Big Trip 2026(1) Day 9 - Mallacoota to Lakes Entrance

** Note : Google, owner of both Blogger and Google Photos is being particularly glitchy today. It will only allow me to access a very limited amount of photos for this blog. If these programs decide to behave themselves later I will update this entry **

I woke up and managed to get this shot of the rising sun.

**Image of spectacular sunrise to be inserted ** 

After packing everything in the car to head off, Nick wanted to take a last walk down at Quarry Beach.  Whilst I wasn’t into the full walk of the beach that he did it allowed me to sit down and enjoy the area. I’m glad I did that as I was able to see a pod of dolphins swim over and through the waves. They seemed to be heading to the township area where dolphin food beckoned.  Or maybe they were on their way from a feed. Or they were just having a nice morning swim.  I won’t know. I was looking at them for so long, I almost forgot I had a camera; however the shots I did take were hardly the evidence to prove nine or ten dolphins swimming past.

**Image of fairly dodgy looking dolphin in water to be inserted ** 

As we hadn’t had breakfast before we left, we stopped in Cann River for morning tea (food review below).  We had a very cheeky currawong(?) hop on the table where we were eating hoping for a tiny morsel of food.  We obliged, which was a big mistake, as it had a lot of mates that identified me as a soft target and also wanted their own tiny morsels.  Three or four of them were lucky birds, but the rest missed out.

Whenever we are driving between Lakes Entrance and Mallacoota, if time allows I will make a detour along the coast to Cape Conran.  Not content with limiting myself to the beaches at Mallacoota, I find the beach at Cape Conran particularly stunning.  It also has a walkway at the west end that leads out over the rocks which Nick used.  Having had a couple of heavy days of walking I was content to sit and admire the view.

 Neither of us were hungry for lunch so only stopped briefly at Orbost and then headed on to Lake Entrance.

Once we unpacked and had a break, I was on a mission from Lesley to a) visit the Shell Museum and b) procure a present for her.

The Shell Museum has been there as long as I have been travelling to Lakes Entrance.  It is not only a “museum” for shells but also features an old model railway out the back, once you walk through the largish (and also old) aquarium.  Nick used to be interested in model trains when he was much younger, so this we had visited this quite a few times in earlier years.  Now, it feels a bit kitschy.  The presents that we bought Lesley celebrate that kitschiness. 

As we walked around some of the shops, we came across a chocolate shop that had n=only been around a couple of years.  We had to go in, and I had to buy more presents.

 Tea tonight is a bit of a tradition with Nick and I when stopping in Lakes Entrance.  We go to one of the fish and chip shops – there are plenty of them.  The chocolatier had recommended Awesome Fish and Chips.  Nick ordered some local fish (gummy shark), chips and “sides” (scallops and potato cakes). I ordered a hamburger with the lot (I am not a fish eater).  A proper hamburger with the lot must include beetroot and pineapple, in addition to the standard egg, bacon, lettuce, onions, tomato, cheese (Kraft Single unfortunately) and beef patty (obviously).

Tomorrow morning will feature a game of mini golf before heading onto Foster.

Food Review

Cann River Bakery was today's chosen bakery. 

** Insert picture of  bakery here**

The sausage roll was OK, according to Nick 6/10

The chosen pie was a pepper steak pie. It was a very, very peppery pie, which gets bonus marks from me. It did feel a bit undercooked as the pie needed to be supported by its tin base, which is never a good sign. 7/10

Today's Album  Storm Front Billy Joel

Kms Travelled Today 240

Kms Travelled Total 1,826 

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 8 - More Beaches

Our last full day in Mallacoota started with another beach walk.  We returned to Betka Beach, however instead of turning right to walk around rock towers we turned left and onto a more familiar sand beach, similar to the type of beaches (mostly) found around Port Phillip Bay or on 90 Mile Beach.

This beach walk stretches from Betka Beach all the way to Bastion Point, which is closer to the township.  Just over half way from Betka Beach there is a small rocky outcrop and once we reached there I took a rest. Nick wanted to continue on to Bastion Point, however I know that if I tried to do that, I would struggle to return to our car.

I encouraged Nick to make it without it me which he duly did.  I think he almost jogged back.  Aah, to be young again.

The plan for the afternoon was that there was no plan, unless you call lazing around a plan.

Very late afternoon, we decided to visit a couple more beaches. Both these beaches have a slight degree of difficulty in getting to them as they involve either a bit of walking through bush,  lots of stairs or a bit of both.

Pebbly Beach was our first destination.  Nick and I were both a bit surprised that we did not recognise this beach at all, even though it was a beach we have visited over our many previous trips to Mallacoota.  For one, the pebbles providing the name for this beach were not throughout the beach, rather they were in  a couple of large dumps.  Sand movements can change the structure of a beach, and I know there had been some significant instances of this closer to the township.  The other notable thing was the piles of rotting seaweed here. Because this beach is located in what you would call a small cove, the winds were unable to move the smell on, so the fragrance/stench of this decaying matter was overpowering.  We left that beach relatively quickly and continued on.

I mentioned Secret Beach a couple of days ago.  Getting there involved a few flights of stairs, which had been replaced after the fires, and new handrails provided assistance for me in getting up and down those stairs.

This beach was probably our favourite beach in previous years, because of the fact that so few people visited it.  It has the rocky outcrops but also a cave, which is still accessible. Nick was able to get through it (it’s like a tunnel, rather than cave).

We decided to get take-away again, at Lee’s Pizza and Takeaway I was looking forward to some sweet and sour pork whilst Nick was hankering for a pizza.

By the way, after more than 35 years, the owners of Lee’s will be retiring this year.  They are on the lookout for people to take over the business.  If you have a love for cooking and enjoy a beach lifestyle, this may be the business for you.

 Today's Album - Anthology Hunters & Collectors

Kms Travelled Today - 34

Kms Travelled Total - 1,586

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 7 - Rain?

 Not a huge entry today.

The forecast was for rain, from about mid-morning onward.

We tried to sneak in a walk along the beach in the morning and left our place in full sunshine.

By the time we got to the beach we had chosen, some 15 minutes later, it has started to rain. We waited a couple of minutes and then headed back.

The rain stopped after a while and whilst it threatened to rain for the remainder of the day, it didn't. Well not until much later in the night.

Nick was prepared for an indoors day and had brought along a strategy board game for just this eventuality.

Star Wars Rebellion.

Here is a photo taken in the early stages of the game:

 In essence this works as a game of hide and seek, which if you think about it is one of the plot mechanisms of the original three Star Wars movies.

Whilst that sounds simple, the complexity is derived from the three rule books, nine different card packs, the array of characters on both sides, a multitude of playing pieces of soldiers and space ships and dice (3 different colours).

The set up time can take up to half an hour, so when a game lasts for 10 minutes due to a lucky guess of where the rebel “scum” have hidden their base (as happened the last time we had played), it can feel a bit anti-climactic.  Luckily today’s game went for over five hours.  I played the rebels and actually won.

Tea tonight was steak cooked in our unit with salads and sides.  One nostalgic part of our holidays in Mallacoota was “cooking” the instant pasta alfredo packs as part of one of our meals and Saturday night was that night.  I mucked it up.  Too much water.  It became more like alfredo soup.

I’m not sure this bit of nostalgia holds up.

No album today though plenty of Star Wars music playing in my head whilst we played the game.

Km travelled today - 30

Km travelled total - 1,552