Today I spent in Mallacoota. It is a small town in the Gippsland region of Victoria and caters for tourist with a variety of caravan parks, camp grounds and motels. As far as I can tell there are no upmarket hotels and the townspeople all seem to be down to earth and very friendly. I am not sure whether this is just because the tourist season hasn't really started yet or whether it is like this all year round; in any case, I feel very welcome here.
First thing this morning I walked into town and watched some fishermen on the main wharf. A young bloke caught a fairly sizeable octopus, which happened to me once before when I cut it loose because I didn't know how to kill it. So I went to watch. He said that it is easy, you just push your fishing knife between its eyes, which he proceeded to do. The octopus seemed fairly unimpressed by this and continued to walk along the jetty on its tentacles. Another old bloke came up and said that you had to twist the knife and pull it back into the creatures head, same result. They continued to try a few other techniques, but the thing had a remarkable will to live. I left after about 5 minutes and the fight was still going on. If any of you know a quick way of dispatching an octopus that doesn't require heavy hand guns or explosives, please let me know; I like eating them and would like to keep it if I ever catch one again.
At the tourist shed on the wharf I got myself a leaflet on available walks around Mallacoota and found that there is a nice loop walk of about eight kilometres that takes in all different types of environments. It started by a crossing a forest, then lead across heathland onto a beach, followed the beach around a rocky headland back towards the town and its lake.
The forest was quite lush and colourful, after all it is Spring and the world is meant to be in bloom. I took some pictures of flowers for you, please forgive me if my naming is not botanically accurate.
The further I headed towards the beach the more the plants changed to a scraggy look that said "I am tough and can live of sand and salt alone...". They also got shorter and shorter. The beach itself was deserted except for a couple of guys on surfboards catching a wave.
I found it interesting how there were inland lakes separated from the sea by sand alone. I would have expected this to open up or wash out by the surf and join up.
The lake on the right hand side of the picture reached a long way inland, so I was glad that there was this bridge of sand along the beach that meant that I didn't have to walk around it.
Tomorrow I have to leave Mallacoota and head back to Canberra to get the complimentary 1000 km service done on my car (or in my case the 1700 km service). After that it should be ready to take me via Darwin to Broome before it needs to be serviced again, so I can finally start my circumnavigation of Australia in earnest.
First thing this morning I walked into town and watched some fishermen on the main wharf. A young bloke caught a fairly sizeable octopus, which happened to me once before when I cut it loose because I didn't know how to kill it. So I went to watch. He said that it is easy, you just push your fishing knife between its eyes, which he proceeded to do. The octopus seemed fairly unimpressed by this and continued to walk along the jetty on its tentacles. Another old bloke came up and said that you had to twist the knife and pull it back into the creatures head, same result. They continued to try a few other techniques, but the thing had a remarkable will to live. I left after about 5 minutes and the fight was still going on. If any of you know a quick way of dispatching an octopus that doesn't require heavy hand guns or explosives, please let me know; I like eating them and would like to keep it if I ever catch one again.
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| Mallacoota Wharf, the scene of the epic octopus battle |
The forest was quite lush and colourful, after all it is Spring and the world is meant to be in bloom. I took some pictures of flowers for you, please forgive me if my naming is not botanically accurate.
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| Yellow Flower |
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| Blue Flower |
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| Red Flower |
I found it interesting how there were inland lakes separated from the sea by sand alone. I would have expected this to open up or wash out by the surf and join up.
The lake on the right hand side of the picture reached a long way inland, so I was glad that there was this bridge of sand along the beach that meant that I didn't have to walk around it.
Tomorrow I have to leave Mallacoota and head back to Canberra to get the complimentary 1000 km service done on my car (or in my case the 1700 km service). After that it should be ready to take me via Darwin to Broome before it needs to be serviced again, so I can finally start my circumnavigation of Australia in earnest.
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