Inverloch

Up the creek without a paddle!

Australia is blessed with some great beaches, so it is always interesting to see where the most popular holiday spots are. You'll rarely if ever, find a beach that fails to deliver... Yet what stands out with the best frequented Victorian coastal destinations, is that they often offer both the sheltered, calm swimming beaches, together with the surfing ocean beaches. 

Inverloch, Gippsland, Victoria

Inverloch, a seaside holiday town 143 km South East of Melbourne has both ocean and inlet beaches. Despite being on the choppy Bass Strait, which is great for all forms of surfing, it also has the gentle, protected waters of Andersons Inlet. It justly deserves its reputation as a wonderful location for a family holiday.

I hope you have your walking shoes on because today I'm going to take you on the Screw Creek nature walk to take in some fresh salt air. Our little wander starts at the back of the Inverloch Foreshore Camping Reserve and I defy anyone not to pass through the campsite without saying "We must go camping!" It looks a great campsite right on the sand dunes of Anderson Inlet.

Anderson Inlet, Inverloch

It's a lovely little walk amongst the shady tea-trees up to Townsend Bluff which is only 1.5kms. The good news is that surprisingly for a nature walk we can take the Crazy Poodle. In fact, this whole coastline is a lot more receptive to dogs than our more familiar Mornington Peninsula. 

With views like these, you maybe won't be surprised to know that they have found dinosaur bones in this here parts! We will be able to have some stunning views of Anderson's Inlet and admire the marshlands.

Screw Creek nature walk

The path winds over boardwalks through the salt marsh, upward towards the paperbark forest. There are many animals around, not that the echidnas and wombats will be easy to spot with the dog. Anderson Inlet is classified as an important birding area, and the mudflats provide important feeding for the Spoonbills and other wading birds.

The bridge was built at the creek in 1971, and this is where in a gust of wind my sunhat flew off into the water! This area is a popular area for fishing, but do you think we could find a fisherman when we needed to cast a line and catch a hat? No way! There was lots of discussion about whether we should wait, but in the end, we did.  My hat slowly bobbed down the creek until it came in on the little beach down from the bridge and was retrieved!

Have hat, will travel!

You don't want to go far without slapping on a sunhat in an Aussie summer, so I was happy to get mine back. It took a while for it to dry out, but it is fine now. Of course, we had contemplated sending the Crazy Poodle in for a game of fetch but he's just not that into the water! Here he is recovering after a busy afternoon! Don't you just love being on holiday?

If you're passing, rub my tummy!

Thank you for joining me on my April A to Z challenge, it is lovely to have you along on my virtual tour as we Wander Victoria. Tomorrow we're going to explore the Inverloch surf beach, and we're up to the letter J. I hope you're up to go exploring on a jet ski?! 

Linking with the following with grateful thanks to our hosts

Blue Monday - thanks Jeanne