Lakes Entrance

We arrived at Lakes Entrance before lunch on Thursday the 7^th Feb and booked in to the Koonwarra Caravan Park. It was $30 a night for a powered site. We were not aware of the $25 powered sites at the Lakes Entrance Recreation Reserve. That would have been a good spot as it was right on the water. However, we have had some lousy weather here so it was not as vital and our sites are grassy and huge and we are not at all crowded.

After lunch and setup we went for a walk over the bridge to the beach. Unfortunately it was overcast but the rain held off for us. The grey conditions do not show this place off very well but we can see how nice it is.

The next morning we did the walk from the surf club to the entrance bar which was 4.8km return. The bar is a bit of a dangerous one I believe. 

It was interesting how they constructed it. They formed concrete blocks and ran a rail line to drop granite and the concrete blocks into place.

There are a colony of seals that live at the entrance. They were close to us at the eastern side of the breakwater where they seemed to be just enjoying swimming against the tide. These photos are pretty lousy but they were all I could get as they breached out of the water so quickly. I did get a reasonable video which I will post on facebook.

The next morning was sunny and we took the opportunity to get out and have a fish. We tried the main lake area near town where there were supposed to be bream around the jetties. 

We then tried the Kalimna jetty where we got a lot of bites from small fish but no good catch.

It was nice though to get some sun amongst these overcast days. Not for long, however. We knew there was a predicted storm and it got very wet and windy. We made the most of it though and sat in the van with Jan & Ross and played a favourite board game. So that was good fun.

The next morning the weather had fined up somewhat for the morning blossomed into a beautiful afternoon. Linda and I did the walk to the entrance bar again. A photo of the breakwater in a bit more sunshine.

After lunch we took a drive to see what else the area had in store. Firstly we drove a short distance further east to East Beach. You can walk straight over from the van park there to the beach as the inlet there is very narrow and a tiny bridge crosses it. The surf is really terrible all along that beach so it is not a beach you would bother swimming in.

Then we drove to the lookout over Lake Tyer Beach. It was an amazing view of a big expanse of Ninety Mile Beach.

Then we drove in the opposite direction to the west to Metung. Metung is on the western end of the lakes. It was such a quiet and beautiful place. Almost every square inch of the shoreline is taken by jetties but it doesn’t seem to spoil it. The water is gorgeous and inviting but surprisingly, again, there is no netting for a designated swimming area. You would just find a place for a swim if it was hot enough I guess.

We had fish-n-chips from the café down by the water in the little hamlet. It was an impressive pub and restaurant there but it was $30 a head for fish-n-chips at the pub and then the wine and beer would have been on top. We were just in the mood for the café fare. We will be spending up when we get to the Mornington Peninsular no doubt. But our setting for lunch was just beautiful.

We then headed back to Lakes Entrance. At the top of the escarpment before dropping down into the town we stopped at the lookout for these beautiful views.

The next lookout down gave us this perspective on the entrance bar and the lakes.

That was Lakes Entrance at its best. We had previously got photos in overcast weather. No need to keep those. I thought Lakes Entrance was beautiful and a great place. Again it is a place that you need a boat to make the most of it.