Picnic
We always do a picnic at this time of year, the kids didn’t want to come with us and we wanted to go a little further away than normal so we had a lovely drive out to Ballarat by ourselves. I have a friend out there who had ordered some books so we packed them away in the car and left them at his house (you knew there had to be a reference to books somewhere in this post). We then drove off to Lake Wendouree, had our picnic and then walked around the Lake.
Lake Wendouree No Swimming
Yes, I still call it a lake despite the lack of water. It has a great history and this is shown at the part of the lake where the 1956 Olympics Rowing finished. We didn’t take any photos of the installations at this part of the lake but they are very nice.
We walked around the Steve Moneghetti Track and had a great time reading all the information about him and the track, this was posted every 500m. I was in uniform and people took a great deal of interest in my tshirt; it’s a Tintin tshirt with Tintin and Snowy on the front with the words “The Adventures of Tintin” and a reproduction of the Tintin book “The Land of the Black Gold”. Yes, I said uniform. Seeing as I sell books I consider any clothing a uniform if it mentions books. Today’s was Tintin, other days I’ll wear my Disorganising Committee tshirt from the First Australian Discworld Convention.
Lake Wendouree Boat House
I’ve ended up with sore feet and a disorganised brain that can’t recall all I was going to write about today’s walk but it did include a sad note and a photo of a boat house on Lake Wendouree. When we were first there some years ago there was lots of water and I’m sure the boat houses didn’t look so strange, but now they look like fish out of water. As you can see they sit way up above the bottom of the lake, carefully avoiding the water that isn’t there. This is just sad and illustrates the drought as little else can.
Suz's Space Blog 
I was just wondering where the lake was. And realised, there isn’t one…that is truly sad. I’m sure it would have looked beautiful when the lake as still there.
Norlin
6 April 2010
Some parts of the lake still have water but there’s absolutely no way they’d be able to hold a rowing race there. They are working on a method of supplementing the water by directing water from the stormwater drains. We did see a couple of new outlets but didn’t take photos of them. What they need now is lots of rain so they can pump it from the stormwater drains. I wouldn’t like to predict when or if it will be full again.
suzsspace
6 April 2010
I found your blog via ‘Planning with Kids’. I had to laugh when I saw this post. We were in Ballarat for Easter and rode our bikes around the lake a couple of days before you were there. I noticed this time, that the black swans are back. They had disappeared for a little while.
Tracy
10 April 2010
Oh, I didn’t see any swans. I saw a sign with a swan on it, though.
suzsspace
10 April 2010