An awesome week in the parks

OK, so this is slightly delayed news, but it was such a glorious time that it really must be reported. The problem with having really lovely, or busy, times is that we don't find the time to blog about them until later.

 Fortunately, this last week has been absolute rubbish weather (think full gales with gusts to 40 knots and daily highs in the vicinity of 13-15 degrees). The Bureau of Met. described this as "a deep low over Tasmania" with a "series of cold fronts passing over Bass Strait" which would "maintain a vigorous westerly airstream across Bass Strait". When the Bureau says "vigorous" they mean vigorous. Between 8am and 4pm yesterday the Hogan Island weather station was reporting sustained winds in excess of 60 knots with gusts to 79 knots. These kinds of winds would be classified as a category 3 cyclone in other parts of Australia! so lets just say that we were very glad not to be out in Bass Strait and were reasonably content with our 30 knot winds and 40 knot gusts...

Anyway, I digress, this post was supposed to be about the week we had on the Lakes before the "vigorous westerly airstream" made its presence felt...

 

Sperm Whale Head

After re-provisioning at Paynesville we made our way approximately 2 Nautical Miles due South to the public jetty at "Sperm Whale Head" which lies at the NE corner of the Gippsland Lakes National Park. There we tied up for a couple of days of glorious sunshine and light winds during which we did some walking on the tracks around this corner of the island and played in the massive "sandpit" at the head of the Jetty.

Aside from the fairly extensive and smelly collection of bird poo on the jetty and the impressively large and deep pitched mosquitoes (which actually feature as notable fauna in the park description) this was an idyllic spot to spend a couple of days.

Sperm Whale Head

Tied up at the jetty at SWH. We had the place to ourselves, of course.

 

Panorama of the spit very popular with the birds near the jetty.

 

Early morning panorama from the end of the jetty.

Miniature garden crafted beside Katherine's "den".

Katherine in her den. Is it just me, or is she doing that Charlie's Angels thing again?

Arthur banished (for some crime) to eat his breakfast amongst the guano.

The guano creaters at dawn.

EV dressed, as only EV could, for a walk in the National Park.

 

Steamer Landing

After a couple of pleasant days at Sperm Whale Head we moved another couple of miles due East to Steamer Landing on the Bool Pool Peninsular. This is another public jetty, however it is located on the inside of the barrier spit which separates Lake King from Bass Strait. This means that we could be tied up in complete tranquility on the inside of the peninsular and listen to the surf crashing (and take walks and gather shells) on the ocean beach less than 100 metres away. Again we stayed for a couple of days and nights, until it got busy (two other boats showed up) and we decided it was time to move on and look for greener pastures...

Sunset from Steamer Landing

Beach West of Steamer Landing

Tied up at Steamer Landing - it was getting busy...

 

"Sundowners" at Steamer Landing

Looking North East from Steamer Landing down Bunga Arm.

Giles attempting to learn Python (the programing language) the hard way, at Steamer Landing.

Another sunset at Steamer Landing

An Elephant Shark caught by fishermen casting into the surf near Steamer Landing.

 

Bunga Arm (Egret Camp)

The greener pastures to which we headed were further North-east up Bunga Arm, the narrow waterway trapped immediately inside the Bool Pool Peninsular. This is a fantastically unmolested strip of water - to the extent that there are no channel markers, a meandering channel, and no chart. Satellite images on Google Maps were pretty useful for anticipating where the shoals were, as was a lookout. We even had to drag out the good old lead-line as the depth sounder couldn't always be trusted as there was quite thick weed which seemed to confuse it at times. Combine that with channels that shelve so steeply that we could actually put the bow on the beach without grounding the keel and you'll get some idea. A lot of fun! and once again we had the place to ourselves. I think we saw 2 other boats in 2 days - and then only for a few minutes as they passed by...

Part way along Bunga Arm. There is plenty more to explore.

Some idea of what navigating the arm is like. The width here is something like 2-300m. Depth in the dark areas is about 3m and in the light areas is less than 1m. There are no charts...

Anchored off the "Egret Campground" area. We have run a stern line to a post ashore.

Morning fog clearing in Bunga Arm

Dawn at anchor in Bunga Arm.

Ashore for a picnic lunch at Egret Campground

Over the dunes are 90 miles (literally) of beach and almost no people.

I got in trouble for saying I thought this was "Devil K(atherine)"

Lauren's shell art.

Is that a koala up the mast? no, it is one of the kids!

This is a really brave move 16m above the water! Good on you Katherine!

Evelyn made it to the top too.

 

OK, so by this time we had used up all our fresh fruit, veges, and bread and the weather forecast was starting to talk about "several days of vigorous westerly airstream" so we figured it was time to head back to "civilisation" to wash our clothes and ourselves and stock up for the coming weather...