SUNDAY 10 MAY     LAKE MCKENZIE

We were up early again, due to bird and camp ground noises.

Drove back to Central Station. Parked there and wandered around, without the little crowd from the barge that had been there when we came through on Friday. Obviously, it is most people’s first stop, though not all that popular for camping.

We walked the Wanggoolba Creek Rainforest Walk – a boardwalk of about a km, through the rainforest. This is unique – rainforest growing on sand. It is the only such place in the world.

The creek water is so clear that it looks dry – one just “sees” the sandy base. Although the creek flows quickly, it is silent, which adds to the illusion. The walk was like being in a green church – very cathedral like. I loved the variety of ferns that grew all over the place.

From here, we headed south on yet more inland tracks, to visit three more significant  freshwater lakes in this part of the island. Each has a different character, each is very photogenic.

Like Lake McKenzie, which it closely resembles, Lake Birrabeen is a perched lake. It has clear, aqua coloured water and white sandy beaches. We explored around there for a little while.

Then on to Lake Benaroon, similar to the first one. As we saw no other travellers at any of these beautiful lakes it seems that everyone is intent on exploring the east beach.

We had our picnic lunch at the last of the three – Lake Boomajin. This is the largest perched lake in the world. Its water had a browny tinge, because some little creeks flow into it, bringing tannins derived from paperbarks. There is a good picnic and camp ground at Lake Boomajin – but no-one there. Maybe it is a little too far south for most visitors? But, in reality, it is only about 20kms from Central Station. We had lovely views from the picnic area, over the lake, which is where the film “Eliza Fraser” was filmed.

While we were eating lunch, a pair of dingoes silently appeared, came right up to our table and started nosing around for scraps – of which there weren’t any. These were the most bold ones that we encountered on the island, and the only time we felt at all threatened. At one stage, I was sitting on the table with my feet on the seat and a dingo sniffing at my toes! John was feeling particularly vulnerable, since he really can’t run yet. He went to walk down to the lake and one followed him down the track. John turned and faced it and it sat down and watched him – standoff – but eventually it decided to stroll off.

From the lakes, we continued on the same track, through some interesting swampy country that was a change from the forests, to Dilli Village, a small old resort cluster of buildings on the east beach. Then we headed north along the beach, for the ten kms back to Eurong. Stopped for an hour for John to try some fishing. I explored a nearby sizeable stream – Govi Creek – that flowed across the beach. It had photogenic little cliffs in the beach sand, through which its fast flowing waters had made a curving channel.

I found a fair sized tortoise stranded in the fast current, and moved it back to the lagoon area, behind the beach, where it better belonged. Govi Creek is certainly one that could bring unwary drivers undone – the place to cross it is right down by the surf, where the channel is not incised into the sand.

On to Eurong, and back to camp. On the track near Eurong, there was one of the ubiquitous backpacker Troopys with a flat tyre. Several girls were reclining in the shade (today was quite hot), while the guys dealt with the wheel. They seemed to be having a hard time, too. It occurred to me that women’s lib has its selective limits amongst the backpacker girls.

There were some storm clouds building up, but it was warm, so we went for a swim in Lake McKenzie. Our first swim for the whole trip, to date! This was absolute magic – late afternoon, churning grey clouds, the lake bright aqua at the edge and then deep inky blue about five metres from the shore, where it gets very quickly deep. It was most unusual to swim in – dark, but iridescent. There were tortoises swimming not far from us, too. It was a very pleasant swim.

It started to rain, so we walked back up the track to camp.

I made fettuccine with a bottled tomato sauce for tea.

The Coleman lamp started flaming and flaring – not sure why. It may have some sand grains somewhere they shouldn’t be. We turned it off, but will have to fix it later, before we go bush camping again. It is too good to be without.

We drove 65 kms today.