Paynesville and Metung

We were planning to stay in the area for a few days, so we decided to do some exploring. First off we booked ourselves onto a two and a half hour cruise for Wednesday afternoon and then took off along the Princes Highway. We stopped briefly at the lookout above the township at Kalimna from which there were good views of the whole lake system, including the actual entrance. From there we made our way to Paynesville on the far side of Lake King, taking the turn off south at Bairnsdale.

So many boats all over the place around this region, and quite an extensive manmade canal system as well with some magnificent homes and frontages. However we didn't see them until we were on the water the following day. We pulled up along the front at Paynesville and had a walk around, deciding on a pie and a coffee from the bakery. We walked a lkttle further around the point but it was really gusty and madeour way back to the carpretty quickly.

Across from Paynesville is Raymond Island, accessible via a ferry which traverses the short distance constantly through the day. There are apparently a lot of koalas there, but as we had other things to see we didn't go across there.

Next we made our way back around the Lake to the little village of Metung, another lovely spot on the lake, with seemingly lots of resort style accomodation - quite an up market area compared with Lakes Entrance. More isolated, but with a beautiful board walk to exercise on and a few shops, cafes and a pub in Metung to spend time at. Stopped in one of the cafes for a drink, but with only 2 staff, had to wait a while. There was plenty of interestin stuff to look at inside and I was watching a little robin red breast flying in and out of its nest. We went for a drive around the point and found an interesting story about the early steamships which used to bring passengers up from Melbourne.

It was about this time that Rae found that his petrol gauge wasn't working, telling him he was short of petrol when he'd only just filled the tank. Not able to do anything about it we made our way back to Lakes Entrance to look for a garage that might have a mechanic to look at it. We thought we were on candid camera as each place we went to, sent us to another then another then another. Finally, someone in Bairnsdale said he could look at it and agreed to do it on Thursday. We could have done without the unexpected trip back there, but we didn't really want to do any long drives without a working petrol gauge.

Satisfied with this solution, we went back to the front and decided to walk across the footbridge to the beach. It's really quite a shock when the whole of the township has this long, protected waterway, and when you go across to the other side you are on a huge ocean beach. Not many swimming though! Cool and windy.

We went back for a bit of a rest and then decided on Pinnochios for dinner, full of paintings and dolls of pinnochio, a nice creamy garlic seafood pasta for me, and chicken stuffed with ham and cheese for Rae. All in all, another lovely day!Read more