Big Trip 2026(1) Day 12 - The Way Home and Epilogue

We could have driven straight home from Foster. The total time for this trip, per Google Maps, is just over three hours. We weren't going to do that.

Today's plan was to travel to Inverloch, then on to Phillip Island.  After mucking around there for a while we would then head home. The hope was that rain would not be too much of an issue.

Inverloch was going to be the place we would stop for a pie/sausage roll however neither of were all that hungry, having cleaned up all the left over food for breakfast before we left (apples, muesli bars, ice-cream and a stray bun). So the final food review was abandoned as we continued on to Phillip Island, and Cowes.

The scenery along the coast from Inverloch is stunning.  It's known as the Bunarong Coastal Drive and features locally iconic spots such as Eagles Nest (Sandstone rock stack), Twin Reefs and The Oaks. Unfortunately it had started to rain and we were unwilling to get wet, so were content to admire the scenery we could view from the comfort of our car.

After a while we crossed the bridge at San Remo in to Phillip Island. Our lunch destination was Cowes, and an Italian restaurant overlooking the Western Port Bay, Isola di Capri.

In times gone by I used to take day trips driving down to Cowes, and I would often visit this restaurant for lunch.  I have never been disappointed here.

Nick wasn't massively hungry so we ended up sharing a pizza between us.  Their wood fired pizzas are next level stuff.

There were roadworks occurring outside the restaurant with some pretty significant streetscape improvements which will end up a) being very pedestrian/visitor friendly and b) reducing the ability to use it as a road for traffic.

Having completed lunch we had one more stop before heading home, and that was to the Phillip Island Chocolate Factory.

We skipped entry to Panny's Amazing World of Chocolate (I must do that one day, but not today), and went straight to the shop.  After stocking up on Easter Eggs and other presents for Lesley, we made our way out and headed for home, in the pouring rain. 

Final Thoughts

Back in 2021, as I was recovering from some fairly significant health issues in hospital, I had made a commitment to myself to travel more. This didn't mean backpacking across Europe or travelling around the Americas. My interest was closer to home. Australia is a big, big place and I had not seen much of it.

2023 was a road trip to Byron Bay and country NSW and 2024 was to Port Lincoln, Ceduna and Broken Hill.

2025 caused a blip in my travel plans as further surgery, and my recovery from that, caused a delay in any travel. 

This trip was me getting back on that horse and reconfirming my commitment to travel, albeit at a lesser rate (for now).  The fact that I had Nick enthusiastically on board for this trip was an added bonus.

A lot of this trip felt like a series of greatest hits from holidays gone past, and that's not a bad thing. Enjoying the Mallacoota beaches, mini golf in Lakes Entrance, the Shell Museum (also Lakes Entrance), Wild Brumby Distillery outside Jindabyne, the Star Hotel in Echuca, Lee's Take Away in Mallacoota and Isola di Capri are reinforcing why I like travelling so much. Driving on unfamiliar roads, Corowa, wrong turns, too much walking and Yarram, are the new and/or unexpected experiences that I thoroughly enjoyed and will add to the memory bank as part of this overall holiday experience.     

 Highlights:

• Watching a pod of dolphins swimming off Quarry Beach on my last morning in Mallacoota.
• Takayama Restaurant - Jindabyne
• Mini golf in Lakes Entrance

This trip was always Part 1 of my trip around Victoria. I am looking forward to completing this trip in the latter half of 2026 as I cover the Western half of the state. Nick has already put his hand up to complete this trip with me.

Food Review

Whilst there were no reviews today we come to that time of the trip when we look at which bakery "won".

When I asked Nick about his favourite sausage roll of the trip, he replied, without hesitation, that it was the first one he had at Gaffney's Pie Kitchen in Seymour.

I had rated two pies equally on 8.5, however, on a count back, my favourite pie of the trip was the Bacon and Cheese pie at the Mallacoota Bakery. 

No album for the last day of our trip - Podcasts all the way home

Kms Travelled Today - 331

Kms Travelled Total - 2,637

Big Trip 2026(1) Day 11 - The Prom

It was a bit of a late start this morning.  The plan was to visit Wilson’s Promontory today.  Rain was forecast, from about mid morning onward, however the rain radar wasn’t showing any signs of it (and didn't end up happening).

Once we reached the boundaries of the Prom there was still a fair bit of driving to do before reaching Tidal River, which is the Prom’s mecca.  School groups were everywhere, as well as a lot of casual visitors (like us).  There was also a a barrage of construction workers present.  There is a lot of construction work happening as a new Visitor’s Centre and Café are being built.  If you’ve never visited the Prom before you might want to leave it for six months to a year as they complete construction.

We had visited the Prom a couple of times for the camping experience (using a camper trailer) back before Ben had started primary school. So I’m thinking 2006 and 2007? I hadn’t been back since then. Nick had been part of a school camp here when he was in grade three (2009?).  Part of returning here was for nostalgic purposes.  The official purpose, as part of this trip, was to visit the southern most part of the state.

