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We are lucky enough to live in regional Victoria and still able to travel, however, that is only around Victoria with all the borders closed to us. We were going to head towards Queenscliff but then they had a surge of Covid-19 cases and they were included in the tighter restriction areas so our next choice was Lakes Entrance. Orbost which is also in East Gippsland looked like they might be in trouble but they have been lucky enough to not have any cases recorded. We booked a Big 4 caravan park close to the shops and thought we would plan our next destination while we were there. On the way to Lakes we stopped at Rosedale at the bakery for lunch, this is one of our favourite stops and we usually plan our trips to arrive here for lunch. Robb chose a pie and an apple turnover and I had my normal choice of a meat pastie, everything was good as we expected and the service was very friendly. Back in the car heading towards Lakes Entrance. The entry to Lakes is one of the visually best in the country, looking down from high where the lakes meet the ocean is such a pretty sight and never fails to impress us. We easily found our caravan park, booked in and found our lovely drive through site. After setting up we sat down for a wine/beer and because it was such a gorgeous day we sat outside for awhile just enjoying the sunshine. We didn't have a late night but it was nice to know we were set up for the next four nights.
The next morning we took our time getting up, we never hurry, and then we went in search of somewhere to get a coffee. We found the bakery on the way to the Visitor Information Centre so decided to stop here, luckily they did have the jumbo cups because anything smaller is not really a coffee, we sat at a table inside to have a read and Robb chose to have a piece of carrot cake with his coffee. We then drove to the Information Centre to find out if Robb could get on a fishing charter but unfortunately because of the restrictions there weren't any running. After talking to the staff at the Information Centre we decided to drive to Nowa Nowa to visit the trestle bridge as there weren't many options around the area. Before visiting the bridge we drove to have a look at Nowa Nowa and there is not much there but we did stop at the caravan park which also incorporated a take away food shop and the Ramsdell Gallery which has displays of gemstones and wood carvings. I loved the carvings and Robb purchased a chopping board that he liked. After this we drove to the trestle bridge and on to the viewing platform which gave us a spectacular view along the length of the bridge. We then returned to our van for lunch, we didn't have much planned for the afternoon but thought it might be nice to take a walk over the footbridge and then we took a bit of a look at the Esplanade shops. Back home because I had a few things to do and we had planned to have a pork belly for dinner and Robb likes to cook this slowly and for a long time in the Weber.
Saturday morning we were up and dressed and drove to McDonalds for our coffee and then came back to the van for a read. I had plans in the morning of cleaning the van as it hadn't been cleaned since before Robb went away last time. When I had finished we drove to Buchan Reserve even though we knew the caves weren't open it is a very pretty reserve and is always worth a visit if in the area. We drove kilometres through the burnt out forests from last years fires, amazing to see how quickly the new growth is coming back but it does remind you how hard it has been for this region for nearly twelve months now. We arrived at the reserve and had a quick drive around before parking and walking to the information centre. The story here was the same as we had heard at the Lakes Entrance Information Centre with visitor numbers down and staff almost resigned to the current situation. We had a quick look and then took a different road back to Lakes Entrance. We had decided to have lunch back at the van and I caught up on the few last jobs I wanted to do.
Sunday morning we were up and dressed at the normal time with plans to have a coffee on Marine Parade at the Boatshed, a little cafe we had seen on our travels yesterday. We arrived, signed in and used the sanitiser and then found a table. We ordered our normal and sat and had a read while drinking our coffee. While we were sitting there we heard that there might be tougher restrictions coming in, we weren't surprised by this and had a plan B in case we needed to go home. We had to wait until 2.30pm in the afternoon to see what was going on so we decided just to go on with our day and just wait to see what was happening. We drove to the lookout over Lakes Entrance and I took a few photos, it is such a beautiful sight you cannot help but be impressed. We then drove onto Johnsonville to have a look around, there is a beautiful jetty area here and we sat and just enjoyed the ambiance before moving onto our next stop which was Nicholson just down the road. Not much more to see here but we did drive down to the jetty to have a bit of a look. We then drove back to Lake Tyers where we were going to have lunch at the Waterwheel Tavern, however, it was not open so we decided to drive back to Lakes Entrance to find somewhere for lunch. We stopped on the way to fill up with fuel to save calling in when we had the van on the back and then we drove into Lakes to buy some fresh fish off the boat on the Esplanade and we bought John Dory that look pretty good. The restaurant we were going to was not open so we drove to the Central Hotel which seemed to be open. It was open so found a table and Robb ordered a steak and I ordered the duck spring rolls. Both meals were good and we sat there for awhile enjoying our wine after lunch. Then back to the van where we heard the bad news that Melbourne and Mitchell Shire were going into Stage 4 restrictions and regional Victoria was going into Stage 3, that put an end to our plans to move onto Mallacoota tomorrow so our only choice was to pack up and drive home. We arrived back at the van and packed up and attached the van to the care ready for an early start tomorrow. Very disappointing but we were lucky to have a few days away and now we will go home until the situation in Victoria is better and then we will take off again.
