Lake Learmonth

We'd visited Lake Learmonth in March, at the end of a very full day of exploring.

I was surprised at the lake's dryness on that occasion but my research later indicated there had been very little water since 1996!

Given all the recent rain (and flooding) I roused the troops for an after-school visit to see the lake again - with water.  Wow!

I took a series of compare/contrast shots, to show the difference between our two visits.

I turned down a different road to get to the lake-side, so we made a quick stop to admire these bird sculptures.

I particularly liked the balancing ibis. How neat are they?!

Nick set up our small dual fuel stove to boil the kettle for afternoon tea. (The rest of our picnic was set up on a different table and we sat there, just to be safe)!

Leering at Learmonth!

After lunch, we left Beaufort and made our way through a few smaller towns - including Chute, birthplace of Cyril Callister, who invented vegemite!

Much later in the day we detoured into Learmonth, where we had briefly visited at the end of 2014 during our first caravan trip.

We finally dined at 10:00pm on that occasion so didn't try to view the lake. Hah - we wouldn't have seen much even in daylight. Signage on this visit advised there hasn't been any water since 1996! All the warning signs for the baths remain in place though, which looked funny against the sandy flats.

Bunk buddies!

It was quite novel to be on the road with caravan in tow! 

Nick had suggested we organise dinner in a thermal cooker but easy spaghetti bolognaise didn't seem all that special as a birthday dinner - and I'd been busy packing, so the thermal cooker stayed empty.

Our tummies felt increasingly empty also and I called for a stop at Ballarat.  I was hopeful of a park with a BBQ but it was hard to find one in the dark, so we drove on. 

Nick was finally encouraged to stop at Learmonth, which is described as being quite picturesque.  I'm sure it is - in daylight!  We pulled up at a park and quickly investigated the large picnic shelter.  As far as I could see there were no BBQs, so we set up our dual fuel stove with a Cobb Cooker BBQ plate. 

Our more elaborate planned dinner became chicken sticks and crunchy salad, served on wrap bread.  (On checking, it was quite similar to our dinner during our overnight Cobar stop earlier in the year, thankfully without the dubious microwave rice)!  Our wrapped innovation was declared better than take-away though of course, dining at 10:00pm does heighten one's appreciation of the evening meal! Typically, I discovered the free BBQ after packing up but given the wind was quite strong we were glad to have set up in the sheltered area.

Nick checked the van and discovered one of the edging strips had come away. Bandit's rope was utilised as a temporary solution and we continued on to our destination. We eventually arrived at midnight, extremely thankful that our beds were already made - and we could just roll into them!

Bandit often joined me in the caravan while I was sewing curtains and other items. He adopted the bottom bed as "his", so I'm sure he saw Erin as the interloper when the two of them became bunk buddies on the trip!