Go on a camel ride along the famous 90 Mile Beach
Many Australians travel to Western Australia to ride camels along beautiful beaches, but many don’t realise they can tick off the bucket-list experience in Victoria.
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Camel riding on Cable Beach in Western Australia is a bucket-list experience for many Australians, but few know you can do it just a few hours’ drive from Melbourne, at Lakes Entrance.
Lakes Entrance Camel Rides takes visitors on camel rides along the famous 90 Mile Beach.
Operator Russell Osborne said it was the same experience as in Broome but Victorians don’t need to fly across the country and spend big bucks on flights just to get there.
Like the Cable Beach experience, his camel rides along a pristine stretch of Lakes Entrance sand make for the perfect marriage proposal backdrop, or just a bit of tourist and family fun.
At Esplanade Travel in Lakes Entrance, staff told the Herald Sun while holidays to elsewhere in the country and indeed world were still selling strongly, local activities like camel rides and boat charters were not being booked.
Mr Osborne, a father of three, said his camel ride business was down a massive 98 per cent on this time last year.
Trying to pay his mortgage, support his family and feed his animals was becoming tough with no income, he said.
“I’d walk my camels down Collins Street in Melbourne if it helped bring the tourists back to Lakes Entrance,” he said.
Derek Tang of the Lakes Entrance Comfort Inn said while motels, hotels and holiday units in the town had played host to firefighters and government authorities such as police and defence force personnel, tourists had stayed away.
Accommodation providers were “doing it tough”, he said.
“But we have so much here for families to enjoy and it’s still warm weather and a great time for people to come and enjoy the beach.”
When the Herald Sun visited the local fish and chip shops, few customers were in the stores, despite the ideal conditions for a relaxed lunch in paper on the sunny and picturesque waterfront.
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If Lakes Entrance does anything well, it’s fresh seafood, and especially prawns, the locals say.
At the Bloody Good Coffee shop, overlooking the Lakes Entrance harbour, there’s a whopping 50 per cent discount offered for “those who serve” in bushfires, including CFA, SES, Police, ambos and army personnel.
But there’s giant whack given to politicians.
“Politicians please ADD 50 per cent to your bill (or go and live in Hawaii),” a large sign over the counter says, in a not-so-thinly-veiled swipe at Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s overseas holiday while the East Gippsland fires burned.