Day 2 7/4/07 - Australia

Longford -> Sale -> Golden Beach -> Loch Sport -> The Lakes National Park -> Loch Sport -> Sale ->Rosedale -> Sale -> Longford

Highlight

• Enjoying breakfast on the deck with expansive views of the Latrobe River wetlands.
• Drove through "wetlands" to reach Golden Beach, part of the Ninety Mile Beach stretch. This is virtually miles and miles of dead straight beach. The weather wasn't the best so people weren't out in force.
• There was a "market" at Golden Beach, consisting about 3 stalls of people selling their junk, and by junk I mean junk.
• Loch Sport is very popular with the boating, sailing and fishing set, we drove through the town on the way to The Lakes National Park.
• The Lakes NP is basically one huge dirt track, we went for a walk on the Lake Reeves Nature Trail, where we observed several habitats and dead trees. It was a path less taken as the trail was totally overgrown. The lookout had extensive vies of Lake Reeve and the Gippsland Lakes system.
• Drove to the Jetty at Point Wilson, passing a few swamps on the way. We watched swamps of jellyfish floating around in the water. What surprised me were there were heaps of people actually swimming there...
• I wanted to eat at the jetty, but Slokky was against the idea, so we went and checked out the Loch Sport local bakery, decided what was left of the day wasn't worth eating. Slokky wanted to eat at Sale, so we drove especially to the Centre Bakery, because they had advertised all over the tourist brochures, and was extremely disappointed. All the choices we wanted weren't available, and because I was extremely hungry (it was after 2pm) at this point, and we drove there especially, we had to order. I should have not listened to Slokky and had the tuna sandwiches at an earlier time instead.
• Rosedale is a lovely little town with some pretty colonial buildings. We came though, for food (what else). The Tarra Valley Food store sells pickles, jams, chutney, sauces and relishes. The owner, George Sharp, makes everything on the premises and grow some of the fruit and veg as well. They have won a stack of awards, and everything we tasted was very yummy. More importantly, everything was cheap as chips. Even buying the raw ingredients must cost more than that. The sauces were $3 for a small and $5 for large. These prices are even cheaper than buying it at the supermarket. What's more, we actually had a 25% discount voucher as well!
• Tried to buy some local lamb and beef at the butcher but, forgetting that this was a country town, all the shops were closed by 1pm! So we had to contend with the local IGA, for some lamb cutlets and flatheads.
• Visited the fame Port of Sale, but couldn't see what was so special about it, just some grass and water.
• Another highlight was supposed to be the Sale Powder Magazine, a building built in 1865-65 to store gunpowder supplies. I think we've seen way too many heritage buildings to appreciate this little hut.
• More to our taste was the Sale Common State Game Reserve, where we went for a walk to the Long Waterhole and lookout. This is supposed to be a habitat for birds, but all we could see were a few ducks.
• Last stop was the Historic Swing Bridge. Built in 1883 and one of the first swing bridges built.
• Fired up the barbie and ate our Gippsland fare while watching the sun set.
• Played 2 player 500 (not as interesting as 4 player but better than snap any day) while indulging in chocolates and cheese.
• Giggled at all the newly weds who signed the Frog Gully guest books. Thanks for telling us about your honeymoon night!

Food

• bacon, fried egg, tomato with homemade bread
• banana
• vegetable pastie ($2.90)
• Mexican pie ($3.20)
• iced coffee ($3.90)
• taste testing pickles, jams, chutney, sauces and relishes at Tarra valley Foods
• BBQ flatheads with lemon and pepper ($7)
• BBQ lamb cutlets with pepper and hot sweet chilli dip
• baby mesclun blend salad ($1.79) with Maffra mature cheddar and lemon juice
• lemon tea with honey
• jarrah hot chocolate
• Cadbury Eden
• Maffra matured cheddar