Blue Lake

This morning we had a walk around Blue Lake, which stands just outside the grand archway of the Jenolan system. Well, I say we had a walk, we got about a third of the way around and turned back because Ella was whining like a pom and the whole thing was becoming incredibly painful.

One of the things I find really frustrating about being the parent of a young child is the physical limitations it places on you. The hills you want to climb, fields you want to walk through and can’t.

We used to walk for miles and miles, especially on summer evenings, when we’d just take off from our house and walk through the fields to Walton or Grappenhall. After we had Ella, we could no longer do that because she was tucked up in bed by 7pm, which left us stuck in the house every evening, even in the summer months. And in the daytime, we tried walking with her pushchair but found that even when we found tracks you could push it on, it was always getting punctures and even when it wasn’t, she just didn’t enjoy being stuck in a pram for an hour at a time and she’d cry and cry until we wished we hadn’t bothered going out.

And then there were all the well-meaning souls who advised us to get one of those backpacks, as though we hadn’t thought of the idea ourselves. Problem was, Ella hates being carried just as much as she hates being pushed in a pram. As a baby she wouldn’t tolerate a baby bjorn sling at all and now she won’t tolerate shoulder rides and would kick us half to death if we tried a backpack. The truth is, I don’t know what she wants. She doesn’t want to walk, doesn’t want to be carried and doesn’t want to be pushed. I think she’d just rather we didn’t go out.

Anyway, the water gets it’s colour from light refracting on the particles of limestone suspended in it. I suppose this must be how Lake Louise in Canada gets it’s colour as well, though as I’ve never been there, I’m not sure. There was no sunshine this morning so it probably wasn’t at it’s most spectacular, but you get the gist.