HELLO 2015 - The Grampians

We left home at around 8.30 on a lovely Wednesday morning - New Years Eve. I only had a couple of days off over the break, so it made for a lovely long weekend ☺

We had decided the Grampians were the place to be!

about 2.5 hours west of Melbourne.  It took less than 4 hours to get there, so not too far at all!!  It was the same drive as our last adventure, but quite a bit closer to home.

We arrived in Halls Gap, the hub of the Grampians, a pretty place with available camping sites across from the shops in the main street.  We bought a "Walking in Wonderland" map for $3.50......well worth it. It gives you all of the walks and wonders of the Grampians. Parks Victoria now charge about the same for a camp site as a caravan park would.  The caravan parks complained they were losing business as a result of these nicely cared for camping grounds.  But the camping grounds have no fresh drinking water, shower or laundry facilities, so it's a little rich being charged so much.  The work they do to maintain the sites is pretty good though.

Cheers!!! and thanks for the champers Catherine Johnston :-)

Our camp site was at Borough Huts, about 10km out of Halls Gap, just past Lake Bellfield.  We had a camper trailer site. There were 5 or 6 of these, and heaps and heaps of tent sites.  It was a great setup ☺ 

Camp 4

There was running water and toilet facilities and our site was next to the road. There was very little traffic, so it was nice and quiet. We had camp 2, which would be a great site in Spring and Autumn, but too exposed to the sun in Summer, so it got very hot in the afternoons. Camp 3 would be the perfect one, and it also had a communal fire pit with seats all around.  Great for a group. Camp 4 would have been good also, very close to the loos and quite shady all day long.

Camp 3

We set Barbara up in no time at all, then went for a 4WD over the peaks to Pomonal.....a yuppie style town with not much character, and by Saturday would be completely isolated by fires.  

Looking down toward Pomonal

We headed back to camp, and collected some wood for the fire on the way.  I chose to be the chainsawer so that I don't forget how to do it.  I was going great guns until GM passed me a branch full of humungous man-eating spiders!!!!  

Eeeek!!!!!

The chainsaw went one way and I went the other!!!  I didn't know where the spiders went, but I wasn't going back to find out!!  

I had a workout passing the logs up to GM to stack on the roof and luckily, no monsters landed on me while I was doing it.

We arrived back in camp and settled for a lovely cold beer.  GM got bitten by a Jumping Jack (nasty black vicious ants), and I was beginning to think he'd definitely taken over my bad luck with creepy crawly bitey things, but alas, it was not to be.  We hopped in the car to go for a drive and explore Lake Bellfield. I got into the car and something fell onto my nose, then my chest.....it was one of those humungous man eating spiders!!! Ewwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!! I was trapped in the car with it and only just managed to keep my wits about me and knock it flying to the door.  I got the door open, but GM had to come around and get it off the door for me.  I had absolutely nowhere to escape to.  I'm not quite sure, but I think I was making sick little mewling sounds by this stage.

It took the whole trip to the Lake and back before my heart rate returned to non-life threatening palpitations.  We spent the rest of the day chilling out with nibblies and wine ☺

A few more campers had turned up while we were out, but still no others in the Camper trailer section.  The tents near us had some rastafarian looking dude who thought he was pretty awesome on the tom-toms and the chanting....and what looked to be his harem of uni student looking girls.  They were all very friendly, and their theme for New Years Eve was "Fluro." Some of the clothes they were wearing were hysterical and we got talking to one of the girls.  Her name was Halo, so we said "hello Halo".....cracked me up anyway ;-)  Halo did invite us over for celebrations later, and gave us both glow stick halos....she was a sweetie!!!  But we left them to their celebrations.  We only just managed to stay awake long enough to see the New Year in, and I think we were up longer than most of the other campers there!!!

We woke to a very quiet subdued camp.  Had some Uncle Toby's Plus Muesli Flakes with Apricots, Sultana's, Apples and Coconut for breakfast and lazed around camp before deciding to do the Pinnacles walk.  It was a bit of a drive to the carpark, but we headed off at about 10.30.

It took us nearly 2 1/2 hours return.  It was supposed to be around 27 degrees, but the heat that was bouncing of the rocks was amazing.  You certainly wouldn't want to do this on a hot day!!! It was very steep and narrow in places,

and quite exhausting at times.  There were quite a number of people of all demographics doing the walk.  

Most were international visitors and everyone was very friendly....as were most of the campers we met.  Some people were out there without hats or water....bloody idiots!!!  If we're smart, we could hawk paper hats and bottles of water like the Indians in Rome.  

It was breathtaking at the top and certainly worth the effort, but so very warm up there with no shelter.  We saw lots and lots of little lizards both on the way up and the way down, but no snakes thank goodness!! 

Looking down at Lake Bellfield

Looking down over Halls Gap

The descent was far harder on the body than the ascent.  My knees would jar on the big rock steps, and from jumping down boulders.  I would pay for this over the next couple of days!!

