Green Lake Campsite, Victoria

It was our good fortune that our friend Micheal gave us the "heads up" on the Green Lake Campsite where his friend Ken is the caretaker.  It is close to the township of Sea Lake where the pink lake - Lake Tyrell - is situated and it has been high on our list of places to visit.   Green Lake is a very busy campsite with campers and caravaners arriving all afternoon so we left Ken to check everyone in and we took a walk around Green Lake.

Green Lake was dry for almost 15 years after the millennium drought, but a hard working committee was formed to lobby the Victorian Government for funds to re-surface the lake that was not holding any water.  They won the battle, receiving a $2million grant and now the lake is constantly filled with water piped from the Murray River.  It is not a deep lake but while we were here we saw plenty of fisherman out in their boats so there must be fish to be caught.  It is a lovely campsite and both mornings we were woken by a cacophony of birds chirping away just on daybreak.

On our second day at Green Lake we drove around exploring the area. I found as many back roads as possible and we worked our way north to Ouyen.  (I originally thought we might stay in the van park here.  We really dodged a bullet as it probably the most uninviting caravan park I have ever laid eyes on!). This area of the Mallee is a grain producing area.  Philip and I have never, in all our travels, seen so much broad acre farming as there is in this area.  Ken told us that it is nothing for a farmer to have 80,000 acres under cropping and it is easy to imagine.  The machinery sheds that we see are massive and we are talking serious money in this area.  The crops are being harvested at this time of the year and we pass large bales waiting to be trucked.  The crops in this area are wheat, barley, canola, lentils and chickpeas.

Lake Tyrell is our next stop and we are very fortunate that it is quite pink on this cold and windy day.  There has been a significant amount of money spent in setting up an information centre, boardwalks and viewing platforms for people to enjoy the pink lake. There is even a "sky lounge" for people to enjoy the night skies that I imagine would be endless in this area on a cloud free night.

Our friend Jane has told us that we should have lunch at the Royal Hotel in Sea Lake while we are there.  Two Melbournian chefs left the "rat race" and moved to Sea Lake to set up a restaurant inside the Hotel that they named Juke.  We were quite hungry after our walk around Lake Tyrell so I ordered the crumbed cutlets and Philip the grass fed steak.  The meal, although simple, was very good with my crumbed cutlets being cooked to perfection and Philips steak was also perfect medium rare.

After lunch we were invited to go upstairs to have a look around.  This hotel is community owned and restored and once again, we both comment that the town of Sea Lake has some progressive and visionary residents to be able to tackle something as big as this.  The hotel is beautiful and upstairs all the rooms have been renovated to a very high standard.  The upstairs balcony, running along the length of the building, affords some beautiful views over the township.  There are also many murals decorating the walls of businesses that I particularly enjoy looking at.  Funny thing.  There are four coffee shops within two blocks in the town centre and each one looks very inviting.  We joke that they must have a community of coffee lovers.