With the COVID situation changing by the minute today would be a difficult one. Serious decisions had to be made as to where we went today, how to get home in the long run and what our priorities were.
In the end we made fair few phone calls, headed north out of Kalgoorlie towards Menzies then off into the bush to Ora Banda. This is an abandoned hamlet that has a real history. It was the site of the murder of the head of a bikie gang back in the day. Legend has it, it was a senior police officer who hid in wait before shooting the bikie. Sometime later the police officer’s car blew up killing him. Coincidence?
We figured our brains were fired, so some time in nature was the best tonic. Lake Ballard is about 50 odd ks northwest of Menzies. It’s not a lake full of water, however, is not totally dry either. It’s surface is salt ridden and just soft enough to plaster your shoes with mud that gets an inch thicker each step you take.
The lake does have it claim to fame. A few years ago some on paid someone to make a whole heap of arguably cute or ridiculous human sculptures out of steel and stick them in the lakebed. We are not sure of the significance, but they do provide a point of interest. The better point is the view from the top of the little hill perched in the middle of the lake. From here the footprints between the sculptures create stunning patterns in the mud.
At the end of a rotten day, this was a fantastic place to camp.