23.-26.03.2018 MALLACOOTA
I met my next couchsurfing host, Rick, and his friend Snowy (called that because of his ash blonde hair) in Genoa, at the turnoff from Princes Highway to Mallacoota. From there on we drove to Point Hicks Lighthouse and walked about 40 min until we got to a marvelous, deserted, magical, but hidden beach. It looked like nobody had been there in weeks at least, it was more than perfect. The beach itself was amazingly beautiful, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect, the sea was chilly, but not too cold and I got to see some nice surf moves from Snowy. On the way back to the lighthouse, we came across a destroyed jetty and some parts of a shipwreck laying around it, I got a magical vibe from it.
Point Hicks is the part of Australia Captain Cook and his men first sighted, it was named after the Lieutenant that was on duty that day. Near the lighthouse, there’s a monument for exactly that reason. There we met a hobby-photography group from Raymond Island, which apparently is known for its high population of Koala. On the way to Mallacoota we stopped at a nice restaurant in Gipsy Point for dinner, whose waitress was a really nice German girl.
The next morning, we went to the town’s information center for WIFI, since mobile reception in Mallacoota is almost nonexistent and I needed to write some references for Couchsurfing. After getting groceries and making sandwiches, we went to Rick’s mate Jayden’s house. There Rick had to do some repairing on the boat trailer, which we then took to the jetty.
After a 20 minutes boat ride, the guys dropped me off at Gabo Island, where I would stay for the next few hours until they were done working for the day. Gabo Island is about 150 hectars big and has a population of penguins and seals. I was greeted on the island by Rick’s brother, who works there as a light keeper and is the only actual inhabitant of Gabo Island (for 6 months every year, then someone else takes over). He took me up the lighthouse, from where I got a stunning view of the coastline and the island itself.
On the way back, we saw one of the penguins swimming in the water. They are normally only active at night, so we were quite lucky to see one, we were told that this particular one got lost and only just now found its way back to the island. On the way to and away from the island, we also saw quite a lot of penguins.
Later, I spent some time chatting with Jayden’s sons, they are hyperactive 8-year-olds. We had dinner with them at the Golf Club and as is usual in such small towns, everybody knew everybody. I had a great vegan risotto with pumpkin, I wish I had the recipe for it. In the evening, we went to the pub, where everybody knew everybody again, it was fun.
The next day Rick showed me around in Mallacoota, we stopped at a place where there were approximately 10.000 bats hanging in the trees, flying around and making awful, awful sounds. He took me to a “secret” beach (it even had a sign saying “secret beach”, doesn’t seem very secret to me), which had a really nice cave that’s only accessible with dry feet at low tide. We explored the grand lake system of Mallacoota a bit and did a walking tour around it. Rick told me lot’s of interesting stuff about the area, the flora and the fauna. I made Spinach-Feta-Palatschinken with tomato sauce for dinner, the first time I cooked for someone else and not just for myself since i started travelling.^^
Rick offered to give me a ride to Melbourne the day before, since he wanted to visit his family there anyways and we took off at 11am the next day. A few hours into the drive, we stopped at Lakes Entrance and bought some fresh (but cooked) prawns, which we then ate with other sandwich stuff on the lookout of Lakes Entrance. I had never peeled prawns before, but after the first few I got the hang of it and was able to do it quite quickly. After a few more hours of driving (it’s a looong way from Mallacoota to Melbourne), we finally arrived and Rick dropped me off at a train station.