After a rainy afternoon in Mallacoota, we awoke to beautiful clear skies. By mid-morning we were winding our way further south. After a short break for lunch (and a game of soccer) near Orbost, we continued on to Lakes Entrance, which we quickly learned is old English for ‘place of many caravan parks’.
With the sun shining we explored ninety-mile beach – or at least a solid 200m of it. A cold and blustery southerly moved in overnight. The next day we escaped the squally conditions in ‘Griffith’s Sea Shell Museum & Marine Display’. Sienna and Thomas described the museum as “Epic”. They were in awe at the displays of shark jaws, giant crabs and embalmed spooky creatures from the deep dark depths of Bass Strait….oh, and cabinets and cabinets full of shells.
Thankfully the cold and wet conditions passed and we headed off under brilliant blue skies to explore Buchan Caves.
We joined a tour of the Fairy Cave, which was discovered by Frank Moon in 1907. He had been commissioned by the local government to find a cave that could become a tourist attraction. So when he discovered cool air emerging from a small hole on a hill, he excavated and climbed down a rope into a three kilometre cave system. He became the superintendent for the cave and became a certified cave-fanatic. He named his daughter ‘Fairy’ after the cave he found and she, in turn, named her son Cave. Yep, that’s Frank Moon, Fairy Moon and Cave Moon. And Fairy Moon got married in Fairy Cave. You can’t make this stuff up!
Heading back to Lakes Entrance we detoured to the Nowa Nowa Wetlands and the Stony Creek Trestle Bridge, which were both great.
While the kids joined a posse of kids in the caravan park, we fired up the BBQ and managed to cook our first roast of the trip. Next stop… Traralgon (which seems like it has one too many ‘r’s).
