Saturday, December 29 Playing at Mallacoota Beach

     Australian school Christmas and summer holidays run from around December 20th towards the end of January, providing a double-whammy of sun and adventure seekers migrating to all the popular destinations.  We knew that it could be a problem trying to find places to stay during that period, but so far we'd been lucky in finding a spot to squeeze into.  Heading up the Victoria coast we ran across a couple completely booked national park campgrounds but found private caravan parks where we could stay.  Mallacoota had been described as a great place to see and swim in the ocean, so we headed down the twisting road out to the peninsula to check it out and find a place to stay.
    As usual, all the public spots were full, but there was one spot left in the huge caravan park lining the shore of the bay.  We took it, set up our tents, and marveled that people payed money to live like war refugees, crammed into smallish spots with their cavernous tents, screen houses, boat trailers and other assorted necessities for enjoying the great outdoors.  Unlike we vagabond Yanks, these Ausssie holiday makers had set up to stay the duration of their holidays in one spot, even if that meant being closer to their neighboring refugees ... er, campers, than twin joeys in their mother's pouch.

In the least populated big country on earth,  we squeeze
onto our small bit of camp

     Not surprisingly, the caravan park is overrun with families, and it was enjoyable to see mobs of kids, from tiny toddlers to peripatetic teens, enjoying their partial freedom from parental or teacher control.  And, as we soon discovered, one of the most amazing beaches we've ever seen sits only a few kilometers away.

A small river flows through a small tidal bay into the ocean.  At low tide
small children can wade safely in the sandy-bottom bay.  

Bigger kids building sand castles on an inter-tidal sand island

     The river narrows as it approaches the ocean, and the rushing current is a fun place to float or swim

The current picks up speed a hundred meters from the ocean

    Body surfing is the order of the day in the ocean itself.

Everybody's body surfin', surfin' AUS

      After drying off in the sun, Diana and I went for a short walk on the trail along the coast.

Except for the village of Mallacoota, the shoreline here has a hundred kilometers
of wilderness

A view of the coast, where trees, rocks and sand meet the ocean

     After we'd had our fill of fun, we drove into town and each bought ingredients for a proper Oz barbecue. Then we returned to the beach to use the barbie.  The large crowd of people that been there earlier in the day had cleared out, and we had the whole place to ourselves.

Sausages, marinated roo and beef steaks, onions, potatoes, zucchini, butternut squash,
mushrooms on the barbie ...

... some soft after dinner background music ...

... watching the tide come in ...

... and the moon rise.  

    After three days of driving and look-and-books and car based sight seeing, it was great to finally have a relaxing day at the beach.  I guess that's why the Aussies make refugees of themselves in the cramped caravan parks, to be able to have long summer days like this.