Metung & Tilba Tilba 2010

Metung & Tilba Tilba - 2010

Our main holiday in 2010 was to Singapore and Australia. First stop Singapore for a couple of nights before flying down to Brisbane to stay with Rhondda, then Melbourne to stay with Hillie and Dave before taking ourselves off from Melbourne to Sydney, stopping at various places en route. As with earlier years, we've split the pages to make it easier to load them in.

Singapore

Brisbane & Melbourne

Metung & Tilba Tilba

Jervis Bay & Sydney

We've also split the pages into the four places we stayed along the route from Melbourne to Sydney in case you'd like to go straight to one or the other. The first two are on this page, the second on the Jervis Bay to Sydney page.

Metung

Tilba Tilba

Hillie escorted us into Melbourne to collect our hire car - for those of you who remember Gremlin, this one was even more green! Not sure what to call him - Magnet (short for Police Magnet) was our first thought. You certainly couldn't miss him but while we were driving around we saw several more the same colour / sort so perhaps it's not as unusual as we'd believed. In the end we settled on Kermit as a good name for him.

Following a 300km drive, mainly along main roads, we arrived in Metung to find a beautiful apartment awaiting us for the next few days. Right on the lake with fantastic views and boats outside our terrace.

Like all good Aussies, we fired up the Barbie for tea and had steak and salad. Very tasty!

It wasn't a bad view to wake up to and the bird alarm call was pretty good to hear as well - very different to that at home with the squawking parrots and laughing tones of kookaburra.

As we were by the lakes, it was always going to be a watery part of the holiday. We had the hire of a small boat for a couple of mornings as part of the package. We pootled along with Jonathon driving, plenty of opportunity for bird spotting.

There were loads of Black Cormorants and Pied Shags.

There were a few Australian Pelicans ....

.... and loads and loads of Black Swans with their cygnets. These birds are residents and it was lovely to see so many of them.

They came up to the boats / jetties to be fed and the local bakery obliged by selling bags of stale bread with proceeds for the local school.

The swans looked black from the outside but their underneath feathers were white.

There was plenty to look at on our boat ride with lots of other boats around and some very pretty scenery.

We saw a Kingfisher but he was quite far away and very quick when he moved. No decent pictures on the first day but we went back to look for him on the second day and got some much better photos so please have a look below.

I didn't even see this chap (Laughing Kookaburra) but Jonathon managed to spot him and get a photo.

Not sure what this scarecrow was trying to scare away

crab on post

Presumably the bird that left this here will come back for seconds.

Apparently the coastal erosion is pretty bad so they use these huge sandbags to try and slow it down.

Some kind of fantail?

The inevitable seagulls - wherever you go in the world, there they are. Apparently these are Pacific Gulls.

This is where we lived for a few days - the ground floor apartment. Very nice it was too.

A quick wander into the village for lunch was followed by a "cruise". Basically a nice boat ride on a somewhat bigger boat than the one we hired for the morning.

We went in the same direction to start with but then went much further - to Lakes Entrance. The difference between the calm of the lakes and the roughness of the sea was amazing.

Again, there was plenty of bird life, views and other things to see and photograph.

These are Oyster Eaters.

There were a few Australian Pelicans around.

More and more Cormorants

There were a few Jelly fish where we moored at Lakes Entrance.

The beaches were lovely but, as you can see, it wasn't that warm. At least it was dry in this part of Victoria so that was an improvement!

These wild Kangaroos were grazing quite happily on a farmer's field just by the water.

These goats live on Flanagan Island. Their job is to keep the grass and vegetation under control. Every now and then the owner comes along, gathers a few of them up and takes them off for meat.

These little birds were swooping around us a lot of the time - both on the boat and at the apartment.

There were, of course, quite a few Black Swans around as well!

Finally it was time to go back to base, light the barbie and have tea.

The sun was shining on day 2 at Metung so off we went on our little boat again. This time we ventured even less far because we knew where we needed to be to seek out the kingfisher and we were told to look out for a sea eagle that can be seen around from time to time. The stronger sunshine made the views even prettier.

