Rainy Day at Lake Manchester

On another ill-considered whim we decided to walk the dogs at Lake Manchester today while Eloise was in Nursery enjoying another birthday cake.

Not ill-considered just because the weather was looming and rainy but also because the dam was closed for upgrade work as we found half way up the miles of gravel roads you need to negotiate to get there.

So we were redirected along a path which ran by a creek which practically overflowed with the foamy scum (developing a theme over the last couple of days) and red diggings of the major construction project which hammered away on the other side of the hill.

The path then ascended said hill, and is the rain floated gently and intermittenty down we laboured to stomp up the very steep climb.

It was actually quite nice, there were some very unusual cactus trees up there and some colourful flowers. And when we reached the top of the hill the view was quite something. The lake was certainly fuller than the last time we were there.

But all things being equal we decided that we didn't fancy another climb like that so when the path began to descend again we turned around and climbed gingerly down the hill again.

In the afternoon Nicole made me go shopping for new clothes, so we went to a Factory Outlet shopping centre near the airport. Two pairs of "Walkshorts" and two "Tees" for $65. Bargain. And to our credit we resisted the urge to spend our notional savings on coffee.