Where Lakes Entrance meets the ocean
17 March 2016
Not too early up today as I was late in bed trying to catch up with the blog! Just a few doors from the motel was the Bloody Good Coffee cafe (right), so we tried their breakfast, and the coffee was bl**dy good!
Before leaving the peaceful Lakes Entrance we stopped off at the two lookouts on the hill leading out of town. Fabulous views of the whole series of the Gippsland Lakes round Lakes Entrance – the Cunninghame Arm, the North Arm and The Narrows (Rees Channel). It is a vast series of lakes, and the entire area is a breathtaking sight from the lookout (below).
The city of Bairnsdale was our next stop. Bairnsdale is the largest city in the East Gippsland region, situated on the Mitchell River which then flows into the extensive Gippsland Lakes system at Lake King. The commercial centre is built around the Princes Highway which opens up into a wide boulevard featuring trees, gardens and a rotunda in the centre strip (below right). We had a walk around the city centre, saw some of the heritage buildings, then drove down to the serene Mitchell River before heading further south (below left).
Sale was the next town situated between the other large Gippsland centres of Traralgon and Bairnsdale, although once we went through Sale we drove off the highway to take the coastal road.
Old pubs in the country towns of Yarram (right) and Sale (left)
Yarram is a major service centre for coastal communities in Gippsland, located south of the Strzelecki Ranges, east of Wilsons Promontory and inland from the historic Port Albert. We were now on the South Gippsland Highway and heading for the ocean and Port Albert. This is one of Victoria’s oldest sea ports, established in 1841 by explorer Angus McMillan. We first wandered around the port area, it was low tide, and a great deal of the southern section of the port was mud flats, home to many water birds such as curlews, seagulls, terns – and lots of soldier crabs.
By this time it was early afternoon, and we were a bit hungry so we found the Port Albert Cafe and Wine Bar and had lunch in their delightful garden (below left and right).
The Maritime Museum was opposite, and we spent a pleasant half hour or so in this very interesting award-winning museum with their featured exhibitions and memorabilia of the town’s maritime history (below left and right).
We then continued on to our destination for today, the town of Foster which is within an easy drive of Wilsons Promontory National Park, where we will visit tomorrow. It is a quiet little town, but we found the local Foster Hotel for dinner, nice lasagne with the essential chips and salad – made more palatable with a glass of Shiraz! Check out our dinner menu here
