Wednesday.
We left Narooma at about 9, planning to stop in Eden (the last town before a long stretch of driving) for lunch. We had our usual (by now) hot chocolate and other brunchy things in Eden, which was a nice little town with a wide high street where cars parked in a central divide. A quick nappy change later we were back on the road and hoping mini-Elbeno would fall asleep. However, he didn’t really feel inclined to do so, and we stopped again 43 km later at a rest area.
Australian highways feature many rest areas and truck parks, I suspect because the towns are quite far apart. Remote as it was, this rest area was functional, with a solar panel for power, ladies and gents toilets (albeit of the composting rather than flushing variety) and cold water – activated with a lever – to wash hands. The soap had long since disappeared, but perhaps those more skilled in Bush knowledge than myself could have rustled up some antibacterial sap, or something.
Back on the road, we continued the long drive to Orbost, the next town. There we stopped for a mid-afternoon snack of pancakes and fruit salad.
We got into Lakes Entrance at about 4, and found our new motel without a problem since it was on the main drag. Right next door (by good planning) was the attraction we wanted to visit in our short time in Lakes Entrance: the Shell Museum.
At $5 each to get in (mini-Elbeno free) it was a bargain and a good way to while away 45 minutes. Not only shells, but entire dried crabs, lobsters, fish, octopi and other denizens of the deep were on display by the thousand. Also, a model railway for the further amusement of mini-E. I was particularly struck by some cone shells with unequivocally sierpinski-esque markings:
It’s one thing to vaguely be aware of fractal patterns in nature that you’ve read about third hand, and quite another to see the remarkable truth sitting in front of you. I was impressed.
The shell museum closed at 5, so we took a walk in a direction that we thought would take us up to a lookout point. Unfortunately it didn’t seem to be fulfilling its promise, and it was getting dark, so we turned around and went back to a park to let the little chap have a play, while we enjoyed the view over the north arm just after sunset.
Lakes Entrance is so named because it is the only inlet to a lake system which stretches along 90 miles of coast at the south-eastern corner of Australia. After dark, we wandered off to find the local bowls club and have dinner there. It was something like a Harvester. I had Hawaiian chicken and Mrs Elbeno had Chicken Parmigiana, IIRC. I think mini-Elbeno mostly ate carrots (or “haba” as he calls them) and I used some discount coupons from the motel to get us a free round of drinks. The club had an excellent play area for youngsters with a rubberised floor and alphabet puzzles as well as Xboxes. We made our way back after dark, once again marvelling at the night sky, walking briskly so as to stave off the evening’s chill, and trying to spot a suitable place for the next morning’s breakfast.