Puttering along and we spotted something at the top of a tree. It seemed to be quite a long way up so looked quite small but with the zoom lens we were really excited to discover it was a White-bellied Sea Eagle.

He didn't do much other than his daily preening routine. Perhaps there were no handy cygnets or fish for his breakfast (or perhaps he'd already eaten) - who knows.

We also found the Azure Kingfisher in Boxes Creek, not far from where we'd seen him the day before

The Crimson Rosella was not to be outdone in the colourful stakes so he made an appearance as well.

A few Cormorants and Pied Shags put in an appearance ....

... and an Australian Pelican gave us a lesson in taking off.

Jonathon spent the rest of the day on our balcony / terrace with his cameras, photographing the local birdlife. Every now and then he shouted to let me know there were swans around, looking for bread so I'd wander down and feed them.

Clearly this Cormorant needs no help from me when it comes to food

Nor does this Laughing Kookaburra - not sure where he got his shrimp from - the Yacht Club maybe?

One of the challenges I set for Jonathon at Metung was to get a decent photo of the birds that were whizzing around at goodness knows what speed so here they are. We later identified them as Pacific Swallows, aka Welcome Swallows.

We had to leave Metung the following day so off we went to Tilba Tilba having said goodbye to sunrise over the lakes and given the rest of the bread to the swans and ducks.

We arrived at Summercloud Cottage about 400 kms later and met Lindy. Again, not a bad view from our balcony! Very different from the last few days in that it is mainly greens rather than blues but equally pretty.

We settled in then went to say hello to some of our neighbours. There were two donkeys - Chocolate and Coffee. Chocolate was really keen to say Hi to Jonathon!

One of the reasons we chose Summercloud Cottage was because it said it had animals, not least alpacas, and 95 species of birds. Quite a challenge for Jonathon to see how many he can spot and photograph over two days!

Here are the first few bird pictures!

Yellow-faced Honeyeater

There was a lovely tinkling sound when we arrived. Lindy said that she doesn't notice it any more unless one of her visitors says something. We thought it could be bells on the alpacas but it was the song of the Bell Miner (aka bell bird). We think the birds on the right are Bell Miners.

Friday already and we took ourselves off to Narooma to see if we could book a trip to Montague Island - duly done. As it wasn't until late afternoon we had a leisurely drive back to Tilba Central using Scenic Route 6. Very pretty it was too. Tilba Central itself was also very pretty.

tilba cheese

Tilba is famous for its cheese - more so historically than now perhaps but it still produces some very tasty cheeses.

The board on the right tickled Jonathon's fancy - you could buy a wide range of things from this "Items for Sale" board from a van to a treadmill to a parrot.

This was the view from the car park - not bad at all.

There were, of course, various birds to be photographed along the way....

This New Holland Honeyeater was carrying out his morning ablutions on top of a bush just near the car park in Narooma.

New Holland Honeyeater

This Welcome Swallow was enjoying the sea air in Narooma

kite

This Whistling Kite was soaring about when we got back to our cottage ...

ravens

... and these Australian Ravens (aka crows) were lining up for something in one of the big trees on the farm

red bush

These red bottlebrush bushes were everywhere - the insects and the honeyeaters loved them

We spent a nice few hours on our balcony, reading, relaxing and bird spotting before wending our way back to Narooma for our trip to Montague Island.

Buff-rumped Thornbill

We chose Narooma Charters because they provide a NPWS guided tour of the island so we could learn a bit more about it.

While we were waiting to set off this Pelican decided the street lamp would be a good place to sit. High enough for a good vantage point and having had a good look around he settled down to enjoy the sun and the views.

The main man-made thing on the island is the lighthouse and the houses for the light keepers in days gone by. Montague Island was one of only two "rock" lighthouses constructed along the NSW coast during the 19th century. The lighthouse and adjoining homes were designed by the Colonial Architect, James Barnet, after a visit to the island in 1877. They were completed in November 1881.

There were 3 houses - 3 families to cover the shifts. Originally the main man and his family were to live in the southern facing house. In England that would be a good idea but in Australia the southern winds are the cold winds so the third family got the best accommodation by accident!

