Australia's great lakes

After leaving Bega we headed south west for Lakes Entrance.

North America has the Great Lakes, Australia has the Gippsland Lakes in Victoria and they are just as or maybe more impressive than those on the other side of the world.

For those uninitiated, here are a few facts on the lakes in Oz.

They are the biggest inland waterway system in Australia and are a network of lakes, marshes and lagoons covering 400sq km, and are separated from the ocean with coastal sand dunes.

After an overnight stay in a rest stop halfway between Bega and Lakes Entrance just a few metres off the highway in a car park (really... but it was free), we carried on along the Princes Highway towards Oborst.

My yearning to catch a fish is now becoming an obsession, much to Joy's chagrin .

So we made a small detour to a tiny village on the coast called Marlo.

I wet the line (it wasn't what you call fishing!!!) but to no avail... the beast had outdone the so-called master again.

Farm stay

The previous day we had looked at staying at a free camp behind a pub in Lake Tyers, a few kilometres away from Lakes Entrance.

A beautiful place, as you can see from the pictures, but we decided on a farm stay at a place called Tostaree Cottages.

We definitely made the right choice, although I wasn't so sure when we arrived to find a small paddock next to some grazing cows and sheep.

But it was the right place and once again we had stumbled across another slice of paradise.

When we first arrived our only neighbours were the cows and the sheep and , of course, the obligatory flies (we are in Australia).

We decided to stay for a week, one because we loved the place run by Greg and Vicki and two because the price of petrol had now rocketed to well over $2 and Daffodillon also needed some TLC in the form of a service.

A night with cows is an experience not to be missed. The noises they make are worse than those that emanate from me every now and again!!! (sorry if that planted a vision in the brain).

We survived and next morning headed into Lakes Entrance for a coffee and a look round.

Again, as is our wont, we got lucky in our search for a hot beverage, although it wasn't the one we originally hoped for.

The sign outside the cafe read the best hot chocolate in town... a bold statement but one that was factually correct ours were simply the best we had ever tasted and we highly recommend it to other travellers.

Lakes Entrance has a large fleet of fishing trawlers (above).

And, of course, my continued hunt for the elusive fish was set to continue and what better place to break my drought than here you would think, but more of that later.

We travelled to Metung, another beautiful lakelands town and took a walk on the boardwalk.

I of course, tried for a fish, but more of that later.

Friends reunited

As mentioned before, Daffodillon needed a service, so we took her to a garage in Bairnsdale, some 50kms west of Lakes Entrance.

While our mobile home was off the road, we took the chance to meet up with friends Ted and Jen (with us above) in Paynesville, the boating capital of Australia.

Their home backs on to the Mitchell River, another piece of serenity.

They were the perfect hosts, Ted cooked us a great breakfast before they both took us on a tour of the lakelands near them.

We visited the Mitchell River silt jetties, now claimed to be the longest in the world.

Ted drove us the 6km along the jetty to Lake King with the jetty separating the lake from the river.

It was certainly a site to behold.

On the right track

But it's not all about the lakes in East Gippsland and we took a break from the shore to go inland a little to the historic trestle rail bridge at Stony Creek.

Again we drove on a dirt track which could have been taking us anywhere but as Joy remarked as we rattled along in our home on wheels, these unknown roads usually lead to somewhere jaw-dropping and this bridge from a bygone age was no exception.

Our little van was dwarfed by this amazing structure which stands 20 metres tall and is 247 metres long.

Hard to believe that trains were still regularly using this bridge in 1976, in fact the last train travelled across it in 1987 after bush fires destroyed some of it in 1980.

Food glorious food

When you're travelling there are still household chores so the next day was set aside for a visit to the launderette.

While the washing was being taken care of, we had one of the best breakfasts we have sampled in our time in Australia at a cafe called Funky Monkey.

Later in the day we also stumbled across some more amazing food in the form of donuts.

Not usually part of our diet (really!!) but the Big Bear Donuts shop came into our sights as we wandered along the esplanade and it really was rude not to.

We settled on sliced donut filled with peanut butter and banana. Simply delicious. Some great donuts and a great back story too, with the Big Bear name coming from founder Ewan, a former fisherman, who started a donut van inn 2019 when the fishing industry changed rules.

Fisherman's tales

For those of you waiting anxiously to hear more about my fishing exploits, wait no more.

We arrived in Lakes Entrance with me having caught one fish since our journey began on February 14.

In our first six days, I tried a spot off Bullock Island... no luck, Metung, again no luck, and then a longer drive to Nicholson on the Tambo River... guess what? No luck.

Then after a chat with our landlord for the week, Greg, the night before, I tried a spot on the river at Nowa Nowa.

It was a beautiful spot and reminded me of my old stomping ground on the Maroochy River on the Sunshine Coast.

With my first cast I had a good bite and was beginning to think this finally could be the day.

Cast after cast and bite after bite but still no luck.

Then after maybe 10 missed bites, just like London buses, two came along one after the other and the drought was broken at last.

Neither were big enough breams to take home for tea but it's a start and hopefully the trend will continue as we head west.

Wilsons Promontory, Wonthaggi, Phillip Island and Melbourne are the next scheduled stops on our journey so keep the eyes peeled over the next few days and keep enjoying this blog.