Den of Nargun and Beyond
Legends of the Gunai People tell of a fearsome monster, like a giant man made of stone. Boomerangs and spears merely bounced off of him, and he'd prowl around at night and drag unwary travelers or children who wandered off away to its den to devour them. It sounds fearsome, though the only representation of the manxome foe google image search brings up is this decidedly dorky 1980s-eque monster.
Meanwhile, this past Friday (the 17th), my parents and I woke up in a surprisingly decent motel in the town of Traralgon, and decided to head out for the den of the Nargun!
Our route east took us first on the Princes Highway (which I note here is no longer the M1 but A1), which incidentally is the same highway that passes just close enough (but not too close) to my own village much further west. Then we headed onto smaller country roads and headed up north. As you can see on the map above there's a broad plain in this area that is I think one can say the heartland of Eastern Gippsland. I'm not sure I would have known how to get around this area without the ever trusty GPS but most of the small towns we passed through and other landmarks I recognized as having previously been to with my good friend Billie. She's from the town of Maffra you can see in the middle of the area in the above map.
At the Den of Nargun, one is driving on a country road amid private paddocks and then quite suddenly one enters state forest and comes to a parking area with picnic benches. There was only one other car there. It was already rather warm (80?) and still only early in the day. There's informational signs mentioning the traditional beliefs about the Nargun. Among the Gunai People, we learn, the Den of Nargun was a sacred place and only women could go there, and, according to the sign, to this day men of Gunai descent respect that tradition and don't visit the site. That made me feel mildly guilty but if they really objected I suppose they'd have had the site closed down, as has happened with some other sacred sites (notably the famous Ayers Rock Uluru). Though their wishes aren't always exactly perfectly respected. Anyway here we were.
From the picnic area one proceeds down a trail which very shortly is making a very steep descent into a narrow canyon. Down at the base one suddenly finds oneself amid a shady forest in which everything seems to be covered in moss or ferns (picture from previous visit). This is a relatively unique ecological refuge of relict plant biology from Gondwanaland the ancient south-hemisphere supercontinent. While down there we encountered the one other visitor, a bearded man by himself who was friendly, he was just about to start heading back up the canyon side when we came down.
It's only a short walk up the valley to where the Den is. As we were walking I heard noises across the creek on the far side of the narrow canyon and spotted what looked like a large goanna (monitor lizard), I'd say it was at least three feet long. An informational sign said there were water dragons in the area so I suppose it was that. We saw (presumably the same lizard?) on the way back again as well.
The Den of Nargun itself is a cave under a waterfall by a large pool. The waterfall was only barely flowing but the pond was as full as ever and cool and placid. I kicked off my flip flops and waded out into it, it was nice and refreshing.
Took this picture looking back towards my parents. Here's a picture from a previous visit looking from their location towards the waterfall.
After enjoying the cool serenity of the Nargun Den Pool for a bit, we headed back out and up to the car. We though about eating as it was getting towards lunch time but decided to continue on to our next destination on the assumption it might be cooler there, as the day was already getting a bit warm.
As we drove from there to our next destination, the Raymond Island ferry, we noted that now the outside temperature was getting up toward the mid 90s. Fortunately the AC in the car worked fine. "This is odd," dad pointed out looking at the weather app, "it says there will be thunder tonight but '0% chance of rain'."
Arrived at the unfortunately named town of Paynesville and found there were picnic tables right on the shoreline. So we had our lunch there (cheese sandwiches as usual) and it was nice and not too hot. Walked to the ferry and realized I've been here too before, when I went boating with Billie and her friend the chancellor we boarded the boat here just beside where the ferry comes across.
This is a small ferry that only holds about a dozen cars, and doesn't charge pedestrians or bicyclists. It goes back and forth across a (50 meter?) channel pulled by a chain (or mabye it pulls the chain? anyway its on a chain rather than using a propeller like a normal boat).
