Lake Elizabeth and Forrest Mountain Biking

After a Friday spent watching surfing and doing some surfing ourselves, we headed to Lake Elizabeth to camp. We were shocked at how crowded it was at this free campground, because it's sort of in the middle of nowhere in Victoria, but apparently Australians are big on camping over the Easter holiday. We got some rain that evening, but we were still able to cook our dinner and get a good night's sleep.

Lake Elizabeth is near the town of Forrest, which is known for having great mountain biking trails. So on Saturday, we tackled several of them, and it was a lot of fun. There wasn't any wildlife on the trails like there is at Lysterfield, but the routes were well marked and built for optimum mountain biking enjoyment. After a few hours on the trails, we enjoyed a cider and beer at the local brewery. Zack was able to create our own little "firepit" that night at our campsite, and we enjoyed a warm dinner followed by S'mores.

Lake Elizabeth was formed when heavy rains caused a landslide which flooded the forest. The lake has strange looking tree trunks still sticking out of it. But the coolest part is that you can see a platypus here! I guess six or seven of them live here, and if you go out at dusk or dawn, you can catch a glimpse of them. I went out on Saturday evening, but it was too dark to spot any by the time I got to the lake. However, I did get to see the glow worms. In the bush along the path leading to the lake, you can see hundreds of little lights at night. It looked like my walk was illuminated by lots of tiny stars, but I've read that the light actually comes from the silk threads spewed out by silkworms. They have sticky glowing beads on them to attract insects, and the worms eat them once caught. It looked really neat. 

I went for an early walk on Easter morning and did see a couple of platypus. Sorry...no pictures...by the time I realized I was seeing one (which just looked like a lump in the water), it would go back underwater. We headed back home to unpack our camping gear and went out for a delicious Mexican brunch in St Kilda to celebrate Easter. We hope you had a nice holiday too!