Still didn’t sleep well, not sure why, could be the bed, could be the changes, could be the temperature fluctuations, who knows?
Finally got a call from the guy at the camp site we had to leave, I said it’s a bit late. He said Wednesday was his day off, I said where does it say that, he said it doesn’t say it anywhere, I said so how am I supposed to know then? I also asked why he didn’t answer the phone, he said it was for emergencies only; I said all he had to do was call me back or send an SMS. Long story short, he said he wouldn’t give a refund so I said I’d raise a dispute with the credit card company and he could argue with them. He called again later and apologised for not answering the phone and said he will refund the money because he didn’t realise I’d booked that day, he thought I’d booked a while ago and wanted to cancel at the last minute.
We’d set the alarm for 0800 so that we could be out by 1000, which we were, and headed off to Eden because Song wanted to go, and it was on the way, so why not? Parked in the main car park, then walked to the lookout, which we found out was down a huge slope and up another one. The weather was a bit overcast today, and the further South we went, the colder it got.
Eden is known for it’s Whaling history and now Whale watching, but that happens between August and November so we didn’t see any. Had a look from the lookout, then went back to the van.
Song also wanted to go to Malacoota for some reason, and it was on the way (sort of), so why not?
Turned off the main road to get there, and it was another twisty road through a forest, not the easiest to drive, especially with big trucks that insisted on going over the speed limit and stuck close behind me until I got to a passing place to let them overtake.
All along the road the trunks of the trees were black – a reminder of the forest fires from 2020; we also notice most of the house were new.
Decided we would eat at Malacoota, so parked the van and walked around looking for a nice seafood place, but what we found was a pizza and fish and chip shop, a cafe that did Eggs Benedict and bacon and egg sandwiches and a Chinese restauarant. Campervan to the rescue – Song finished off the prawns she’d bought the day before, and I had some soup and bread we bought from the IGA. Decided to have a big meal in the evening.
Back down the twisty forest road to get onto the main road, for some reason it seemed a lot quicker and less twisty on the way back.
For miles and miles all of the tree trunks were black, a huge area was affected by the fires – but there was also new growth as well, it was quite green so they were recovering.
We’re now back in Victoria on the last leg of the trip. We were heading for Lakes Entrance, which was about 2.5 hours away, just about as far as I wanted to drive, and also to make sure we got there when someone was there to avoid the dramas we’ve experienced. Stopped off at Orbost to stretch our legs (nothing there), then got to the camp site, checked in and drove into the main part of town to look for something to eat.
Parked up in a side street, then Googled for restauarants – Fish and Chips, Pizza, McDonalds, KFC. Oh for god’s sake. There was one place that looked decent, called Sodafish, so called them and asked if they had a table – they said we could sit outside but it might be a bit cold. Faced with the other options we agreed.
Best meal for a long time. Still fish, but a proper meal. We chose the Chef’s choice; starters of scallop, octopus and baby carrot (more elaborate than that but I can’t remember); then I had the King George Whiting and Song had the Flounder with a vege dish to share. It was a bit cold, we were sitting on the deck overlooking the lake with some moored boats, but they put on a heater and it was really pleasant.
Since we were on holiday we both had a dessert; I ordered the white chocolate mousse with Pear sorbet and Song ordered the chocolate and hazelnut praline – which we swapped.
Finally a nice meal.
Walked back to the van, pretty cold by now, drove to the park and connected up and settled down for the night.