Hardware Société + Pink Lake + Food Trucks (Melbourne) 🇦🇺

16 October, Friday

It was sadly time to part ways with the car; drop-off at Redspot was so efficient! All we did was return the keys and GPS, no questions asked.

Ann insisted on us having the Melbourne experience (having brunch) and introduced us to this sweet spot called Hardware Société.

They’re well known baked eggs, coffee, and I guess everything else they serve!

The must-have Baked Eggs (Deux) with chorizo sausage, potato, piquillo peppers, queso mahon, toasted almonds and aioli. Yum!

We only waited about 10 – 15mins for a table? We came pretty early before the lunch crowd started coming in.

Pink Salt Water Lake

XM and I did some googling days before and found that Melbourne had a Pink Salt Water Lake – a must see in Melbourne according to TripAdvisor! The best time to see it is the summer where the water’s hot and there’s some reaction with bacteria in the water which causes it to turn pink. (Something like that; my explanation isn’t the most accurate)

We were pretty hyped about seeing this before we actually knew and saw Lake Weering yesterday. Plus Ann never knew about it till we told her about the lake.

So we took a bus down, pretty hyped and all, till we saw this…

A notice that the Pink Lake wasn’t pink anymore… WHAT!?

Westgate Park’s Salt Water Lake is no longer pink! It lost its pink color during the first few days of September.

As far as know, our salt lakes turn pink because of the natural interaction of a harmless, single cell green alga – Dunaliella salina – and an also harmless halobacterium – Halobacteria cutirubrum – in response to very high salt levels, temperatures and light.

Based on the last three years, we could expect the color to return to the lake during next summer.

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of what Westgate Park offers – a great array of indigenous plants in a natural setting. Take a walk and see for yourself!

BUMMER.

Made the most of our time there and did what we do best – take photos!

The normal-color Salt Water Lake. (Photo: Ann)

No pink lake, but perhaps a pinkish scarf will do? (Photo: XM)

Went back to the city and Ann brought us round to Degraves Street to take a look at more food.

Ann strikes again with her brilliant food recommendations – Red Velvet cupcakes at Little Cupcakes! (Photo: XM)

Ann had other plans so we split up and XM and I went round exploring Flinders area.

Soup!

Spring rollsss. Price seemed alright!

Headed back to the apartment to rest after awhile before we headed out to Queen Victoria Market for Stir Frydays. I love food trucks!

Stir Frydays

Walked on down to Queen Victoria Market – pleased that we were staying in a pretty good location, saved quite a bit on transport.

Luckily for us we ate dinner before going to QVM. There were lots of people and there wasn’t anything particularly appealing and filling for dinner.

Queued for Bang Bang – Korean filled donuts!

I forgot what I had but it had popcorn and caramel in it. It was really sweet and sinful! A li’l too sweet for me though.

Next up: Camping off Warburton!!! Ann and her boyfriend, Jacob, were really nice to take us camping over the weekend and I absolutely loved it! Will talk about it in the next update.