Each house had two bedrooms, a sitting room, an outside kitchen (across a courtyard) and a store room.

The duties, work ethics and moral behaviour of staff at the lightstation were strictly controlled according to government regulations. These emphasised that "lightkeepers should be sober, industrious and non-enquiring" and totally committed to keeping the light burning, as they held responsibility for safety at sea.

Annette (our guide) explained that the main lightkeeper ran the enterprise like a ship with order of rank, strict watch times etc.

This was the view from the rear terrace of the houses. Lovely on a sunny spring day but I imagine it can be really bleak on a wet, cold and windy day.

Most of the metal inside the lighthouse came from the UK but the stone (granite) that it is built from came from the island itself. One of the large boulders has a lighhouse shaped gouge out of it where the granite was quarried.

One of us went to the top!

By the time we were leaving the island it was dusk and you could just see the light. Once we were on the sea, you could clearly see the lght at its 15 seconds intervals.

To get to the island, we naturally had to go across the sea! Lots of activity with jelly fish galore and plenty of bird life

There were a lot of Silver Gulls and Crested Terns - not surprising when we arrived on the island and found that hundreds of them had their nests there

The little chicks on the left were fiercely guarded by their parents. We had to walk through the nesting area (on a path). For someone who doesn't like birds flying near them this was hell for me. Worse, I knew we'd have to do it again to get off the island. I survived!

The Australian Fur Seals were another reason we had joined the trip. Just as smelly as seals anywhere else in the world but also just as playful and amusing.

A bit of a "furry" photo but you can see this one's sharp teeth

This one might be a New Zealand Fur Seal - the Aussies tend to stick together whereas the NZ ones are more inclined to be solo.

whale

Whilst it wasn't a Whale watching trip, Humpbacks were in the area and we were lucky enough to see a couple of them.

This one was a long way away but was busy tail slapping - whether to call the others or just to show off I'm not sure.

The Little Penguins return to the island at dusk. No flash photography allowed in case it alarms them and sends them scurrying back into the sea, leaving their chicks and partners to starve but Jonathon still managed to get a nice shot of some of them lining up ready to trek back to their burrows.

The sunset was lovely over Mount Dromedary (European name for Gulaga).

Gulaga was a volcano that erupted many years ago, creating two smaller mountains not far from the main one. Gulaga is the mountain that we could see from our cottage.

The local story goes that Gulaga (mother) had two sons. The older one (Baranguba) asked his mum if he could go for an adventure. She thought about it and decided that he was old enough and wise enough so gave him her blessing and off he went into the ocean. He enjoyed being with the seals, whales and birds so much that he decided to stay there. The European name for Baranguba is Montague Island.

The younger son also wanted to go but Mum decided he wasn't old / mature enough so he had to stay at her side, where he still is today - this smaller mountain is called Najanuga.

This was me, being artistic!

Saturday and the rain came. This is what Alpacas do in the rain ... sit down and sulk. Bit like humans really!

The showers didn't stop us from going out so off we went to Tilba Tilba to see Foxglove Spires Gardens. What a treat. The current owners have created the gardens since they bought them in 1984 and they cover 3.5 acres. Whilst clearly "designed" the gardens are not overly manicured and they were absolutely lovely to wander around. So many pathways and arches, beautiful roses and plenty of trees. Here are a few photos of the gardens and individual flowers

There were quite a few irises around

The Arum Lillies were out in all their glory

As I mentioned above, the roses were wonderful.

We reluctantly left the gardens behind and went off on a coastal scenic drive. Lovely views and a few birds to see along the way.

Masked Lapwing (Plover)

Australian Magpie-lark

Dusky Woodswallow (juv)

Bottle-nosed Dolphin

Having sat in the car at Yabbarra and read our books whilst the lightening flashed and the thunder crashed around us, we thought it was time to go back to base, light the fire and pack ready for our journey to Jervis Bay tomorrow. Jonathon just had to have one last photo shoot of the birds on the morning before we left - no names this time as we had to leave the bird book behind!