Fires, Floods and Wine... It's paradise!

The photo above is from Ninety Mile beach at the town of Lakes Entrance along the South Eastern coast in the state of Victoria. The black lines are charred leaves and ash that have washed up on shore from the massive brush fires that are raging throughout the state. I'm sure you have heard lots in the news about the fires, so I won't write much about it. Needless to say we are still alive and well despite all the natural disasters plaguing this country. You may not have heard quite so much about the monsoons in the North. A record setting rainy season has left many areas flooded. Mosquitoes (or mozzies) are now breeding out of control in the water and outbreaks of dengue fever are occurring. The areas of Australia that are not on fire or under water are just really, really hot. Anyway, on to happier news...

We have covered quite some distance since our last post. Our first stop after leaving Sydney was in the sleepy little fishing village of Narooma. The continental shelf is only 11km off shore which makes this town an ideal location for deep sea fishing. We had the pleasure of meeting up with a local in the town who was trying to catch some bait. The sight of this man was peculiar at first. He was wiping the beach with fish carcasses on a string. When we saw this our first thought was to steer clear, as this man must have been quite insane. But curiosity got the best of us and we decided to ask what he was up to. It turns out that he was "beach worming". Wiping the beach with the dead fish caused worms in the sand to peek their heads out and when they did this he would pull the worm out of the sand. Now, these worms are not your typical Canadian dew worms. These worms are man eaters. Measuring up to a meter in length, the slimy, hairy (yes, hairy), red and clearish worms are pretty repulsive. But we were assured that fish love them. After our beach worming lesson we went for a walk along the coast and discovered that this sleepy fishing village had a big secret. It turns out Narooma is a hidden beach paradise. The managers of our hostel suggested we take a small dirt trail hidden behind the towns cemetery to a secluded beach area known as Broken Glass Rocks. Words and even pictures cannot do any justice to how beautiful these beaches were. Deep blue ocean water and giant sand stone monoliths along perfect white sand beach. It was incredible. And most incredible of all was that no one was there. We had this paradise all to ourselves. There were no people, no houses, no stores. Just beach, ocean, Jenn and I. It was an otherworldly experience. Neither of us wanted to leave. But, of course, their were other sights to see.

Our next stop was further South along the coast at a town called Lakes Entrance. We had left paradise for the Wasaga Beach of Australia. This former paradise had been discovered, packaged up and sold off to the lowest bidder. Strip malls, trailer parks and cheap motels lined the main street. It wasn't all bad, though; this town had a few saving graces. First off the beach was very nice.  Known as Ninety Mile Beach, the sand stretched for as far as the eye could see.  Their was also a organic ice cream shop that was really great.  Jenn and I shared a chocolate "thickshake"; we had died and gone to drinkable ice cream heaven.  This stuff certainly put Dairy Queen to shame.  Lastly, with the overrun tourist industry there were plenty of cheap day tours available.  We decided to indulge in one of the wine tours.  Our tour consisted of a boat ride to a local winery followed by lunch at the winery and a boat ride back.  For the duration of the tour you could have as many wine samples as you pleased.  We boarded the (sea worthy?) vessel "The Corque" at 11AM.  The captain (who referred to himself as "The Corque's Crew" har har) was a very pleasant fellow with plenty of stories to tell.  We immediately began sampling the wine and were on our way.  The wine was palatable, but I suspect it may have been laced with antifreeze; it was a bit of a chore to swallow. However, the alcohol had a rather pleasant effect.  We arrived at Wyanga Park Winery after about 35 minutes on the boat where the owner met us in his van and drove us the rest of the way to the winery.  The owner, Jeff, immediately recognized our Canadian accents and asked us if we might know his Canadian cousin.  Yeah right, we thought, just another Canadian stereotype that everyone knows everyone.  Well, turns out his cousin (quadruple times removed?)was Adrienne Clarkson, the former governor general.  You could tell this was a story this man enjoyed telling every Canadian he met.  We had a long chat with him and he had us sign a map of Canada indicating where we were from.  While we were at the winery we were able to sample all of their varieties, and not every one of them tasted terrible.  Although most of them smelled funny.  The Sauvignon Blanc was quite nice.  That was the wine I selected to have with my lunch.  And, lunch was delicious. Jenn had a macadamia pesto pasta dish, and I had locally caught fish and chips.  Overall, the tour was well worth it.  We met some very nice people and got nice and tipsy.

I still have plenty of stories to tell, but I will stop myself here for now.   We are now in Melbourne, visiting with a friend of a friend of Jenn's parents.

G'day!