Days 10 - 11

 Day 10:

Goodness me what a terrible night's sleep! The wind picked up, Chris was snoring, it got really cold, my pillow was so uncomfortable. The night was never ending! I felt very sorry for myself.

Turns out I was sleeping on Chris' pillow so that answers that question...

After a cup of tea and some breakfast, with a huge flock of galahs swooping around above us in the trees, I felt more human and we got ready to go on a walk around Lake Crosbie. It was still pretty chilly, so we wore long sleeves. Chris also brought the snake bite kit with him 😂

Snake first aid kit on Chris' hip!

There was heaps of evidence of kangaroos around, but we saw no wildlife whatsoever, apart from a couple of birds, which was disappointing. 

I know they looks like dragon's talons, but this is actually kangaroo tracks

The walk itself was really good though. It took about two and a half hours to walk around the lake and we had all the weather turn up - windy, sunny, cold, rain, wind, sun. It was very interesting to see how the colour of the lake changed as the weather and our location changed. It really was very stunning.

Fact time: pink lakes are pink due to the salinity of the water and the algae that lives in there. The algae produces red pigment to proctect itself from the sun. The salt in these lakes was harvested (I think that's the best word, but Chris says mined is better. You choose your own adventure 😉) right through to the mid 1900s. It was horrible work. It had to be done during the hottest months of the year, as the most evaporation happened then. Workers would be constantly covered in salt, their shoes would wear through easily, and I imagine they would have been blinded by the brightness reflecting off the salt. Not a job for me, I can tell you that much! Some of the old equipment has just been left there to rust away, which could be classed as rubbish, but it was pretty cool. I did not take photos of any of that though 😂

Here are a bunch of photos of the lake. It was really gorgeous.

Pink!

Pink salt

It really was this pink!

Evaporation

Fly nets were needed!

We got back to camp, had some lunch, Chris did some computer work and I tried to write the blog. The wind got up so much and we had a bit of a debate of whether we should stay or pack up and move on. Even though we'd had such a bad night's sleep, we wanted to stay as 

a. it was nice to have a day off of packing up the swag

b. it really was a gorgeous spot

c. it was free

d. we might see more kangaroos bounding across the vista.

Chris checked the weather and said the wind was supposed to die down in the evening, and really, how could it be a worse night than the night before???

We ended up hunkered down in the swag to get out of the wind. I had a nap. The wind got so strong it was lifting up the end of the swag, and each gust brought sand in. It was a bit miserable, but we were past the point of leaving now as we'd be driving during prime kangaroo time. We'd definitely come off second best if we hit a big one.

After we pinned the swag down, we ventured outside to cook some dinner - chicken with pasta, tomato sauce and leftover coleslaw mix. Due to the wind and the cold, it took aaaaaaaaages to cook and I decided we couldn't have pasta with it as I wasn't sure if the water would ever boil! We had chicken with slightly cooked coleslaw mix and some cheese on top. The cheese blew off in the wind, and the entire meal was cold as soon as it came out of the pan 😂

We returned to the relative sanctuary of our swag and played yahtzee. The dice gods must have taken pity on us that night. I rolled a yahtzee in my first go, and four more were thrown over the next three games! Unbelievable!

Guess what?! It was another terrible night's sleep 😂😂😂

Day 11

We packed up without making breakfast, or tea, and got out of the cooooooolllllld place. We tried to pull over a couple of times to see if we could make tea, but it was just too windy.

We drove to a small down called Warracknabeal, where we camped in a caravan park. We really needed to do some washing and were hanging for a hot shower. (There was only a long drop loo at the lake). First stop was food though, and went to a pub called The Creekside Hotel. I have never met a more welcoming and lovely publican! And the mushroom gravy that came with my schnitzel was drool worthy!

We then did our washing, made a cup of tea and played some yahtzee whilst we waited for it to dry. There were no where near as many yahtzees scored that afternoon.

It was Friday night and it was still cold and windy, so I suggested we go back to the pub for a drink, and maybe some chips with that delicious mushroom gravy. Chris was in agreement, so we went. We walked along the creek to get there, galahs squawking in the trees. The gravy was as delicious as it had been at lunch. It was a good call! After a couple of drinks, we braved the cold and walked the seven minutes or so back to our camp-site. I had my head torch so I could see all the spiders' eyes glinting like jewels at me. I don't know why I enjoy that so much, but I do. It also seems that the bigger the glint looks, the smaller the spider...

Anyway, we heard a crash in a tree, and I saw the tail end of something grey and furry scurry up. I didn't see a tail, so I was pretty sure it was a koala which was very exciting! When we got back to camp, I saw two eyes reflecting in my torch, so I gently walked over and there was a possum staring back me. It scurried up the tree and now I think that the "koala" was probably a possum, actually. What a shame!