Our Great Adventure: Lakes Entrance Day 140 5/02/2015

After a lovely breakfast alfresco at the local flower shop cum cafe we headed off north. The weather had improved and the forecast for the next few days was looking very good. The plan was to drive to Buchan on the edge of the Snowy River National Park and decide what to do for the next few days. We drove east to Lakes Entrance, filled up with fuel, had a chat about the price of fuel in the UK (it's just over $1 per litre here - 55p!) and set off north. Unfortunately we had to change our plans as when we arrived in Buchan everything was closed, including the local cafe. Instead we decided to take the scenic road tour through the park from Gelantipy to Bonang. The road narrows to a single track before becoming gravel. We stopped at Little River Gorge to admire Victoria's deepest gorge and looked for the rare brush tailed wallaby but didn't see any. From here we continued for c20km along a steep, narrow track with lovely views of the high alpine country and the Snowy River to McKillops Bridge. Luckily we only past one other vehicle who very kindly drove into the ditch in his truck to let us pass. McKillops Bridge is made totally of wood and we were glad we didn't look at the construction too closely until we were over. The drop down to Snowy River was quite considerable. From here the gravel track continued for about 80km before we finally reached a sealed road. If we were missing the dirt roads of South East Asia this has certainly made up for it! By now we were both very hungry and the viennese shortbread that Raewyn and Bill had included in the bag of goodies that they sent us off with was very welcome. After driving c330km we ended up back at Lakes Entrance about 30km east of where we stayed last night! The town is named for the channel artificially created in 1889 to provide ocean access from the lakes system and create a harbour for the fishing boats. We checked in at the Heybridge Motel (a bargain at $105 per night) and went out in search of food. The very nice guy at the motel had recommended the Ferryman's Seafood Cafe, a floating cafe-restaurant on the Cunningham Arm Inlet just near the motel, so we headed there. Simon had an enormous sea food platter which included oysters, scallops, prawns, crayfish, mussels and barramundi. It was a lovely evening so after dinner we walked down to the footbridge that crosses over the inlet to the ocean and Ninety Mile Beach and watched the sun go down. Back at the motel we had a rethink for plans for the next few days before heading off to bed.