Lake Bullen Merri lies some 2kms south of Camperdown, Victoria and is the remnants of a once volatile volcano. It wasn't the fiery, dante type volcano that one normally associates with this, but is what is known as a "Maar crater" This is a result of an explosion when hot lava or magma on its way to the surface, comes in contact with groundwater, known as a "phreatomagmatic eruption". The reuslt today is a clover shaped waterfilled lake approximately 3.2kms x 2.8 kms. At it's deepest point it is 67 metres deep with an average of 40m. It is now a popular spot for campers, fishos and family get togethers.
Lake Bullen Merri
We left home in the cold, wet pre-dawn hours a little after 0600 and headed off into the misty blackness that was typical of a Melbourne autumn. The trip was pretty uneventful with a fair amount of rain for most of the way but drying out for the latter part, turning into a relatively nice day. We stopped at the Golden Arches in Colac for a so-called breakfast and was surprised at how busy it was. Maybe there isn't a lot to do on a Saturday morning for Colacians........
From there is was a short stop to the lake and a quick drive down the dirt road to what appears to be some sort of jetty. The main family area is on the opposite side of the lake. There were a few older guys camping (which apparently is prohibited here but doesn't seem to bother anyone) and another two or three fishing, hoping to catch that big one, of which there are apparently some in the water.
Coops checking out the entrance site
There was very little wind and as such the water was quite flat. As there is no current in a lake, with no chop on top it was set to be a nice dive. The water was a bit chilly being some 10 - 11 degrees, which really woke us up. Once the cold water hits you, you know it is for real now.
We descended quite easily, being fresh water, we were a little over weighted but that's not always a bad thing, although here it could prove detrimental. As this is a crater, the walls slope down quite steeply and if not careful (and over-weighted) it could be very easy to find yourself literally 'out of your depth". We swam down the slope at about a 45 degree angle so that the very fine silt we stirred up didn't follow us down - it went straight down as we swam away from it. This is a trick Coops taught me from our last attempt here. ( he has dived a few volcanoes in his time)
Within a few minutes, as is the norm with us, we lost each other in the gloom. The water was a deep forest green which got a lot darker the deeper we went and very quickly. It was very difficult to read guages, even with the powerful C-Lite 8 torch I was carrying. Despite it's high power, the beam only broke the darkness for some 70cm, enough to see a little of scenery which consisted primarily of silt, lava rock, silt, cans and bottles and more silt. I had no idea where Coops was but i assumed he was ok, so i continued on with my descent.
I reached a depth of nearly 27 metres at which point it was totally dark and almost impossible to see anything. What i did find fascinating was the images that the silt created in the torchlight. At one point, i thought i saw Coops, seeing this human type shape in the light. I swam towards it but realised that it really wasn't anything, it was just the dark area between silt on either side. The torch had lit up the silt but the empty space between it appeared as a person. If you are easily spooked by ghosts, then this is probably not the place to be on your own................
I considered going deeper but as i couldn't see anything now, there really was no point so i decided to slowly head back up. I wasn't quite sure which way was up so i blew some bubbles out onto my torch to see which way they went - simple really...
I turned around and put my hand on what turned out to be the top part of a skull (read the part before about ghosts..). It had a full set of teeth and a longish snout so I figured it wasn't human (in a small town would I have told anyone if it was...?) I was bringing it back up but it crumbled in my hand, literally. It had been down there for a long time.
I spent some 57 minutes down there, most of it in almost total darkness and on my own, but knowing Coops was out there somewhere. It was a very interesting dive and extremely character building. After this, i can dive anywere.
Coops and I came to the surface almost at the same time. He had reached 33 metres or so and claims to have seen a couple of fairly large fish but well we all know those sorts of stories...
We dried off and got changed, meeting a couple of the locals who were a bit suspicious of what we were up to - strangers in town and all that. We cooked some sausages on the little stove downed with another coffee then headed off to look for other exciting places to conquer on another day.
We went looking for a few places that Coops was keen on seeing but we couldn't find them. What we did notice around the Camperdown area was the amount of dry walled fences. There was literally kilometre aftere kilometre of drywall, in all directions - and each rock was carried and put in by hand!! And it still stands strong today, a testiment to the patience and craftmanship of the earlier workers.
A fine example of kilometres of dry walled fencing
close up of some of the drywall fencing - all done by hand
After deciding we couldn't find the places we were after, we bit the bullet and went to the Tourist Information place in Colac (Camperdown's was closed). The ladies there were quite amazed when we told them what we had been up to and gave us details of a few other places around the area that have whetted our apetites for more adventure. A good day was had by all.
