Ski Slopes in Summer

The morning looks grey not what we expected after the blue skies of yesterday, so instead of trying to hire a boat we decide to drive to the next village of Thredbo. The drive is lovely with the mountains becoming increasingly steep sided and thickly covered in trees. It comes as a surprise to us that we have to pay to enter the Kosciuszko national park, not that we mind the entrance fee of 16 dollars seems more than reasonable. Thredbo is a long skinny development built very much in the style of European ski resorts and is at this time of year like a ghost town, there are a few people mountain biking or walking the trails, we both feel like extras caught up in the wrong movie. We do our best to fit in strolling round the village, investigating the ski lift and having a coffee at the only place open (no après ski here currently). With no more to occupy us we head back to Jindabyne and a consolation lunch of lamb burger with greek style toppings of feta and mint salad followed by a walk round Banjo Patterson park to admire the scenery once more now the sun is shining and the many sculptures along the way. The rest of the afternoon and evening is taken up with lazing by the lake with feet up just watching the world go by and the busy bird life all around us.



Thredbo

From Coast to Alpine Lakes

Wow, and wow again is the only way to begin to describe the drive from Merimbula to Jindabyne. It starts out gently through small patches of trees and farmland before the Snowy Mountain Highway branches off and turns inland and upwards. The road becomes increasingly surrounded by forest all the while twisting and turning as it climbs, eventually we reach a view point and safe stopping point. The view through the trees to the coast is breathtakingly beautiful and amazingly the walkways are all block paved to further view points in the forest. Glad continues to climb sometimes reduced to a crawl, often round hairpin bends until without warning we’re on a flat plateau 1110 metres above sea level. This is obviously  a big sheep farming area as there are sheep everywhere you look. After some considerable time the road starts to descend and we get our first sight of Lake Jindabyne. The whole area reminds us strongly of The Alps, steep sided wooded mountains surrounding a huge azure blue lake and all the while the scent of pine reaches us through the open windows.

The campsite here is on the shore of Lake Jindabyne with gorgeous views through the trees of the lake and at its edge a small boat hire jetty. We can walk from the site into the village of Jindabyne along a walking track by the shore of the lake, it’s hot and sunny with cloudless blue skies, the only things we see are birds (feathered variety). There’s hardly anyone here as this is considered to be a skiing area so isn’t popular until the snow falls. We can only say lots of people are missing out on a beautiful area.



Dave & Jan at Lake Jindabyne

It’s too far to walk back to the village to eat, so Dave will have to suffer my cooking tonight, mind you the view from the table will make up for any faults in the meal.

Merimbula

Sunday morning and the skies are looking very grey and threatening, not to be discouraged we set off to walk to Merimbula. A kind Aussie couple stop and offer us a lift to town, which we gratefully accept, it turns out they have been coming here for 20 years and love the area, even in the rain it is beautiful. An emergency shelter in a coffee shop to order 2 Americano’s, this causes immense confusion “what’s an Americano?” is it a flat white – no – but at least a small part of Australia is not impacted by the global giant that is America!!! followed some window shopping while’s away the time until the rain passes. We walk back to the campsite via Rotary Park and Bar Beach, through what feels like rainforest. There are plaques along the way giving descriptions, pictures and uses of the indigenous plant species and all the while through the trees glimpses of the expansive bay.

After a brief stop for lunch, we set off to explore the beach behind the campsite. From the top of the cliffs the beach is spread out in a broad arch of golden sand with a lake behind the beach providing still waters. The walk is hard going at times with the soft golden sand squeaking as we walk over it and all the time the wind whipping up the sea into white foam. The sun provides pools of warmth that chase us along the beach. The day might not be the beautiful hot, sunny Aussie weather we dreamed of but it certainly is dramatic.

Now, the last thing you expect at a campsite in Australia we’ve come to believe is a vibrant music scene and a café serving surprisingly haute cuisine food. We wandered up to The Cheeky Mango expecting an average evening of entertainment, how wrong we were. The Aussie’s (and one New Zealander) were wonderfully welcoming, 3 brother-in-laws given a pass out by the sisters they were married too and here for the 4^th sister’s wedding, chatted to us (1 Farmer – arable & livestock, 1 general maintenance/lumberjack, 1 sheep sheerer-200 sheep/day!) as if we’d known them all our lives. Then there was the music, acoustic guitar, blues, harmony, blue grass and all with an Ed Sheeran look/sound alike, absolutely brilliant. I haven’t even reached the food yet, salt and pepper calamari with alioli and filo wrapped prawns (huge) with sweet chilli, a great unexpected evening after a wind-blown day.



Live music at "The Cheeky Mango"

 

Cliff Top Camping




Relics café at Cann River

Today it’s not only time to move campsites we also change states from Victoria to New South Wales. The drive is another 270Km along the Princes Highway or A1, it’s nothing like the A1 in the UK. The drive is mainly through forested areas with occasional vast vistas of steep sided mountains covered with trees. We pass some flat farm land with huge fields of maize and sunflowers, the latter all with their heads turned towards the sun. The halfway point of the drive is Cann River our designated coffee stop today. Now, how do I begin to describe “Relics” café, well, think American diner crossed with and eclectic junk yard and you may just be there. There’s 7 inches singles nailed above the door, formica tables covered in red and white spotted plastic tablecloths, a hotch potch of chairs and sofas, motorbikes, pushbikes, table football, farm implements ….. the list is endless, the coffee is great. We believe it’s all for sale, we may go back and put in a bid.
The endless forests continue until we reach Eden, where we come back down to the sea and shortly cross the bridge into Merimbula. The campsite is up on the cliff and Glad is pleased to be given a spot with uninterrupted views of the ocean where she can rest. It doesn’t take us long to set up and sit down outside to admire the view when we are the subjects of a gang “mugging”. Now the culprits will be easily identified on crime watch, they’re about 7 inches tall, bright green with red, yellow and blue faces and bellies, that’s right they’re parakeets eager to see if we’ve any tasty apple for them. They try Dave’s coffee but it’s not to their liking, after some 10 minutes of harassment they fly off to find more amenable victims. Consequently, although we BBQ tonight we don’t feel brave enough to eat outside until well after dark when the crickets are out singing, the bunnies are hopping around and the stars above are oh so bright.

