Pelican, Lakes Entrance |
So, the adventure began. Saturday night I packed all my stuff up. Clothes, sleeping mat, sleeping bag, towel, bathers, torch… a whole bunch of stuff, in fact. C arrived in the hired four-wheel drive just after 8am, and we set out. First stop Sale, to fill up with petrol and pick up food. Second stop was Lakes Entrance, for a walk around and look at the water.
Then Cann River for more fuel (it was burning it up like there was no tomorrow, and continued to do so until a couple of days later when we found the Overdrive switch), and off down the Point Hicks Road, which was sealed for the first fifteen minutes, then became something of an adventurous bumpy unsealed dirt track for another half hour to the Thurra River camp site. It got easier when we discovered where the 4WD button was in the car.
There to meet us were camp hosts Neils and Guy, a couple of blokes you could be forgiven were school students working a holiday job for Parks Victoria. Their information board was good, informing us of the upcoming weather, and the fact that camping was only available to those with Advanced Bookings (sic). They introduced themselves and told us about the various facilities around the site, and Monday’s
total fire ban. They said this meant we couldn’t have any hot meat – evidently they assumed that red meat burnt to a crisp was the natural staple food for all campers. I don’t think the spicy salami we had bought in Sale was quite what they had in mind.
The tent etc got setup and after some dinner and a glass of some very nice ten year-old port, we went for a walk to the beach and watched the moon (full, or almost full) rising over the ocean, a glorious sight to say the least.
