Lake Eildon reckons

Chingshang *

Recent weeks have been very hectic for me as I have been busy exploring some of the most enchanting natural spots of Victoria. In fact I am getting out the best of Victorian beauty exploiting my rare semester break.

This time I am very lucky as I have a good company to Mr Arijit Ghosh, an Australian Bengali who is another adventure bug always enthusiastic about venturing into new areas, getting firsthand knowledge of the people and places. He is a sort of globe trotter who have lived in different parts of the world and now settled happily in Australia.

His idea of seeing new places and understanding new environment is simply marvellous for any amateur traveller. He owned a powerful old model Ford Falcon that makes our visiting off the bitten track places a breeze.

Scenic Lake view

In the beginning I was very much interested in visiting those much publicised and oft quoted tourist spots of Victoria like Great Ocean Route, Grampians, Phillip island, Mt Buller, and Sovereign hill and so on. Of late my enthusiasm in visiting those places has been diminishing slowly. This may be because of the fact that I have been enjoying visiting lesser known places with maximum return. But I wish I am almost there someday.

It is not at all a big deal as I can go to these places whenever I feel like visiting. There are adequate facilities to take me there. However visiting to lesser known places needed sort of planning and a great mental makeup which I would always love to do. This time I have had the great fortune to visit different places of varying settings in two to three weeks time.

Some of the places that I have visited and I would love to share experiences will definitely include Werribee Gorge, Merrimu Reservoir, Lerderderg State Park, Maroondah Reservoir and Lake Eildon National park. Particular focus have been made in this write up only to Lake Eildon National park areas as each area that I have visited offers different scopes to straighten to capture its distinct entity.

Scenic Lake view

Lake Eildon National park is a haven for nature lovers and adventurers alike. The multiplicity of different natural settings it offers to visitors is simply mindboggling. In fact visitors are spoilt by choice.

There are so many options for visitors to enjoy their time here including bushwalking, boating, fishing, canoeing and kayaking, swimming, waterskiing, mountain bike riding, camping or one just can sit back and enjoy the rich native wildlife. Lake Eildon National Park is located 145 kms away in the north east of Melbourne, almost a two hour drive from the city centre.

We started off quite early in the morning thinking that we could spend a sizable amount of time in the park area exploring its different facets. But to get out of the city towards this side is little more time consuming. The ever busy Maroondah Highway forms like a bottleneck and the movement of the traffic flow was in fact annoying.

We took about one hour to release ourselves from the city loop. But once you are out of the city, you are directly fall in the lap of nature at its best. The scenic drive amidst rolling hills and dales on the way to Lake Eildon was bewitchingly beautiful. Lake Eildon is perfectly nestled in the foothills of the Great Australian Alpine Ranges providing endless plethora of rich flora and fauna for everyone to experience. Indeed we were very lucky as we had the great opportune to enjoy the whole experience on a clear sunny day.

Scenic hill and valley view

The first stop we had on our journey towards Lake Eildon was at Healesville, a small beautiful town known for its famed wineries. We bought some provisions from Coles supermarket and had our breakfast here as this is the only large town after which there is hardly any shop on the way.

This town is sort of an outpost demarcating hills and valleys. From here the road slowly climbs leaps and bounds to serpentine corners offering great views of the surrounding areas. We took a little diversion to spend some time in Maroondah Reservoir, a beautiful storage dam located along the way. Nicely sculpted gardens with adequate parking lot greeted us to explore the area. We spent about half an hour here till we further our journey.

Now as the journey progresses we are in the ultimate mountain highway. The road is flanked closely by huge and tall red gum trees. But the mountain road is creamy smooth with abundant road safety rules being displayed at all the appropriate corners and turns. This constantly reminds me of the great significance of good mountain roads in the efficient movement of men and materials.

In fact I was thinking of the great benefits that we could reap provided the road connecting Imphal and Dimapur or Imphal and Jiribam is sealed to this standard which I see here vividly in my eyes.

I have travelled umpteen numbers of times in Imphal to Guwahati road by bus during my college days and I could still feel the bumps and bruises from so many physical and emotional disturbances faced during those ordeals. Of course people will think I am crazy as this could be felt by anyone who sees better things in life.

But the truth is this is a reality that could be achieved easily with a focus and concerted efforts from the concerned departments. I was thinking very seriously why can't we spend, say, almost a year or so devoting our time and resources to NH39 and NH53 fully making it world class highways. That's true, people will think otherwise because we are dogged by so many other problems also.

All the problems of the state could not be solved in one go. Hence we need to prioritise and by prioritising the National Highways of the state, Manipur could stand tall in all walks of life because Highways could bring a multiplier effect to different sectors of the economy. Everyone knows our state has immense potential in terms of its location, naturally talented people, rich cultural heritage and what not, if not for mineral resources.

It's high time to bring our potentials to productive advantage. So what do we need? Of course answer lies in building Infrastructures. Sorry folks I am loitering too much in this article and not concentrating on the intended purpose. Well that s what happens always if you try to speak the truth you are left alone in many cases. But you still need to dare to dream of the best.

This part of the forest around Healesville was burnt down during the great Victorian Bushfire tragedy in February. We still could feel and smell the aftermath of that historic event as we drive through the forest. By the time we reach Lake Eildon the natural settings have taken a totally different outlook.

The views of the vast expanse of blue water bodies wedged between mountains were just jaw dropping. The different views that one can enjoys from the lookout point in the Dam site are exhilarating. Evermore are the beautiful alpine meadows in an around the mountains surrounding Lake Eildon.

Different areas of the lake are easily accessible as there are many dedicated picnic spots and boat ramps. But as the lake is in the mountains, approaches to lake entrances are far and wide. You need to travel in vehicles to explore. Otherwise it is not just possible or it will take several days to enjoy the area.

One of the greatest benefits, for me, coming to Lake Eildon National park is to watch Kangaroos in their natural habitat from very close ranges. They are just exotic animals. We had a really good time in taking videos and photos of these animals and their beautiful habitat.

But as the time flies by we had to bid farewell to Lake Eildon and call it a day, a memorable day. Hence we left Lake Eildon and reached the hustle and bustle of Melbourne city at around 9 pm. The memories of those little moments we have had in the Lake areas definitely worth a lifetime and they are going to be vivid and alive forever.



Check out the photo gallery on this report here.

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* Chingshang, a Graduate student at University of Melbourne, contributes regularly to e-pao.net. The writer can be contacted at rockm(at)rediffmail(dot)com . This article was webcasted on November 29 2010.

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