Malacoota and Narooooooooma!

After a lovely time at Wilson’s Prom we undertook the 5 hour drive to Mallacoota, a small town on the east coast of Victoria. At one point we had a 180km stretch without any turns on the sat nav, we did arrive in time for a quick walk before sunset however.

- Next stop 180km!

It was a quick two night stop at a campsite right on the local estuary and a short walk to the beach around said estuary (and an even shorter walk if you just waded through). On our only full day there we went to the beach on a glorious day without a cloud in the sky. It stretched for miles with perfect sand and we basically had the place to ourselves! It was a rather leisurely time, spent reading and playing in the sea.

- Beaches for days in Mallacoota.

- Enjoying an evening in in Mallacoota with our $2.69 wine!

The next day we just about beat the rain and got on the road as it started pouring. Taking down a tent in the rain doesn’t sound like much fun. We headed up the coast on the Prince’s highway, which we had been on the whole way from Melbourne, super exciting road... There aren’t the same number of small villages and towns here as we’re used to at home and you can easily drive an hour without passing anything of note. We did however cross the border into New South Wales!

Upon arrival in Narooma (which very much has the feel of a holiday resort that is dead in the winter) we walked to Australia rock, which is a natural arch which is ‘shaped like Australia’, you can be the judge!

- We are here.

The next day it was ridiculously windy and pouring with rain, so we headed to the shops, stocked up on food and hid in our tent all day! After a super windy night (that our tent survived) we were on the road to civilisation in the form of Canberra and we would finally be getting off the Prince’s highway as we headed inland to the nation’s capital!

Nature Watch

In Mallacoota there were lots of birds to be seen in the estuary, the stand out being the large number of pelicans.

- An outstanding photo of a pelican.

However the most exciting/heart attack inducing nature experience of the trip happened on the walk to the beach. As we were heading down the trail to the beach, a very well camouflaged snake lounging across the path suddenly moved when we were just a few metres away and made us absolutely wet ourselves. I was between Sophie and said snake, so she took the initiative and turned and legged it! I decided I would rather keep an eye on it, so after the odd expletive and a ‘calm’ retreat to a safe distance I was able to watch it rouse itself and head off into the bush so we could continue our walk. Needless to say we took the alternate route home through the estuary! Upon review I’m pretty certain it was a lowland copperhead as it was patterned brown, about a metre and a half in length and was living near fresh water. It turns out they’re venomous enough to kill you! Unfortunately Nature Watch's principal photographer instantly fled the scene and so we have none of our usual stunning visuals for you this time.

In Narooma we saw a dolphin doing some fishing... Nature Watch!

That thing that looks like a rock...It's a dolphin.