The Grampians

It almost broke my heart to say farewell to Rosa on Friday, but move on we must.  Although Rosa's English is not so great, she's so full of fun and love and mischief, it was impossible not to get attached to her during the short stay we had here.  Fletcher, particularly, enjoyed sitting on the couch with Rosa, watching episodes of Home and Away and other such programs, partly I think because she always had a biscuit or two to share with him.  Nevertheless to see the two of them blowing endless kisses to each other was heart warming!

Some of the gang came to say goodbye and we shared a farewell Espresso before hitting the road once more.

 

The trip back down through central Victoria to the Grampians took most of the day, and was largely uneventful.  We stopped briefly at Horsham for lunch before winding our way through the mountains and the delightful little township of Halls Gap to our bush camp just outside the National Park's boundary.

 

 

Much to our delight, campfires are still permitted so after a quick set up and scout around for some kindling, we had a warm fire to eat our dinner by. 

 

 Saturday morning saw us enjoying the Grampians National Park.

 

The Grampians (Gariwerd) are a series of five spectacular sandstone ridges running north to south with steep and craggy slopes on the eastern side and gentler slopes to the west.

 

The spring wildflowers were beautiful.

 

Boroka Lookout

 

Boroka Lookout provided spectacular views of the Wonderland Range, Mt William Range, Fyans Valley, Lake Bellfield and the plains to the east of the Grampians.  But it was FREEZING so we didn't hang around very long!

 

Cake Lookout

 

Ok so it wasn't called Cake Lookout, but we were eating cake at the time!  This was taken at Reed Lookout, on the way to see the Jaws of Death.  Well, when I was here 25 years ago that's what the popular rock formation was called.  That term is now deemed unPC, so the name has been changed to The Balconies.  How boring.

 

The Jaws of Death

 

The name is not as funky now, and neither is the experience.  Last time I was here you could actually stand inside the jaws.  Of course now that is deemed as far too dangerous for tourists and so we all have to keep dutifully behind the barriers!  We couldn't dare let people be held responsible for their own actions!

 

What was cool, however, was the hundreds of rock towers that people had made with all the perfectly shaped, flat, tower building rocks.

 

 

We couldn't help ourselves, of course.

 

 Jarrah went for height.

 

Fletch didn't.

 

Next it was off to Mackenzie Falls for a picnic amidst the wildflowers.

 

We climbed down the 200+ steps to the base of the falls, and Fletcher couldn't quite believe how loud it was!  Here he is trying to compete with the thundering falls.

 



 My day was made on the way home when we came across this little guy.

 

Jack's day was almost made on the way home when we stopped in Halls Gap for some supplies.  While I was in the General Store, Jack browsed the local ice cream shop.  Knowing that our travelling budget doesn't generally stretch to $5 ice cream cones, Jack came excitedly racing back to the car asking if he could have one of those gluten ice creams, "because it says they're free!"