Lakes equals birds.

Day 2. 11/9/11: Wooroonook to Lake Hattah

Lake Wooroonook 

Woke up, went for a bike ride before breakfast. Lily's first ride with her clip-in shoes: 17kms around the lake and out through farmland. Our standard breakfast of yoghurt, muesli and fruit. Then off for a run around the lake - decided to go twice - so 13kms. 

Lake Hattah

Back for a hot shower, which Lily called "the best shower EVER!!!" (A gush of hot water straight down on her massive head of hair...) Packed up in a strong wind then headed for Lake Hattah. 

Regent Parrot sitting still for a second!

Tim was not that excited about Hattah as we'd looked on the internet and seen that he lakes were out of bounds for swimming, boating, cooking, or splashing. Vistors were warned that after touching the water, infected with blue green algae, they should immediately wash themselves in clean fresh water, which wasn't available because all the water was infected with blue green algae! Let's go! Then again, Tim is an idiot. 

On the way we stopped at Sea Lake for a picnic lunch - crazy mushroom mural as backdrop. A chocolate milkshake and coffee at Ouyen (pronounced "Oh-yen"!), which seems to have a great community spirit going on. They've refurbished an old theatre - The Roxy - which looks great. Unfortuntely, we missed the 2:30 session of Tangled! (Or is it Untangled; whichever Disney thing it is, the kids inside were loving it.) Ouyen is also the home of the Great Australian Vanilla Slice Competition, which they won this year. May be rigged, but the battle across all the north Victorian country towns seemed pretty serious! Even as far away as Waikerie, SA. 

Kingfisher-type bird sitting on our door

Apostlebird hunting for scraps or just curious?

We arrived at Lake Hattah in the late arvo. It was beautiful. Lily took lots of pictures of birds - the Regent Parrot and the Apostlebird. The Regent was  a beautiful lilac and yellow bird which was hard to photograph because it was flighty and quick. The Apostlebird was very social, curious, and arrived with his (or her) family mates in a group of about 12, walking out from under the van like a little SWAT team. They investigated everything, squawked a bit in disappointment, then moved on. A pretty dull looking dark brown bird - but fun. There was also one stubborn old crow who kept wandering where he wasn't wanted, and was swooped and squawked and hissed and bothered by little birds (like smaller wattlebirds), but kept coming back for more, apparently not that fazed!