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From: michael litchfield <m_litchfield@hotmail.com>
Date: 08/03/2017 11:57 AM (GMT+00:00)
To: litchy1.haydend@blogger.com
Subject: Back in Vic & Blue all over !
We started the day in magic style climbing a hill or two to the beautiful Blue Lake, Mt Gambier's number 1 tourist attraction a stunning blue coloured lake formed by a volcanic eruption many eons ago. Thanks to Chris we took breakfast (including bacon and eggs) in the morning sun overlooking the lake that had many early morning walkers salivating at our feast as they walked past !
Having bloated ourselves we did a full circuit of the Lake before taking off towards Port Macdonnell amazingly this time wiithout a headwind !
After 15 kms we took a 3km detour to the not so well known Little Blue Lake a cut down version of Mt Gambiers main attraction the difference here being that we could actually swim in it !
With Marysia recounting stories of her misspent youth (yes she was a local Mt Gambier girl) she lead the charge by jumping into the lake ( a cool 17-18c) with her bike gear on quickly folllwed by Chris and self. This limestone sinkhole is a stunning place to swim in despite the surrounding signs indicating that your skin was likely to peel off because of the watersl blue water algae ! Our splashing around like overgrown kids soon enticed one Kevin Henley to give it a go ! Kev might have got away with it despite his 1/2 Kapersky on entry (he called it a version of the fosbury flop) if he hadnt forgotten how to swim once he hit the cold water ! In a state of panic Kev tried to make it back to the pontoon whike Marysua and I debated whether in fact he was drowning or not - "looks a strange swimming stroke to me I said"...." do you think he's trying to swim the whole lake underwater" said Marysia !
While we debated Kev finally made it back onto the pontoon indicating he'd had a panic attack as soon as hit the water having not swum for over 40 years !!!
After drying out on some nearby rocks we continued on our ride to Port Macdonnell turning towards Nelson where took lunch 5 kms on in a lovely setting by the ocean other than for the marauding March flies !
Our 2nd adventure was only 9kms away at Ewan Ponds. This stunning limestone water pond (allows scuba diving and snorkeling) with a great range of colourful water based plant life was out in the middle of nowhere !
Our plans to snorkel here were put temporarily on hold when a group of departing scuba divers complete with wetsuits remarked that it was bloody freezing. I tentatively sat on the end of the pontoon gradually anaesthetising various body parts not knowing whether i could endure "numb nuts" when Chris bravely took up the challenge and plunged in remarking on how beautiful the underwater surrounds were as she snorkeled her way around the outskirts of the pond.
I soon followed amazed at how much my voice sounded like a 15 year old Welsh boy singer before even Marysia braved the cold alternately screaming whike trying to breathe through her snorkel. Out of the water we all agreed on what amazing experience this had been !
Now invigorated in the afternoon heat we soon clocked up the kms on smooth limestone roads before rejoining the main Mt Gambier - Nelson road 10 kms out and saying hello once again to our arch nemesis the headwind !
Despite the fact that we battled the headwinds to Nelson and cycled on a shitty road verge on a road complete with trucks we could not help but agree on what an amazing day we'd had !
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