Lake Ballard has been on my bucket list for a long long time, so it had to go on the itinerary. In a nutshell its a salt lake, about 50km west of Menzies and 184km north of Kalgoorlie. The popular jump off point is at the Lake Ballard Campground, which provides easy access to the lake and the unique island (looks like a hill, but its sitting in a lake, which makes it an island), which after climbing it offers fantastic views of the whole area.
But it's not just the lake itself, it's about the 51 sculptures dotted around the lake and the visible network of lines between each sculpture that's pretty amazing.
Menzies is the last town and the turnoff onto the mixed sealed and unsealed road to the Lake Ballard Campground. There's a diesel only petrol station and the town really just hugs the Goldfields Hwy as it meanders north. a coffee shop, a kind of hotel, tuck shop and caravan park make up the main street.
Taking a left through the back residential streets takes you onto the Menzies-Sandstone Road for about 30mins to the suburb of Ullaring. Near the campground there was a place called Snake Hill. The views were ok, but we were savings ourselves for the Lake. Also, no snakes.
We parked up at the campgrounds, and walked toward the island.
The walk from the car to the peak on the island was an easy 500m. At the top of course, you get a full 360 degree few of the lake. You can also see all the 'graffiti' that visitors have carved into the salt lake around the island.
We left the top of the island, it was very windy. We returned to the car and sent the drone up for some more photos.
Lake Ballard is pretty special. Next stop Leonora and the Ghost Town of Gwalia...
