From Port Albert we headed further east along the coast to McLoughlins Beach and the Nooramunga marine & coastal park. It’s an area of some significance: the wetlands there are a Ramsar site (a protected environment), half of the Eastern Curlews (the world’s largest migrating wading birds) that come to Victoria come here, and the area has the highest number of breeding pairs of one of my faves, the Pied Oyster catcher. It’s a special place and being protected.
Love these ruby jewels. They taste as you would expect quite salty.
Under threatening clouds, we braved the boardwalk with not a soul in sight - surprise surprise! It was eerie but quite lovely as the world closed in around us with just the rippling of the tide flow beneath us over the mud flats, the occasional bird calling a warning of approaching rain and the rustle of the saltbush and mangroves.
At the end of the boardwalk we crossed the bridge over McLoughlins channel/Nooramunga Inlet - in mounting wind! We followed a track over dunes and through the scrub to a remote, wild stretch of 90 Mile Beach. It was simply magnificent.
This guy stood well over 6ft. Magnificent creature. He was still there feeding beside the track when we came back - we startled the daylights out of each other. Poor thing. He went bouncing off into the bush - to resume feeding.
The expanse of sea is just over that little rise. It had been teasing us for quite a while promising to be just over the next rise. Under all this is sand and vegetation sits a lens of freshwater floating on top of salt water.
We turned back as the sky turned a stunning deep slate colour. Rain was on the way and we copped some of it but it had been a wonder-filled day, one in which we walked around 10 km through places we just may have missed if not for our enforced stay here. Always look on the bright side of life ..... tra la la!
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