THURSDAY 29 APRIL     MT IVE

It was a warm, fine day, with clear skies.

We lazed around camp in the morning, having decided we would go out to Lake Gairdner again, later in the day, and stay to watch the full moon rise over the lake.

When we went up to the office to collect the key, the lady told us there had been some illegal campers out at the lake. Apparently, they had collected a key from here, telling staff they would be coming back to camp here after they’d been to the lake, but never did come back. Access to Lake Gairdner out there was restricted to people who were campers at Mt Ive only and there was no camping, except for those attending DLRA events. So it was clearly a deliberate con.

Not only that, but later visitors complained about a whole lot of used nappies that had been left out there. What dishonest pigs!

We offered to take a garbag out with us and bring the offending items back, to save a Mt Ive staff person a trip all the way out there.

We departed for the lake at about 2.30pm.

When we got out there, found there was quite a heap of the dirty nappies, piled up beside the toilet door. We used sticks to gather and pile them into the garbag.

M and John walked across the lake – about a 5.4km return trip. I preferred to wander around on my own and take photos. There was no one else out there.

Eventually, the other two became little black dots on the white lake surface, and then I couldn’t see them at all.

When the walkers returned, we made a camp fire and cooked Kransky, bacon and eggs, and ate that, with some salad.

The sunset over the lake was excellent, but the full moon rising was a let down. Of course, the moon rose from behind the hill, on the side of the lake we were on, so there was really no light effects on the lake surface as it rose. It also got quite cold.

About 9pm, we left to drive back to camp, taking the bag of nappies – well sealed – with us.

The drive back was necessarily slow, due both to the track surface and keeping an eye out for wild life.

The jaunt had been worth doing.