We drove back to camp via Silverband road where we saw some Red Deer grazing by the side of the road. They were completely unfazed by me taking their pics ☺ 

We made it back to the car starving hungry, so we came back to camp and had lunch and another lazy afternoon chilling out.  GM did a roast in the camp oven and while that was cooking I had a wee nana nap, and got up to watch more campers arrive.  This was quite hilarious, a whole group of Muslim families set up camp next to us.  What a racket!!!  One tiny little woman bossing everyone around managed to show them how the tents went up ☺  Then the rastafarian turned up and their whole camp went quiet while they watched him.  I don't think they've ever seen anyone so black with such long dreadlocks before!!! Maybe they thought he was Bob Marley reincarnated!!! It was hysterical watching them.  One of the women was so excited, it was her first time camping and she was loving it! I think she told everyone she met ☺ They left first thing the next morning.....a lot of work setting up for less than a 24 hour stay!!  My only complaint is the mess they left behind.  All their rubbish, and even food scraps left lying on the picnic tables.  Filthy lazy pigs!!!

We woke early on the Friday morning to someone yelling "it's a total fire ban campers, put your bloody campfires out" yep, people had been notified by the park ranger of a total fire ban, but so many don't seem to care.  It was going to be a hot one, so we headed off for a walk to Silverband Falls.

This was a lovely short little walk to a trickle of water coming down the rocks.  There was a little bit of rain forest and lots of birds and pretty plants.  It loosened up the calves from yesterdays walk.  We walked back to the carpark discussing the local wildlife, with a local fella who looked like he might have a touch of Koori in him, and would explain why he was so knowledgeable about the place.  It was nice.  

Silverband Falls, a very easy and pleasant walk

We headed into Halls Gap to the Brambuk Cultural Centre.  

We decided to stay for a didgeridoo performance which just happened to be by Tommy Crow & Gulla Forrester.  

Well you could have blown me over.  I had a painting commissioned by Tommy Crow last year after seeing one in Coober Pedy while on our Kimberley adventure.  I had promised his business partner Paddy that we would call into Alice Springs one day to meet him, and whadya know, we met him here instead!!!  I was absolutely thrilled!!!  We had wattle seed scones with quandang jam that the local indiginous people make, and lemon myrtle tea with wattle seed honey while Tommy & Gulla gave us an education on the didgeridoo.  

Tommy

Gulla

Tommy

We then toured the museum and watched a film about the people of the grampians 'the Brambuk' and how they came to be there.  It was great!! ☺

Tommy & I

Tommy & GM

After this we went for a wander around the place and had a beer.  Busy little town in tourist season!!  We were crossing the road when we got beeped and waved at by Tommy and Gulla.  We're old mates now ;-)

It was very hot and windy by this stage so we headed back to camp and got some food and drinks ready.  We also packed everything so that it was ready to go at a moments notice....just in case a fire started.  We headed down to the lake.  There was a toilet block and plenty of cleared space.  The safest place to be just in case!!  We took the kayaks, but it was blowing a gale and way too windy to bother with them.  The water was beautiful, but the mud was full of sticks.  Never thought to put my boat shoes on!!  We stayed there for a couple of hours, then drove to Jimmy's Creek camp about 25km up the road that someone had recommended.  Borough Huts was much nicer, and in a far better position.  Then back to camp where we had drinks and nibblies in the shade, while I sat with my feet and ankles in a bucket of water to try and keep cool.

It was lovely and cool when we woke on the Saturday morning, so we headed off for a drive and walk to "The Balconies".....

Very smokey and getting very warm!

about 1/2 hour drive into the hills.....before it got too hot and windy.  We passed a wallaby grazing on the right hand side of the road....GM didn't see it....he was looking at his GPS.  We passed another on the way back and a snake slithered it's way across the road and under the car....from the right hand side again....GM was still playing with his GPS and missed that one too!!!  It was looking a wee bit smokey out there.  The Balconies walk was only a short one and we met a young couple there from Belgium, who had no idea what to do and how to prepare if a fire started.  I assume most foreign tourists aren't prepared for the Australian bush in summer...probably should send an email to tourism Australia in regards to this, otherwise nothing will happen until someone perishes!!!

The Balconies....formerly known as The Jaws of Death.....
they don't allow people to stand in there anymore,
but these are far larger in real life than they look in this pic.

By the time we did our little walk, the heat was getting fierce, so we headed back to camp for breakfast, packed up camp, hitched Babs to the back of the patrol and headed home.  We came in via Moysten, but the fires were there, so we headed south to Dunkeld at the southern end of the Grampians, then made our way to Ballarat and then home.  It was about 40 degrees in Dunkeld....hot, windy and airless, but it was safer than the bush.  We passed a lot of fire response units.  They certainly earn their keep, our firies!!!

We didn't get to see 1/10th of the things in the grampians, so I imagine we'll end up here quite often.  It's a beautiful place, full of things to do, suitable for anyone......and not very far from home ☺ 

GM, bless his wee little heart won the blonde award for his comment "F#!$ this fire is hot".  I'm not sure, but I think he does this sometimes to make me look even smarter ;-)

The Pinnacles from Halls Gap....no zoom!

The Pinnacles as seen from Halls Gap

Full zoom on the Fuji....the Pinnacle from Halls Gap....
it was a scorching 38 degree down below at the time this was taken,
and there are people up there.....idiots!!!

This is gold!!!!  Koori Law is a spear to the thigh :-)  We could use these laws everywhere!!!!

Little rock mounds everywhere.....not sure if this was the local indigenous folk or some yuppie artist!!