So, Tidal River was our first stop.  As the name would suggest, this is a river that flows out to the beach, that is affected by the tides, or something like that.  This beach is one of those where there is a lot of distance between the low tide water mark and the high tide water mark.  It appeared to be low tide as the water was a long way out.

We spent a good half hour here exploring the area.  As more school groups made their way down to the beach we left and drove to Mt Oberon.  More specifically, we drove to the car park at the base of Mt Oberon, Telegraph Saddle, and admired the view from there.  The walk to the summit was almost 7 km return, not something I wanted to do, or was able to do.

 From there we drove down to Squeaky Beach, named because the sand makes a squealing sound when you step on/through it.

At Squeaky Beach there is a walk that you can do that takes you through to Picnic Bay.  Nick took the opportunity to walk there and I met up with him at the Picnic Bay Car Park.  Whilst waiting for him I ducked quickly to the next Bay in the vain hope of finding the source of its name. I was not surprised but a bit disappointed.

Whisky Bay (it's a little blurry)

After I picked Nick up we decided we were done with the Prom.  We then headed to Foster for a late lunch (review below).

On a family recommendation tea tonight was at The Fish Creek Hotel,  Nick had fish (whiting) and chips whilst I went for the BBQ Pork Back Ribs.

We don’t normally talk a lot whilst eating however I felt our mood was particularly quiet.  I don’t know if it was because neither of us rated our tea highly (the sauce on the ribs was too sweet, and Nick thought the whiting was bland), whether we were tiring from our trip, or we were fully aware that tonight was the last night of our trip.  There comes a time in most trips when you realise that you are slowly making your way back home and that you’re either happy, or not happy, for that to happen.  I think that was where are heads were.

Food Review

The Hot Bread Shop in Foster was where we bought our lunch. (Sorry, I forgot to take a photo).

Nick bought the cheese and bacon sausage roll. He really like it, however thought that it was a bit too greasy, most likely because of the oil from the bacon and cheese.  He still rated it highly 8/10

I had a tomato and onion pie.  This was a great pie.  The pie case was solid and well cooked, the top crust was the right amount of flakiness and the filling was very tasty, with small pieces of both tomato and onion amongst the beef mince. 8.5/10

Today's Album Thriller Michael Jackson

Kms Travelled Today 160

Kms Travelled Total 2,306 

Big Trip 2026 Trip(1) Day 10 - Mini Golf and Street Art

We started the morning at a café I have been to many times before to have a cooked breakfast. 

An important public service announcement.  When you have run out of spinach to serve with your Eggs Benedict, kale is not a good replacement.  The texture of the kale does not work with the rest of the dish. Actually, kale doesnt work with any breakfast dish.  Best to avoid.

Another one of the many traditions that we have developed over the years is playing at least one game of mini golf anytime we have stayed in Lakes Entrance. The town has three mini golf courses on the main esplanade, two of which are next door to each other.  Our favourite course is the third, weird one – Footbridge Mini Golf.

We were offered professional putters. Mine was Tiger Woods and Nick had Greg Norman. 

Helpful signs were dotted throughout the course:

Nick won by two shots.

If you have read my blogs of earlier travels you will know that I’m a big fan of street art.  Lakes Entrance has 6 wood carvings of figures relating to the war. The original Monterey Cyprus pines were planted in 1924 to honour the local soldiers killed in “The Great War”.  In the 1990’s these needed to be cut down due to either disease or the forces of nature at work.  Chainsaw artist, John Brady, created these sculptures in 1998.  Here is Simpson and his donkey.

Maybe this counts as street art as well? 

There were more murals and other works of street art after we left Lakes Entrance, however I was either not quick enough, or too lazy to take some photos of these.  That changed when we hit the town of Yarram.

Heesco Khosnaran is an artist who moved to Australia from Mongolia twenty odd years ago and is known for his street art and also silo art.  After the 2020 bushfires and COVID Yarram decide to go all out to make Yarram a town of murals.   Heesco went to work and over the next 3 years or so created 24 murals.  Here are only a few of them:

I didn’t know this until I had gone to their bakery and picked up a map of all the murals in town.  It is so well known that it has won awards and the town is now marketing itself as Heesco Town – Yarram.

I could have spent a couple of hours exploring and viewing all the murals, however I had another person with me who was slightly less interested in all of this.  Maybe another time.

After another hour or so of driving we reached our destination for the night.  We are staying in a cottage midway between Foster and Fish Creek and will be looking forward to visiting Wilsons Promontory on our last full day of this trip, tomorrow.

Food Review

Yarram Bakery Cafe was our lunch time venue today.  Even through it was almost 2:00pm they still had a good range of pies and other hot food available.

Nick chose the plain sausage roll, ahead of the bacon and cheese one.  His verdict 7/10

My choice was the beef burgundy pie.  This was mostly a great pie and full of flavour however the beef was unfortunately very fatty which did lose it marks. 7/10

Today's Album The Miracle Queen

Kms Travelled Today 320

Kms Travelled Total 2,146

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

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

 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.

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. 

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 

Big Trip 2026(1) 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