A slightly bigger walk than we expected but isn’t that always the way! We were taking the Entrance to the Lakes walk, 5km return. A highlight of the walk was seeing porpoises surfing at the Entrance but I get ahead of myself. Cross the Cunningham Arm and disappear into coastal bush and sand dunes and then keep going to you reach the Entrance. East peasy.
At various points there were short tracks to the inlet with views over tidal flats.
The track was well defined but it was hard slog at times walking mostly through sand and it drizzled off and on. On the other side of the sand dunes we could hear the thundering of surf on Ninety Mile Beach a possible return route.
Of course along the way we had to stop and inspect a flower, a plant or insect. Par for the course!
Gorgeous thing that stopped hovering for just long enough for me to snap off a stream of pix. Thank you iPhone for being so quick.
A wasp gall. There just might have been a tasty grub in there. Good bush tucker!
Fascinating seed pod on this acacia.
The original Entrance was constructed in the 1880s to provide a permanent opening between sea and lakes. Prior to that the entrance was closed except have heavy flooding. Cottages and building are scattered near the entrance and today forms the New Works Historic precinct. These housed the construction workers, their family and construction buildings and even had a school.
We stopped for lunch at the Flagstaff which was built in 1889. The pilot station used a unique system of painted wicker baskets to aid shipping navigation; different shapes, sizes, colours and sequences indicated water depth over the bar, tide direction etc (surprised I didn’t get a pic of that).
We rested for a spell and watched the sea and flow of water through the Canal. All of a sudden Lindsay spotted porpoises with his binoculars. It was a real joy watching them surfing the waves in through the Entrance. They would surf a wave and then go back to catch another leaping into the air with such exuberance you just had to laugh.
These porpoises are very special; they part of a small population of the rare and endangered Burrunan dolphins identified in 2011. They live in the mix of salt and fresh water of the Gippsland lakes and there is supposed to be a small population
living in Port Phillip Bay.
Approaching rain got us back on the track. The tide was high so we opted to return along the shore of Cunningham Arm for as far as we could get through. We made it the entire way back to the bridge walking along the water’s edge.
We managed to stay out of the water but it got a bit swishy at times.
This family of Black swans swam along side us part of the way.
Our return journey home took us exploring around Lake Tyres. Extensive and tranquil - at this time of year.
Over the sandbar the surf roared but all was calm here.
We ventured down a few rough bush roads tracing around Lake Tyres and inlets. Flowers greeted us along the way. Quite lovely.
We promised to return to do this walk if we had time - later.
Aptly named!
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