Mallacoota to the Outskirts of The Prom

After a late night of DVD watching on Monday, I slept in on Tuesday morning. I checked out of my motel and drove the short distance into town. I found a picnic table near the Mallacoota Inlet and got out my laptop to write a few journal entries and enjoy the inlet. I had a nice breakfast at a nearby cafe before getting back on the road. Today's destination was Lakes Entrance about 200 km down the Princes Highway. Along the way I took a scenic drive down to Cape Conran and stopped briefly at a beach before returning to the highway. I arrived in Lakes Entrance in the middle of the afternoon.

The eastern portion of Victoria is known as Gippsland. Last week while I was in Sydney, Gippsland experienced heavy rainfall that resulted in serious flooding. The lakes and rivers swelled flooding farms, roads, and towns. Many of the little side roads I have been traveling on were flooded less than a week ago. The evidence of the flooding was still very evident with many fields still under water, trees down due to shifted soil, and mud abundant. The Lakes Entrance area was particularly hit hard because of inland lakes near the ocean. The road to a small town near Lakes Entrance was only reopened the day I arrived in Lakes Entrance. I was lucky that the flooding did not impact my itinerary or trip and the weather was sunny during my drive. The local farmers were not so lucky and were hit hard by the flooding, which is a cruel irony because before the flooding they were suffering from a bad drought.

Lakes Entrance is a popular summer holiday destination because it is the entrance to the Ninety Mile Beach that extends up the coast. My motel was in town along the main road with view of the small lake and the dunes behind it. After checking in, I went for a walk across the footbridge and over the dunes to the beach. I walked for a long time down the beach in the fading afternoon light. I sat for a while and watched the waves roll in. Out beyond the surf I saw a handful of dolphins jumping out of the water. After the sun had dipped behind the dunes I walked back into town and stopped at the grocery store before returning to the motel. For dinner I had local fish and chips from a little takeaway store in town. After dinner I went to the local cinema and saw 300, which I thought was a great movie. The highlight was the cinema itself because it was not just any cinema, it was attached to squash courts. I walked in the door and went upstairs which was an open corridor overlooking four squash courts. There was a counter at one end and I went and asked about the movie and the guy pointed at a door off to the side and said they would be starting soon. I paid for my ticket and walked over and entered into a normal looking cinema. As I sat waiting for the movie to begin the faint noises of a squash game echoed from next door. It was a truly unique small town experience.

On Wednesday morning I left Lakes Entrance and continued west. In Bairnsdale I stopped and found an internet connection and got a chance to talk to my parents. I had not realized it was July 4 until that morning, but it was good to hear about my family's holiday plans. America's independence celebration is not very big news here. From there I continued another 60 km to Sale and with no big plans for the day decided to take a break and catch a matinee movie. I found a theater with a caught a showing of Transformers, a big dumb action movie about toys from my youth. The schools here are currently out on winter holiday so there were plenty of children in the audience for the movie. I still had a few hours driving ahead of me and after the movie I got right back on the road.

A portion of the coastal road south I had intended to take was closed due to the flooding and I instead had to continue on the Princes Highway and turn south further down the road. The detour did not take any longer than my original route, it was just less scenic. I stopped for a quick dinner in one of the many small towns I passed through before continuing on to my accommodations. For the next two nights I would be treating myself to a stay in a Bed and Breakfast on the outskirts of Victoria's most famous park, Wilson's Promontory ("the Prom"). All my other lodgings have been in towns and easy to find, but the Bayview House is secluded and I was approaching to after dark. They provided me very good directions and I was able to successfully find without getting lost or hitting any wallabies in the road. It is a beautiful house and I had a lovely room on the first floor, a far cry from the hostels. I settled in for a good night's sleep to prepare for my exploration of the Prom.