Lakes Entrance, it is what is says

We continued our journey south from Canberra on the inland route towards Lakes Entrance, a small town on the southwestern coast. This was just a one night stop-over to break up the drive to Phillip Island. We stayed in a motel off a dirt road on a bluff above the ocean and fended off some bugs during the night.

The drive south from Canberra passes through some drier portions of the country, a departure from the lush coastline and forests we had grown accustomed to.

The last portion of the day’s travel was a winding drive through several national parks. There were some great views coming over some of the crests and great forests all around.

Lakes Entrance derives its name from a series of long narrow lakes, with a thin sand barrier to the ocean, which flows into the ocean at a single point.

Down at the lake there is a small stretch (maybe 3 blocks) of shops and restaurants overlooking a harbor. We crossed it along the foot bridge pictured above and walked out onto the beach, pictured below:

The beach was a wide stretch of fine light colored sand. Along the way we crossed many seashells, washed up jelly fish, and a pair of black swans.

We walked along the beach up to the end at the lakes entrance, where the waves crash into outflowing water. We ended the day crossing back over the foot bridge to this beautiful time of day over the lake.

The next day we followed the inn-keeper’s suggestion to visit Raymond Island, which is barely an island. There is a very narrow stretch of water that separates it from the mainland that can only be crossed taking this absurdly slow ferry. It takes it about 10 minutes to cross what we could probably swim in 3.

The reason to visit Raymond Island is to see koalas (as demonstrated by Vince and a random kid) in their natural habitat. They have a well-marked path through the houses on the island and we saw four in total, including this mother and baby (the baby is hard to distinguish, the mother is holding it).

Another recommendation from our inn-keeper was to see the inside of “the church next-door to McDonald’s” as he put it. The ceiling and altar paintings, done by an Italian immigrant, were quite impressive by Australian standards.

We were later briefly stopped by our one and only cow crossing.

Right before Phillip Island is a wind farm up on a hill overlooking the ocean. You can drive right up to these huge, white windmills that we would later see more of them in abundance along the south coast.