Leaving Leonora , we are heading south again , today & tomorrow are forecast to be a bit cooler ( if you can call 29 degrees cooler ?? ) and it will suit us just fine for our next destination .
Stopping at Menzies for a quick break , we changed drivers and headed out , 53 kilometres to drive , 23 kms were gravel road . There was a section of minor corrugations and some rocky bits , but it was generally pretty good . Before long we'd arrived and parked , time to go for a walk to see where we could set up - we decided this would view would do us nicely for a couple of nights .
This is Lake Ballard .
And it's claim to fame are the Anthony Gormley Sculptures installed in 2003 . There are 51 sculptures placed strategically around 10 square kilometres of salt lake - and with no maps , it's up to you to wander around them all if you wish . Some are 100m apart , whilst others are 500m or more , some are placed beyond some of the closer islands .
This island is just over 2 kms from where we are parked , and shimmers in the heat haze / mirage .
Lake Ballard goes for nearly 50 kms back to the east from here , it's huge !! The bush an the edge of the lake is Samphire - a bush that thrives in this harsh environment .
This is one of the first sculptures you find on your trip on the lake .
Colours of the lake are quite amazing , reflections in the heat haze were also great .
After lunch we headed out and climbed the small island in the first photo , views are awesome , people have decided to write their names etc on the lake bed using rocks from the hill - as someone has said on wikicamps - Visual graffiti without using paint ! we tend to agree .
Back to the views .
As the sun went down , the colours intensified .
After an extremely quiet night , we headed out early on the bikes , the lake was firm underfoot and we made it out about 1klm before it got just that little bit to soft underneath , anyway we got to walk the bikes along the next 3 or 4 klms . Thought this guy might like to go for a ride - he didn't bother - must have known something we didn't hahaha .
The island that was shimmering in the heat haze yesterday seemed to call us over , so we obliged after checking quite a few os the sculptures on the way , we were surprised to find some of the plants on the island were flowering .
Surrounding the lake are sections of orange sand , creating great contrasts with the greenery of the shrubbery & the lake colours .
The remains of a fence line disappeared across the lake under surveillance from one sculpture .
Yes the drone came out again , here's the little island just out from the campsite from above .
You can make out some of the tracks that people take between the sculptures .
There are sculptures out to the middle of the photo to the left of the islands , and to the right & behind .
This is looking to the east at quite a lot of the islands in the lake .
This island almost looks like a pikelet from above .
A tracked vehicle has been going all around the lake , think it may have been removing some of the sculptures that have been damaged , to take away for repairs . The tracks looked good from the drone .
Footprints also stood out ( pardon the pun ) . When the footprints were made , the lake was wetter and now the salt is crystallising in the footprints making them look white .
We made it back to the van after about 3 and a half hours of walking & riding and flying the drone .
After some lunch we sat outside battling the flies & reading . The drone came out again , this dune was only about 100m away from us .
That's us down there - yep the white thing .
Another great day was had , and after sunset we went back outside and watched shooting stars under the biggest of outback skies , millions of starts twinkling away . The peace & quiet was disturbed by 3 or 4 groups of people out walking the lake with head torches - they arrived late ( in the dark ) and one group left early next morning .
That didn't do anything to affect our wonderful couple of days , a great place to visit . Her's a map link :- https://drive.google.com/open?id=1H_wOLTfH0JWYZV-hgmxCXo9IfFqzEmfN&usp=sharing
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