SALT LAKE AND MOUNT JESSOP! Stil Day 2..

After going to Gwalia we piled back in the van and headed over to the salt lake. So I guess usually when people visit there that time of year it is completely white and sparkly because of the salt that has risen up through the soil. Well. Unluckily or luckily depending on how you look at it. The lake bed was not white and glittery. It was red and glittery. This was because it had been a fairly wet winter in Western Australia. Therefore it was unlucky for us because we didn't get to see the full effect of the salt lake but it was lucky for Australia because they had gotten more water.
A unique aspect of this 'lake' - if you hadn't gotten the impression yet, there is no water in this lake, no puddles even- is that, as part of an art exhibition that has become permanent fixture there, there are statues all over the lake that is HUGE. It is several kilometers in any direction; where we began walking onto the lake we could not see to the other side. Focusing. The statues were made using the dimensions of real people who lived in a town near by. The height is accurate and they are all 1/3 the width of their real life selves. The statues are spread out all over the lake. Part of the artwork is the design (that you can see from the giant rock/hill in the middle) that visitor's footprints make in the ground as they go from statue to statue. It was really cool and seeing as my words aren't really doing it justice I'll just show some pictures now.

This picture is from walking out towards the salt lake. 

 My attempt at taking a picture of the ground to show how sparkly it was...if you squint you can kind of see it but mostly it just looks like ground. Imagine this ground but with silver glitter on it. That's what it looked like.

 Rach, Tasha, and Brooke on our way up the hill. Rachel is virtually impossible to photograph with a real smile or regular face. 

 The view from the top of the hill (which was really steep to climb by the way). The shiny is the salt/glitter I've been trying to explain. It was a pretty incredible view. 

 Me! On the top of the hill! Yes, that ground is the same as the ground in the previous photo. You can't see from here but there are statues surrounding the hill in kind of tree rings...closer ones, then past those there are more, but they are symmetrically lined up or anything. 

 Close up of one of the men who used to live there. Well. Of his statue.

 This is me with one of the woman sculptures. 

 Their shadows were really cool because depending on the angle you were looking at them from they looked more or less like an actual persons shadow, instead of a statues shadow. 

Rachel and I decided that to get our exercise we would run between every other statue. We did this for almost an hour and we only made it to 11 statues. I believe there were 60 statues in the whole lake. I think that's how many anyway. Basically we didn't make it close to seeing all of them. 

We drove back to home base after this and 3 of the Aboriginal kids (age guesses 8, 13, 16?) who will eventually be in charge of the whole experience for other groups took us on a walk to Mount Jessop. It was between the salt lake and Mt. Jessop that Brooke and I decided with Rachel and Tasha that we would have roommate photo contests. I'll try to remember to put in some of the contestants as they are taken. Anyway. The walk to Jessop was probably 2km. Maybe 1. It took like 25 minutes with brief stops to see things like this really cool bird nest. I don't remember what kind of bird it was, they only knew the Aboriginal name for it and I couldn't pronounce it so I guess it isn't really surprising that I don't remember what it was called. But the males build these really elaborate nests to attract females and  in addition to their superior architectural talents they collect bright shiny objects that they find. Some will only collect clear shiny things, others only green, some don't seem to have a preference in what color their prizes are. 

 This one's nest had clear and white sparkly things like rocks, glass, and shells. The nest isn't just the top mohawk part it is also the part under it - that is a mound about 5in off the ground. We saw more of these later in our trip. One had only blue prizes and the other had only green.

 This is the view from the top of Mt. Jessop when we arrived.

This is almost the same picture like 10min later. The sun sets REALLY fast. It was beautiful watching it drop. We took a few roommate pictures here but they are on Brooke's camera.

When we got back we had to cook dinner. This was the first time we were cooking dinner with just a fire (WHOA - I'M IN MELBOURNE TYPING THIS RIGHT NOW AND TWO REALLY PRETTY PARROTS JUST LANDED IN FRONT OF ME. then flew away when I tried to take a picture of them...). Sorry. As if that wasn't enough we were expected to make curry. So we had to cut meat, veggies, and prepare everything. In the dark. Because the sun went down while we were on Mt. Jessop. We had headlamps and a fire and flashlights/torches. I was in charge of cutting onions and potatoes. It actually turned out REALLY good. It was just a long process and we were hungry and working together in a productive was wasn't the easiest thing in the world.

Okay, next blog will be the last one about Day 2. I promise haha :)

[My grammar and sentence structure were not good in this blog. Sorry guys, my brain is fried. I've been studying for exams and I'm tired.]