Southern Safari – Day Three

I think I have identified the problem with the Samsung Tablet SatNav and will describe my research and conclusions in a later post.

The plan was to spend several days at Lake Ballard.  However the wind, dust and flies resulted in a shorter stay (any fool can be uncomfortable).

Despite the adverse conditions there must have been upwards of 10 different groups freedom camping here.  What’s so special about Lake Ballard?  The lake has an area of 4900 hectares and is approximately 50km long and 20km wide at it’s widest part.  It’s a ephemeral lake which; depending upon the rainfall;  can either be dry covered in a crust of salt or a shallow wetland.

The local shire managed to convert it into a major outback tourist attraction when they commissioned sculptor and Turner Prize-winning artist Antony Gormley to make 51 steel statues based on residents from the nearby town of Menzies.  The statues were cast in Perth and transported to Lake Ballard where volunteers installed them over seven square kilometres.  After viewing ten of the statues I’ve come to the conclusion the people of Menzies are inter-breed and the town is in desperate need of a lingerie shop.  

One of the first things I did was to climb the hill in the above photo which provided panoramic views of the lake.

 

It was rather windy on the hill but at least there were no flies!

You can see the lines in the salt where people have walked to visit the various statues

My campsite in the above photo

Zoom in

After walking the first two rings of statues I decided eat dinner.  Too windy and exposed for a campfire and I didn’t fancy eating dust with my meal.  Dinner was biscuits and an apple.

My nearest fellow campers were from Adelaide, South Australia.  They had driven over with their new outback caravan that had all the mod cons.  Despite it looking rather luxurious I was slightly bemused when they told me this would be their first night sleeping in it.  For the previous fortnight they had been sleeping in hotels.

It was a noisy night as the clamshell rooftop tent got a buffeting from the wind.  A major part of my original plan was to fly the drone in an effort to get some good video footage.  The wind stopped that.

Tomorrow I start heading south.