Weekend in Mallacoota (Days 6 & 7).

With John and Darrel out on the water and fishing around 7am, I set out for an early morning walk back across the bush tracks to Davis Creek Beach. The water level seemed to be low enough so I decided to chance it and started back on the sand towards Bastion Point, able to skirt around the small rocky headland which juts out about half way. I wasn’t sure whether the tide was dropping or rising and didn’t want to have to retrace my steps if I couldn’t get around Bastion, and set a cracking pace, all the time feeling a niggling twinge in my right hip. There was no time to dawdle so I just ignored it but once back up onto the road near the boat ramp it really started to give me some pain and I realised I wasn’t going to ‘walk it out’. It has really annoyed me ever since and I have had to be very careful when bending and reaching for anything low, also when sitting and then standing again. I didn’t realise just how often it is necessary and have discovered almost everything I need is situated very low for some reason! Bloody annoying!
I returned via the tracks through the scrub around the shoreline and was once again surprised to see a lyrebird; this time a solitary male. I stopped to observe him while he scratched his way up the hill trough the leaf litter and off into the scrub. Then it was to visit Judy to have a very welcome coffee and back down the hill to the van.
John and Darrel returned around lunch time with the flathead catch and I kept enough fillets for our evening meal. We lunched under the awning and then it wasn’t long before friends arrived from home with their van in tow and parked in the adjoining site, having timed it just right. They’ve paid for two nights but may stay longer.
John was happy to take Max out to fish for the afternoon and they returned with big smiles after Max’s most successful (almost only) fishing experience ever!
We hosted pre-dinner snacks and drinks at our van and when our friends finally left after 8pm we decided it was too late to cook fish and vegetables, so heated a can of baked beans and made toast under the grill instead!
We watched TV until 10 o’clock, lying in bed, and listened to light rain on the roof for the first time in almost a week. Had the best night’s sleep and didn’t wake until 5am, almost unheard of for me!

We woke to a cloudy morning but I decided to do a couple of loads of dirty clothes as we are leaving tomorrow and don’t really know when we will be staying in another van park. I have managed to get everything dry as the sun did finally come out for a while around the middle of the day. It boosted our batteries again and they were close full this evening. It will be good to have a couple of days driving and a night powered tomorrow night, after a week relying on solar to do its job.
John took Max out for what was the boats final outing this trip in Mallacoota but they arrived back empty handed. The tinnie was emptied and pulled from the water, then cleaned meticulously and loaded on the Pajero. It’s taken John all afternoon to do that and then re pack the back of the car, clean the bat and bird poo off the Pajero and the van awning, also the solar panel and as much of the roof as he could reach, from the small step ladder we carry. We have also refilled the gas bottle which we have been using and which would have run out overnight so now we have two full ones to start the next stage of the trip. We had a hot lunch of fish that we should have eaten last night and I have done the washing up so it’s a simple meal tonight of sandwiches to end our stay here. We have packed away the outside furniture and retreated indoors because it is bitterly cold this evening. John has managed to find the NSW RL Sunday afternoon footy and is happy as a pig in mud, beer in hand, feet up! I guess he has earned it after his busy day.
I didn’t do my usual walk, deciding to take care with my back, but have spent some time with our friend Carolyn instead, also put my feet up and read, watched a moving frenzy of pelicans and shags as they fed voraciously on small fish out the front of our site.

I recalled our stay on Cooper Creek at Windorah in outback Qld last winter when we saw a similar sight, and the sound and movement was truly amazing on the muddy waterway.
We farewelled Judy and Barry this morning and now probably won’t see them again until October, as they are, as usual, planning to spend the Winter months working on painting jobs in Central Queensland, and won’t be back on the South Coast until then.