Saturday, March 3, 2012

a camping trip to Mallacoota


 Above, near Port Albert. Below, picnic at an isolated strip on the edge of the 'bottom lake', Mallacoota



Above, camping on the foreshore.

It was a week of extremes, driving 600 km to find heat with no wind, but beautiful, complex systems of intersecting lakes, rivers, tidal swamps and glorious forest. Our first outings were through marked  channels to reach the deeper sailable waters of the bottom lake. Plenty of space, despite lots of friendly fishermen, a bit of sailing and a wonderful picnic on a small beach out of sight of anything and anyone.

Other trips saw us motoring under driving warm rain as a massive storm system swept down to cover half of Victoria, and extending north right up to Alice Springs where the normally dry Todd River was apparently flowing through town. Our trip home involved another 600kms without turning off the windscreen wipers.
The shallow water and sudden appearance of sandbars caused a wee bit of anxiety when the oversized 5hp motor on Annie pulled the motor mounting bracket a bit askew, scraping the sand in reverse. I had the tools with me to fix the bracket, and beef it up a bit, but took the opportunity to buy a 2.5hp fourstroke at a more than reasonable price when it arose. 

4 comments:

  1. Good choice on power plant. I thought this boat was electrically powered? Did I miss something?

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  2. Belt and braces...
    The electric is very handy, but not in swell or strong head wind. On a trip like this we had to motor for a few miles before sailing was possible because the sandbars are so broad. I find the electric best coming and going from a marina or jetty, but not for going places!
    One of our trips was entirely motoring because there was no wind at all, but we were still able to explore for miles and miles on less than a tank of fuel.

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  3. Nice photos. Did you get the boat out at Port Albert? Must add Mallacoota to my plans

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  4. Nope, only there for a stop-over, and weather was pretty ordinary/unstable.

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