Lake of the Pregnant Maiden

The Lake of the Pregnant Maiden was purportedly named due to the shapes of the mountains overlooking the lake.  If you looked carefully and used one hell of a lot of vivid imagination, you maybe, just possibly, but no guarantee, can make out a shape which just might perhaps, almost, have a tiny resemblance to a pregnant lady lying on her back!  However, I defy anyone to work that one out by themselves!

Part of the welcoming committee

Nevertheless, it was a very beautiful lake nestled in the mountains, a short walk from the docks where the numerous tour boats tie up bringing in many dozen, no make that many hundreds, of tourists each and every day.  We got there early, before the first tour boats arrived and were surprised to find quite an elaborate infrastructure in the form of a restaurant, small welcoming hall describing the geological history that formed the lake, relatively well maintained steps and footpaths and a huge floating platform for all the water toys.

We had seen a bridge structure from Calypso which obviously led from the entry point but discovered that this path cordoned off.  When we asked why, the answer came back "broken".  However, they weren't particularly concerned when we asked if we could go through to check for ourselves.  This path took us all along the northern edge of the lake but had been badly damaged in three different sections due to rocks and trees which had tumbled down crashing through the structure.  Well, we managed to carry on despite large missing sections and were able to get to the little bridge overlooking the sea with Calypso in the distance.

The sure-footed and the....

not so brave!

By the time we returned to the main section, it was chock-a-block full of tourists either swimming, out in paddle boats, on kayaks or just wandering around taking selfies.*  Definitely time to leave.  Thank goodness we'd arrived early enough to avoid this as we thoroughly enjoyed the path less travelled.

*Paul feels that all these hundreds of people taking hundreds more selfies with their latest smart phones would save an awful lot of money if they simply bought themselves a mirror with a handle.  I have to admit, he's got a point.

Beautiful backdrop