3 of "The Gang" checking us out



Lakes Entrance & Beaches

The parakeets wake us soon after sunrise this morning with their cheerful calls and whistles. It’s cloudy but promises to be another sunny day. We walk into Lakes Entrance along the walking track by the side of the river watching the pelicans cruising up and down and the other bird life busily going about their business. Lakes Entrance is a long thin sprawling town bounded by 2 different rivers on either side, it’s made up of numerous small businesses, holiday places and some very nice housing. The day is indeed turning out to be warm and sunny so we do what lots of Aussies do and head for the beach to sunbathe, watch the ocean and dip our feet in the water before heading back to the pool for a swim. No BBQ for us tonight, the delights of the Mexican restaurant – The Tres Amigos awaits us, shredded beef enchillades, shredded chicken & beef enchillades/tacos. We now know how those fat penguins feel, it’s very tempting to lie down on the beach and wait for morning.



Pelicans stalking a fisherman - it snatched the fish he caught!

Ninety Mile Beach - WOW!

This morning it’s like waking up in the jungle with all the bird song at dawn. We’ve only manages to spend one night on this beautiful island, it’s all too short. We’re going to Lakes Entrance today, some 300Km towards Sydney, and the journey, I’ll not lie is long. I’ve been dumped as chief navigator, Dave has switched on “Gertie Garmin” and seems to prefer her soft tones – I’m miffed!!! Never mind more sleeping time for me. With only 50Km to go Dave agrees to stop in Bairnsdale for us to restock the fridge and eat at “Little Alice’s” café. All suitably refuelled we press on for Lakes Entrance and suddenly round a corner the views of the rivers and lakes open up, Gertie naturally, leads us straight to Eastern Beach our stop for the next 2 days. We’ve already walked the 2 minutes stroll to the beach and what a beach – the famous 90 mile beach. Simply gorgeous, golden sand, turquoise sea, rolling surf and hardly anybody on the beach. As I write I’m surrounded by the calls of green and red parakeets, seabirds and I’m watching a pelican swim languidly by, a perfect spot for a BBQ and a bottle of wine tonight.



Dave on Ninety Mile Beach

Penguins!!!!!

We’re moving to Phillip Island today and the easiest way for us to get there is via the Queenscliffe to Sorrento car ferry, it cuts off some 80+Km and a drive through Melbourne. Much to Dave’s delight we’re first in line at the ferry and drive on first, it’s like a small version of the cross channel ferry. We watch the scenery roll by as the ferry takes some 40 minutes to cross the huge bay to Mornington Peninsula. This peninsula looks more affluent and heavily built up as we drive up to Mornington but then as we drive across the peninsula the houses thin out until there’s only flat farm land in sight and very little traffic on the long straight roads. The bridge  from San Remo across to Phillip Island appears quite suddenly off to the right and the views of the bay open out. The campsite is next to the beach with smaller sandy pitches under eucalyptus trees. There are large coot like birds wandering around the site inspecting everyone’s cars and vans while the porcupines dig for ants in the sandy soil.



A Little Penguin in its burrow

The excitement is now building but there are several hours to occupy first, so a stroll along the beautiful beach meters from our site helps occupy me. Soon it’s time to go, why am I so excited well tonight we’re going to see the penguin parade. This has been one of my main objectives since we decided to come to this part of Australia. But first we’re driving to “The Nobbies” an exposed promontory where seals live just off the headland – not that we can see any today, just a few penguins in their nesting boxes. The views however are wild and dramatic and on the way back to the penguin parade, lots of wallabies are beginning to move around at dusk. At last the penguin parade, we check-in and get our VIP passes – it was the only tour we could get booked onto several weeks ago and we didn’t want to miss out on the experience. The whole building is over-run with people – well mainly Chinese actually (they are expecting 86 coaches tonight alone). David our ranger guide (is David the most common name in Oz?) takes us for a short briefing on the Penguins before leading us down to the Sky box – nothing to do with TV. The 9 of us in the group are given binoculars to watch for the penguins, they’re so heavy I’m leaning backwards trying to hold them up! 8.45pm the first few Little Penguins cross the beach, it’s fascinating watching them gather in groups at the water’s edge then making the dash up the beach for the hillside. From the viewing platform we follow their progress up the sandy pathways to their nesting burrows, it’s hard work at 1 foot tall and with legs only 2 inches long climbing some 1 in 2 slopes! The ones at the top must nightly curse their long walk home. Some are so fat preparing for their moult they fall on their bellies and lay there like stranded fish to catch their breath. At the top of the boardwalk we have to pause to give way to penguins at the world’s only penguins crossing where they have right of way. A truly magical experience, thanks goes to my mum for the great Xmas present it’s one I’ll never forget.