So we ferried across to do the famous "koala walk" on Raymond Island. Walking around just among the several blocks nearest the ferry stop, even though there's as many houses as any old suburb, there's enough trees that it feels like a forest, and we saw maybe between 6-12 koalas sleeping in trees. For me the highlight though was actually an echidna we found snuffling along someone's front lawn. The creature, like a giant hedgehog with a cute proboscus-like nose, evidentally accustomed to tourists, hid its face for about a minute when we first approached and then got over it and jsut went about its business letting us get within feet of it taking picture. Neat.
After this we took the ferry back to Paynesville, had ice cream, and proceeded on the two hour drive to our destination for this evening, an Airbnb in the town of Marlo (which I'd never heard of) on the coast two hours drive to the east, at the mouth of the Snowy River. After we'd passed the nearby town of Bairnsdale we were for the first time in new territory to me! I'd only been further east in Victoria briefly, when we went by boat to the town of Metung on the previously mentioned boating adventure, but soon we were past that town too!
I definitely noticed that east of Lakes Entrance on the eastern side of the Gippsland Lakes (this giant lagoon), the populated part of Victoria seems to have ended. There's still a few towns out there but its not like Gippsland west of here with large swaths of farmland. It was beautiful country of forests and low intensity pasture land.
Arrived at our bnb in the town of Marlo. This not a single residence like most Bnbs we've stayed in but a four unit "retreat" that was really nice. There was a pool and bbq area and almost uniquely for anywhere I've ever stayed I think, the other guests (families with kids) were very friendly and acted like we were all there together. It was a really nice place, would definitely recommend it for anyone headed that direction. The owners whom we met later were also really nice.
Walked to the Marlo pub (called the Marlo Hotel of course). We'd called ahead to make a reservation even though it seemed like a small town, but the day before the first place we'd tried to go to, on a random Thursday in Traralgon was all reservationed up. Arriving at the Marlo pub and seeing all the cars parked out front I began to be nervous that there wouldn't be room (actually, writing this nearly a week later now, I remember being worried, but I thought I called in a reservation. Maybe I didn't? who knows). Anyway it was packed but it was a big place and I found us seats around a barrel by the rail on the edge of the back veranda, overlooking a lawn (with one random electric car charging station that was in use!), and beyond it the river, and forest covered hills on the far side.
I held down this seat while my parents stood in line to order the food. I had identified a lamb tangine on the menu I thought looked really good and I think had re-stated my desire for that to my mom as she went to stand in line. Seeing a specials board I hadn't seen before I commented "oh they have a cubano sandwich" just as an observation. When my parents had ordered and joined me I learned dad had thought I had changed my mind and asked for a cubano sandwich. I actually don't terribly much like sandwiches in general and was getting a bit tired of the cheese sandwiches we were always having for lunch and had NOT intended to order a cubano sandwich so I was actually very disappointed by this but whats done is done so I did my best to act like it wasn't a big deal though I felt pretty disappointed. As luck would have it, when the sandwich came it was actually absolutely delicious. Altogether the pub seemed to have really good food and a really good atmosphere. Definitely recommend.
As we were eating, we had a good view of where the sun was setting behind the hills across the river. Dark thunderheads were gathering in that direction and so the sunset was a beautiful combination of the golden glow of the sun breaking through and illuminating some clouds while around it the dark purple thunderheads loomed dramatically. As we finished our dinner there were smoe flickers of lightning over there, that ramped up to fairly constant flickers of lightning and soon many people were at the rail watching the show.
After dinner it was a short walk across the lawn to some steps that lead down a short tree-covered slope to the road along the waterfront. It was still nice and warm, a lovely summer evening, and just down here where we now were on the waterfront (of the river) there was a narrow pier sticking out into the river and about half a dozen kids around 12ish were out there in their bathing suits enjoying jumping into the river. I reflected it was the kind of classic childhood moment they'll probably cherish in their memories forever (or perhaps one of many memories of doing so to be remembered in aggregate). The sun is setting around 8:30pm-ish around here these days and the sun was just setting. We watched the flickering horizon for awhile. Further down the river it looked like there were some adults out swimming or chilling in the water. As I said it was a warm summer evening.
We walked back to our hotel. The other guests were still hanging out in the bbq area. Presently the lightning was all around us and we went out and watched for awhile as flashes lit up the sky all around us. Oddly there was hardly any sound of thunder, and only there merest smattering of rain.