

Before we got back to Jindabyne to have a late lunch (food reviews below). we took a small detail to the highest distillery in Australia - Wildbrumby Distillery. Whilst the have a core range of schnapps they also have a bunch of seasonal release ones. The mango schnapps was particularly nice. Nick preferred the pear schnapps.

The afternoon was spent resting, and catching up on work emails and other work stuff.

Tea that night was a special affair. Nick was shouting and I had spotted a Japanese restaurant that I thought would be worth a go.

Takayama translates to tall mountain, or high mountain, which is apt.

I forgot to take photos of the food that we were eating, which was a shame because it was really, really good. Here is the a shot of the aftermath.

Tomorrow we say goodbye to Jindabyne and head to the coast.

Food Review

The local bakery here is Sundance bakehouse. It had a fair selection of bakery stuff.

Nick enjoyed his sausage roll.  8/10

 

Steak and mushroom pies are my "go-to" pie. This one had a better mushroom flavour than a couple of days ago, but it was a thinner pie. 7.5/10

No album today

Kms Travelled Today - 155

Kms Travelled Total - 1,092