From Pink Sunrise to Driving in the Dark

Wednesday 20 May

Waking at around 7.30am I pulled down the blind an inch or two to see what the day heralded - to be greeted by a flood of soft pink light. I popped my head out the door and stood there mesmerised by the glorious sunrise which cycled through pinks, peaches, lilacs and blues until the sun settled high in the sky around 10ish. I love the pair of ducks swimming across the lake for added interest.

Louis popped out to throw up the drone to capture some of the glorious morning - but spent most of the time watching Arsenal beat Burnley and then Bournemouth draw with Man City, meaning Arsenal win the Premier League for this season after a couple of dry decades! ⚽️🏆🥇 Happy camper!

Even the imminent danger from the leaning larch tree by Banjo could not dampen his mood 😉

We packed a couple of wraps and set off to explore Lake Heron which we’d been told was gorgeous. A wider, more spread out lake than Camp or Clearwater, this lake has Heron Station at the top end and a lovely walking track up to a trig point at the south eastern end.

We drove as far as we were allowed around Lake Heron, with beautiful views all around us, and then doubled back to tackle the track with a view… in the face of furious wild winds! There was a small campsite in a sheltered corner of the lake, and driving out from there it was fascinating how the eroded bank on one side of the road had left all the root systems of the pines above exposed to the elements.

We took a walk up Lake Hill to the Trig Point - sticking to the pathway as directed. Down at the lake shore the waves were being driven onto the stony beach - nothing like as rough as Tekapo a few weeks back, but definitely no mirror reflections today! From here we followed the marked path across the windswept tussock grass incline - I'm not sure which was waving more wildly, the grasses or my hair?!?

The sun was hiding behind a large fine layer of cloud for much of the time, but popped out to turn the lake waters silver every now and again.

The view from up at the trig point was glorious, and we were lucky that the sun peeked out from behind a huge, fine cloud to warm us as we climbed the gentle slope. Took our traditional trig point selfie for cousin Nick Goldschmidt who produces a premium wine named Trig Point in honour of Uncle Don, his dad, who was a surveyor.

Had our lunch at the top - with an extra helping of hair being constantly blown across my mouth. Back at the carpark I visited the facilities and gave it a big thumbs up - it was a very good longdrop - middle of nowhere, it was clean, no smell, the lid was down and heaps of toilet paper provided! Nice work DOC - thank you! 🏅

Driving back we crossed a river and then startled a bunch of merino sheep who took exception to us and marched off across the paddock.

Drove back to Banjo at Lake Camp, where the wind had hugely increased since the morning. We got down the bikes to cycle to Lake Emma, but I turned back about half a kilometre in as it was too narrow and bumpy for my amateur cycling status!

Louis wished he had when he hit the really bumpy and wet patches a few kms further along, but he made it there and back.

By this time the wind was whistling down Lake Camp in unpredictable bursts, and was already significantly stronger than the 6kmh noted on the forecasts so we decided that discretion was the greater part of valour, so packed up and scarpered! We were mindful of many people’s warnings, so got out while we could, before the winds got even wilder.

A novel experience, towing Banjo as darkness descended, and looking at the rear view camera, I thought we may be about to be abducted by aliens! But we made it safely to Mayfield Domain where we parked up for the night along the edge of the sports pitch and a short stumble from the very nice toilet block (clean, flushing and fully stocked with loo roll).

Cooked ourselves pork chops for dinner and chilled out in the comparative warmth of Banjo, being rocked by the occasional gust of wind.