July 19th

John collecting water at Mt Elvire Rock

A cool morning at nearly -1deg, but the day soon warmed up with a clear blue sky once again.

Sunday Morning With Macca! We rarely listen to Australia All Over when we are at home but we do enjoy it when we are on Safari. This morning Wendy Lugg was interviewed about an ANZAC Exhibition she had curated. It includes the first Red Cross Quilt that was made. Wendy tracked it down to Canada and flew across to bring it back to Australia. She now hopes to be able to buy this quilt for Australian ownership.

It was 42 km from Mt Elvire Homestead out to the Evanston/Menzies Road. This main road appeared to have been watered. We actually met the water tanker and John spoke, by radio, to the driver and asked him why he was watering the road? To keep the dust down, mate, and to keep the road together because of the large haulage trucks using the road. He was watering a 200 km stretch of road. How often do you water? 12 hours per day and 7 days per week.

There are mines in the area..we saw signs for the Macarthur Magnetite Mine. Further on we saw road works in progress..a grader, a water truck and a roller which was driven by a female. The soil was rich red in colour. John chatted to the grader driver who directed us through the grading and watering sections. We followed the Menzies/Sandstone Road which was bitumen and called into Snake Hill Lookout which gave an interesting view of this wide flat area of salt lakes and low bush.

We went in to see the Lake Ballard Art Australia Sculpture Precinct which is 51 kilometres west of the small township of Menzies. This incredible cultural display is situated within the eerie setting of Lake Ballard. They were made by Antony Gormley an internationally known sculptural artist. The work 'Inside Australia' was commissioned to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Perth International Arts Festival in 2003. The location of the display definitely adds to the whole concept. The cast metal figures are quite rusted and had been positioned at intervals across Lake Ballard. We walked out to see them but did not have a close look at each one because the lake was quite wet and muddy. The sculptures were slim male and female figures. We did not really understand them as they had little purpose or meaning to us.

 Before returning to EC we climbed the small island we had walked passed  It was very steep with slithering stones. We both reached the top for a magnificent view of Lake Ballard. Unfortunately on the way down, 5 steps from the bottom I slipped and took a little skin off. I was cross that my care had not avoided this incidence.

Female figure on Lake Ballard with small island in background

Male figure on Salt Lake Ballard