Si's Year Out! (Plus Europe! Plus Morocco!): Lakes Entrance to Narooma

The next morning I burned it over to a place caller Lakes Entrance, which (if you haven't already guessed) is where Lake Victoria meets the sea. There was a bridge over to another bit of 90 mile beach and a 2km walk to the "entrance". I say "entrance" because it is actually a man-made entrance and would be washed away by the sea in a few weeks if they didn't keep building it up! In fact, when I got there, there was a boat scooping up sand and spraying it over to build up the sand bank.....

After that I drove inland a bit to a place called Buchan. There is a network of caves there, two of which are open to the public. The cave I went in was called Royal Cave. The cave was amazing, lots of stalagmites and stalactites and the usual cave-ish things, but what was equally entertaining is the way the cave was opened up for the public. The caves were opened in the 1930's (I think!) and they basically just cut and exploded their way through the cave to make it big enough for people to walk through. So you have 6 meter tall stalagmites with holes sawed into them for you to walk through! There was also a set of stairs cut into the rock, which looked more than dodgy, with steel pins drilled into them to keep them secure....As we were standing under this 10 tonne piece the guide told us that a few years ago a structural engineer had come to check the caves and said that the drilling of these pins had actually weakened the rock! We all hurried up the stairs after hearing that piece of information!

After that I drove over 100km in the direction of a place called Genoa. After the Ocean Road escapade of almost running out of petrol I had been very careful to ensure that I made it to all the places the map said had petrol and Genoa was my next petrol stop. As I came into the 'town' I was surprised at how small the place was....there were no shops and only a handful of houses. I found the 'petrol station' which was one small pump outside somebody’s house! I knocked on the door and a cowboy-ish guy answered, telling me that he hadn't sold petrol for a few months. It was 7pm, I wouldn't reach the next town and I didn't fancy going back to the last one. The guy told me that there was a petrol station 20km down some road that wasn't even on my map....I decided to trust him and headed off that way.

I got to a town even smaller than the one I'd just left but surprisingly there were shops and a petrol station. Everything was closed by now so I had to wait til the next day. I got up bright and early and filled the car up. I went in to pay and realised that I didn't have any cash so got my card out. The woman looked at me like I was crazy and said they didn't take cards...
'Where is the ATM?' I said.
There isn't one...
Is there anywhere I can get money with my card?
Nope.
Fuck....

So I explained that I didn't have any cash and was there anyway I could get some...'come with me' the woman said, closing the shop in the middle of the morning. So I went to her house which was around the corner and spent the next two hours cutting her lawn, or field I should say.....but anyway I still felt lucky!

After that she gave me the petrol for free and I was on my way across the Victorian border back into New South Wales to the town of Eden. In Eden there was a whale museum with the full skeleton of a killer whale called 'Old Tom'. Legend has it that Old Tom was the leader of a pack of killer whales that would go out to sea, round up a baleen whale and chase it into the bay where the whalers would kill it, leaving the body for the killer whales, which ate the tongue and lips and left the rest for the whalers. There were also the jaw bones of a blue whale (the biggest animal on earth) which were about 3 meters long each!

The next stop was the town of Bega, which is where one of the largest Australian cheese makers is based. Now, if you know me well you'll know that I LOVE cheese! I got to walk round the factory and did some cheese tasting, all for free!

I ended the day in Narooma and did a bit of fishing. There were big stingrays and manta rays cruising around and I was praying I wouldn't catch one....caught some mackerel but they were too small to eat. I am yet to catch something and eat it damnit but soon!

Got some amazing pics for the last three posts but I'll add them later so keep your eyes peeled!