Finally back to Mallacoota!

We last visited Mallacoota in September 2017.  The long interval is not because we had fallen out of love with the place but because of not wanting a long drive.

Planning for the trip was a trifle discombobulated as we had decided to take the Jetta (5l/100km or 56 mpg) rather than the Pajero, about (10l/100km or 28 mpg) and a similar decibel difference.  It then looked as though I was going to have trouble fitting in our necessary gear but rotating a couple of items fixed that up.

In fact the long drive was not an issue.

As was not the weather.  It even made the barren hills between Cooma and Nimmitabel look good!

We were a little unhappy with pointless roadworks signs at the start of Imlay.  However this young lady seemed to be doing a serious job so we waited patiently.

Then a couple of dudes riding historic Harleys (registered in the NT!!) cut past us which we thought a trifle rude.   However they sat their patiently, chatting with the chick so that was OK.

Schadenfreude was very evident when she swung the sign round and the LH dude hopped off the bike and started trying to kick start it.  5km down the road he had still not reappeared so his mate pulled over to wait for him.  They both went past during a stop at Imlay Creek.

Car unloaded and things sorted in Karbeethong.  This included sorting out a very large Tree Frog which appeared in the porcelain after an initial flush: a second flush sent it somewhere better (for us if not the frog).

So we went for a stroll towards town.  We immediately noticed the fruit bat colony was much bigger than in the past - a local lady taking photos said there were thought to be 40,000 bats in the colony.  Some photos are a little further down in this post and in several of those which follow.

Going along the shore of the Inlet we noticed a lot of rather unwell looking jellyfish on the edge of the water.

 So we covered ~4km before I felt the need to return home.  On getting back to the bats I took a couple of snaps.  This group are in trees we've never seen them in before.  They seemed quite active for mid-afternoon.   Note the one flying in bottom right.

 This one posed quite cooperatively.

The noise and smell were quite evident.  It will be interesting to see them fly out later in the day, after which an update might occur.

The wildlife continued with an Eastern Grey Kangaroo grazing on the lawn.  At about 1930 I wandered down to check the bats.  They were less active than they were at 1400!  After 15 minutes a few started flying around so I tried pointing the camera at a tree top and clicking as a bat flew by.  This was the usual result.

 Eventually I scored a passing bat, but it wasn't a cloud such as has been present on other occasions.

 They seemed more inclined to clamber around brawling with each other.

 As I wandered back home the clouds looked nice over the Inlet ....

 .. unless one was hoping for good photos of the rising moon at 2130.  In fact I was asleep by then but Frances reports the moon was not visible.  I stirred around 2315 and took a snap before going back to sleep.  It would have been great two hours earlier (had the cloud not been there)!

(As an aside the bats started flying past at about 2030 but I didn't take a photo.  This is a sample of the fly-out from the next night.)