Day 111 - Tuesday 18 April - Around the lakes

Day 111

Tuesday

18 April 2017 –

Lakes Entrance -  Swan Reach – Metung – Nungurner

We woke to peace and tranquillity covered in grey cloud and cool temps. We remained in bed with the window shade just open allowing us to see the greyness above and giving enough light to read our books. When we had read for long enough, we ventured out to start the day. Breakfast, showers and a new load of washing on, I even pulled out the 12v vacuum and gave the van the once over.

Just after 10am we pulled on the walking shoes and wandered into town. The clouds were now lifting and the blue sky hinted at the beautiful day ahead. We wandered along the Cunninghame Arm frontage. Most of the restaurants and shops face this strip. We walked the path reminiscing about when we were here almost 14 years ago and remembering the points of interest along the way. 

We checked out the local seafood monger selling the freshest of catches direct from the boat, before returning to the footbridge that takes you to the surf beach, part of the 90 mile beach. We took in the view of the surf break and the white sands stretched out before us and then returned back over the footbridge, passing some of the chainsaw carved wood statues that line the street as we returned to the van. 

Paul brought in the washing that was dry as I prepared our hot cross bunnies. Following our snack, we packed up our lunch and the fishing gear and headed off for the afternoon. Our first stop was a lookout at Kalimna that provides a great view over Lakes Entrance, its watercourses and on to 90 Mile beach. It was the perfect day for being out on the water. 

We continued a further 15min down the road to Swan Reach. Paul unloaded his fishing tackle and found a spot to fish from the bank, while I wandered under the bridge taking photos before venturing over the top and to the other bank, enjoying the opportunity to get out and walk in the sun. 

I returned to Paul and we ate lunch while he kept an eye on his line. Nothing big was biting so he was happy to pack it away and we travelled on to Metung. We didn’t stop in here last time, but we were glad we did today. It was a magic little spot, far less busy than Lakes Entrance, however it did have an air of snobbery about it as well, you could see it in the architecture. We stopped at a small jetty, where Paul got talking to one of the fishermen and he gave us the tip to check out Nungurner jetty for more great photos.

Once back at the car, we followed the road out of Metung and then diverted to Nungurner. The little jetty was nestled down a small hill. There were a few boats moored along the jetty, but as mentioned it was really quite. We walked out on the jetty and ogled the small baitfish. The water seemed to be alive with them and mussels that had attached themselves to the pylons and boats that have been anchored for too long. 

After admiring the views, we made our way back to Lakes Entrance, stopping at the Kalimna side of the North Arm to check out caravan park from the other side of the water and the views that the fancy houses had from this bank.  It was pretty special. 

Can't quite see our van behind the boats on the right. Great spot.

Once we returned we had a brief rest, I started dinner, but then realised that I needed more things, so we packed up and went to the shop for the required ingredients. We unloaded everything into the van on our return and then decided to do a walk along the North Arm waters edge to the Apex Park about 1km away. The sun was just starting to dip and the orangey colours were beginning to dominate the skyline. 

At the Apex Park there was a fisherman cleaning and filleting his catch, he had a captive pelican audience just waiting for the scraps to be thrown their way. He certainly had a sizeable number of fish and Paul was interested in hearing that the bloke had been on a charter this afternoon, maybe something for tomorrow. 

We finished our chat and made our way back towards the van, a slow process with me taking photos. Once in, I was straight into dinner prep and loading the photos at the same time. We ate before moving on to our usual night time activities, blog, photos and reading, ready for another relaxed and entertaining day tomorrow.