Our en-suite is a bit odd as whilst it has a net curtain and a fly-screen, it has no curtain so I'm sure the neighbours would get a good eye-full. Sadly, I didn't bring my posing pouch. Walking into breakfast I espy coffee, tea, fruit bread and plain bread and so pop some fruit bread into the toaster. Then I notice the fruit, cereals and juices hiding behind a partition (why?) so have a traditional reverse breakfast. They have a reasonable selection of teas so I put aside (as I like to think, stealing has such base connotations) a bag of China Black for future delectation.
The chair lift costs AU$22 pp. to the top. Not for us despite the clear blue sky. We do try the bobsled, though, for AU$5 each. I found it a bit unnerving as the track is made from two metre straight sections welded (I presume) together. Plenty of wear and use later the slower rider gets a steady "thump (pause) thump" as they go down, particularly around bends [each thump being a not so subtle change in direction]. The medium paced rider gets a "thump thump thump" bouncing the car around in an out-of-control fashion. The sensible faster rider lets rip, goes way up the banking where it's smoothed out and has a far better ride. I was a medium to a bit faster and it was a bit unnerving. Helen, a slow rider, appeared ages after me with a huge grin on her face thinking it was great. In fact she'd almost stopped from lack of momentum.
We had a choice of carry on through the Snowy Mountains and "miss" some of the coastline or backtrack and go round to Lakes Entrance on the south east coast. We chose to backtrack and listened to reports of most of New South Wales [including Sydney] being battered by freak winds -- we hadn't noticed a thing. At a toilet stop a helpful chappie advised us not to traverse the Snowy Mountains beyond Thredbo (he hadn't seen us pull in) as bush fires had closed the road. [16/1 update: those fires are still burning and are the worst in twenty years]. Wow, no sign of them, either.
We went back across the high dry plains. They look the bone dry results of 40C every day but it was a pleasant sunny 20C. Maybe there's simply no rain. Certainly no sign of wind damage as we neared the coast so we turned south and back along route 1, the Princes Highway. This runs nowhere near the coast and rarely lets you see beyond wall after wall of gum trees. There was nothing to see or do en route bar stopping for petrol. If there is stuff out here it's not advertised very well (which may, of course, be the idea).
Not far from Lakes Entrance (it's the name of a town, btw) Helen said we've got to stop, that's a turtle, or something.
Perplexed, we quickly turned round, back up and off the road to see something waddling near the bushes. Long range camerawork revealed and armadillo! Excellent. We snuck up on the porcupine as it snuffled around then waddled over the bank. It might have been an armadillo, right? [Actually, it was probably an enchida.] Cautiously avoiding any snakes (is that possible?) I got some more footage down the bank.
Pulling into the YHA there were a dozen white and pink breasted parrots [galahs] loitering which flew off before Helen could picture them. Much to her disgust as only four came back. In the meanwhile the dear old GPS picked up one of the geo-stationary DPGS satellites. This should give a more accurate reading, down from 6m accuracy to maybe 3m (doesn't sound much, I know, but it's a new feature to play with). Sadly, though, it appears to have mucked things up royally as the accuracy seems to cycle between 6 and 250m and several wildly inaccurate levels in between. Oh dear. I'm sure it's just teething problems.
The hostel seems to consist of several flats each with three double of twin rooms and a shared bathroom. It's not lovely but I guess it'll have to do.
Riviera Backpackers, Lakes Entrance S37.87696 E148.00255 Elev. -5m (after a while this became 4m/5m)
It feels bloody cold here considering a) it's the middle of summer and b) we're at the same latitude and only 250km from Melbourne and Neighbours always looks sunny and warm. TV is just a big con. I don't believe it anymore.
We went down [to] the front to see what we could see for tea. Spotting a very red sun, low in the sky, we stopped for Helen to take a picture. Naturally, I fiddled wih the old GPS which a) seemed to have settled a bit and b) said sunset was about half and hour away. As I looked up to tell Helen, she'd turned to look at a huge stork on a sand bar. Probably as big as her it flapped off before I could dig out my camcorder.
Miriams was selected as it had an interesting menu and a cartoon of a semi-naked woman on the advert. Inside there was a fully naked Miriam (in cartoon form) with all her bits and pieces on display and a short self-homage lamenting all bar her boobs. The food was OK but nothing special and we shouldn't have had sweets which blew the budget and bloated the stomach. Over which I reflect that we've eaten out for both lunch and dinner almost everyday since the end of October. I regret to say that the lithe young athelete many of you remember wasn't me. Worse still, I believe I'm going to seed. That said I can't be bothered doing anything about it. I'll just have to eat finer quality food with less cheap fats and carbohydrates.
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.