Lake Thetis

So yes I was going to blog about a day trip. I decided to break the story into a few parts so I won't bore you guys. The first part is about a place called Lake Thetis. From afar it just looks like any other lake. Just the same big puddle of water expected of any other decent lake on the planet.

There. A big puddle of water in the middle of nowhere.

Asking you to look for some birdy. Did not see it.

 

You need to walk out to the lake. It was 300 meters from the car park.

Here's an information board about the lake.

The board says that the base of the lake is PURPLE. Which is really COOL! The purple hue is caused by communities of sulphur bacteria residing at the bottom of the lake. Some of this purple stuff is washed up to the shore during stormy weather, causing the edges of the lake to look a bit pinkish.

See the very light pink between the blue and yellow?

The signboard also tells you what these dome-like objects are.

They're actually colonies of bacteria! Yes there is a lot of bacteria in the lake. The domes come in different, irregular shapes because they are formed by different species of cynobacteria. Essentially, what you are looking at are colonies of bacteria and calcium carbonate growing upwards. These domes took thousands of years to form (it takes a lot of microscopic organisms to form an ugly pile of rock visible to the eye). The lake is 1.5 times saltier than the sea, so few predators live there and the bacteria are left to mind their own business.

Behold the armies of bacteria.

 And we take a happy group photo with this fantastic lake!

The upcoming 2nd part of this post will be about the Pinnacles, which I will describe as a yellow desert full of erect rocks. Spot-on description.