A Walk Around Lake Sambell – an unexpected publication.

A few days back I posted a list of the projects that I had in mind to tackle or complete in the forseeing months. One that I didn’t mention – because it hadn’t occured to me that I would be undertaking it – was A Walk Around Lake Sambell.

Lake Sambell is a picturesque and, I think, iconic element of the Beechworth landscape. A very pretty spot.

The Lake itself was man-made, in the sense that gold excavation in the mid-to-late 1800s saw huge hoses used to wash away the hills, eventually creating a massive crater of quite large expanse. There are surviving moving pictures of the process in action and, to my contemporary soul and sensibilities, it was actually sickening to watch.

Nonetheless, a lake was created. As a child, we would swim there. The more adventurous would attach rope swings to the ancient pine trees that surrounded the lake and swing out into the depths. Water skiing and motorboat activities were common, as was fishing for redfin and yellowbelly and giant old Murray Cod.

In 2018 I took a photographic walk around the Lake and – as is my want to do – proceeded to write something to go with each image.

This was in my earliest days of digital photography and I ended up botching the original pics (in fact I deleted the originals), and so I felt that I had cheated myself of something that I might have done better with.

Recently I discovered that Google Photos allows downloading of original images. Don’t ask me why I didn’t know that before, but it allowed me to organise all my digital images – most of which were magically uploaded to Google Photos – into albums, including my walk around Lake Sambell.

I decided that the thought was kin to the action so I have organised a kind of photo album with words into book form. I expect that I will release it in both paper and ebook formats (both in colour) in the near future.

In my usual way, some elements might be a bit slap-dash, and it certainly isn’t high art of any kind, but visitors to this page (and my Newsletter if I ever get around to preparing the next one) might like to access a copy, so I’m planning to place the digital version on Smashwords and provide a code to download a copy in your preferred format at no cost. I suspect that I’ll actually listed it at US$3.49, with a $0.99 pre-order available,and with a free copy for visitors here. There are about 85 images and 200 pages.

It was a fun walk on a gorgeous day and the lake was spectacular. Watch for updates!

Here is the cover I’m using for the moment.

^{A Lake Sambell Walk cover image – 14/09/2021}

And, perhaps, a long-view image of the lake that day.

^{Lake Sambell (length view)- 14/09/2021}

~