Lake Eildon...

I can’t ever remember going to Lake Eildon. I’m pretty sure I never went as a kid and I’ve certainly never been as an adult. I think Lake Mountain is probably the closest I’ve got. That’s about 70kms away, so not very close really. I decided to go when I heard there were dead trees poking out of the water (I like a dead-tree-in-lake photo). The lake didn’t disappoint, being quite low in the water department. 

Sunset at Jerusalem Inlet, Lake Eildon

Lake Eildon is a little bit odd in that it doesn't look like a traditional round-ish lake. It's more like a tasered octopus, with arms meandering off here and there, but no discernible head. Or a tapeworm with the DTs. Look:

​I started the day at Anderson Harbour where I could appreciate the wide expanse of blue skies and water, the gentle curve of the dam wall and the faint trace of fog, still lingering in the mid-morning. Wait? What? Fog at 11am, on an otherwise sunny blue-sky day? Oh well, sure….why not? I know naff all about weather, especially up here in the High Country.

Fun fact: Eildon has six times the capacity of Sydney Harbour when full

It was only after I'd driven back over the dam wall and stopped at the slip way lookout that I realised I could smell smoke. The tiny town of Eildon might have been on fire, but it was probably just somebody's Coonara wood heater getting its first workout for the winter. Also, the slipway looked like it hadn't seen any action in a long time.

This way; the slip way

That way; smoke and mirrors

The smoke crept its way up and over the dam wall to spread out along the lake and was still visible a while later at the top of Mount Pinniger where I stopped for a late lunch.

Eildon from Mount Pinniger

After Pinniger, I wandered down Jerusalem Creek Road, stopping here and there to wander through the bush and on to the lake's shore. Although Eildon wasn't busy by any stretch of the imagination, by this point it was like someone had imposed a 3pm curfew. I saw no people, no other cars, not even a moving boat for the next 2 hours. Even the crows were creepy with their "Ha Ha Haaaaaa" call, each of which seemed to come just as I was thinking "surely the lake can't be much further" or "I wonder if there's any serial killers about".

I finished the day at Jerusalem Inlet where the sun set in about 3.5 nano seconds, and then it was back on the road to head home. And the only other souls I saw until a reached home were a deer and a wombat. Must be winter.

Casing the joint for the right sunset composition. This wasn't it.