Mallacoota Day 2

This continues the theme of our trip to Mallacoota.  Other posts are:
Day 1
Day 3
Day 4 and return trip

Day 2 dawned with mist rising off the inlet

and the roar of surf in the background. 

One could barely hear the surf over the noise of the Rainbow Lorikeets feeding at the house opposite or the King-Parrots climbing on the deck! 

A Superb Fairy-wren also make some noise attacking our windscreen.

The Koalas -wooohooo!! - in a tree next door were very quiet.

I couldn't identify body parrts on the koalas but was quite satifsfied to have spotted them.  Later in the day I got another image in which some bits are  identifiable.  It was still as active as is traditionally the case (ie totally static).

Our first expedition was to the Artisans Market at the Mudbrick Pavillion.  On the way we saw a strategically - in a marketing sense - placed Kookaburra.

While Francie went and shopped at the market I watched some SOCCER – note, not football which term covers a lot of codes.  The match was part of the Mallacoota Cup and I think the bit I watched was between the Bermagui Ballerinas and Mallacoota Mambo Queens.

Some skills but, as usual with this dreary “sport”  mainly those assessed at the Oscars!

We then went to Bastion Point,

mainly to see what the fuss was about.  Before getting to 'fuss' here is an image of the surf at the point.  On moving out on to the spit the first thing we saw was some White-fronted Chats

these are relatively unusual birds and were almost certainly breeding so Tammy was on a short lead, and the birds seemed quite happy with this deal.  We then saw a bunch of waders: mainly Godwits, but  also some other birds.

This experience appears to prove that dogs can be OK in the vicinity of birds if on a lead.  The Chats seemed quite relaxed and the waders kept on feeding the whole time.

I then got into conversation with a local about the breakwater business.  Apparently the local abalone fishermen want a better (whatever that means) facility and as the local State MP (who got kicked out at the last election) held an abalone license he had supported them.  The fight has been going for 10 years and it was hoped that the current financial woes of the world will kill the idea.  (The alternative is to upgrade the existing boat ramp which everyone – except the abalone fishemen and the contractors who would get the job of building the wall- supports.) 

We then returned home and scoffed pies from the market.  These were prawn and scallop pies and were absolutely excellent.  We need more of these.

Then off to tour the beaches South of the  airport.  Before getting to the beaches we were distracted by the flowers all over the grassy bit of the airport - dominated by milkmaids (Burchardia umbellata)

and beside the road.

 Billardiera scandens

 Leucopogon Sp.

Melaleuca ericifolia (?)

 A pea!!

 Stackhousia monogyna

After that, Quarry beach had some interesting rock formations but not much else so we took a turn off to Pebbly Beach.  This road was orchid heaven. 

 Petalochilus carneus

 Detail of Petalochilus catenatus

Petalochilus fuscatus

It was also mosquito heaven so Frances and Tammy took off back to the car while I finished snapping an orchid.  Suddenly there was much screaming from Frances so I rushed back to see her looking very distressed and Tammy looking a bit confused.  Apparently Tammy had pounced on a 2m Red-bellied Black Snake and refused to let it go while Frances whipped her on the lead, and screeched (such that Frances subsequently had a sore throat) to make her drop it.  Eventually- possibly only a few seconds – Tammy let go, and the reptile had headed for the trees.  Subsequently:
●    I got Frances to go and sit down in the car so that her blood pressure and pulse both returned to triple digits; and
●    Tammy was watched very closely.
As Tammy showed no ill effects we assume the snake didn't get her.  Had it done so, we were too far from a vet (the nearest appears to be Orbost, about 100km away) to have done anything, so our holiday would not have been too good.  As an aside Frances commented that the snake was the biggest she had seen since one swam across our dam, and we were able to scale that up to over 2m: thus the length is not an exaggeration.

We then came into Croajingalong National (Socialist) Park (CN(S)P) so had to turn as dogs are streng verboten.  On getting back home we walked along a town bit of the Inlet for a while before hitting more CN(S)P.  On the way back I got the ultimate Pelican snap

I spent most of the rest of the afternoon watching the AFL Grand Final, but wimped with the result in the balance as the thought of Collingwood winning was too much to bear.  After a walk  in the woods with more orchids and violets (Viola hederacea)

I returned home to find the Cats had won by 38 points.  Go Cats!!!  Happiness is seeing Eddie Maguire (President of Collingwood AFC and prize goose) nearly in tears!!  

By the end of today the bird list or the trip is up to 70 species with 51 recorded on the day: well done Bastion Point.

After a day of threatened rain it finally arrived in the evening and seemed to rain for most of the next 12 hours.