Day 73 - Saturday 11 March - Grampians NP and new friends

Day 73

Saturday

11 March 2017 –

Cavendish – Dunkeld – Halls Gap – Grampians National Park

A late night and a few drinks and I woke a little foggy. My pink champagne, strawberry schnapps and strawberries had gone down well, but were leaving a lasting impression. I was a bit slow getting under way and out the door but we managed.

Saying goodbye to the neighbours, we drove out to Dunkeld the southern gateway to the Grampians National Park. Mt Sturgeon and Mt Abrupt make striking figures in the background. We parked did a walk of the main street of town, stopped in at the info centre and then continued on towards Halls Gap.

The roads are good, windy and breach up and down as you begin to wind up into the mountains.

We stopped at Lake Bellfield to check out what was happening. Some were fishing and some were swimming, though the water was a little cool. It was lovely and peaceful and there were great views to be had.

We moved on to Silverband Falls, parking in the car park and then walking 800m up hill to the falls. There was more water than the ones we saw yesterday, but it wasn’t gushing. I was able to walk out over the rocks to the other side to take some photos, trying to avoid the other tourists taking it in.

Once I was satisfied we drove into Halls Gap. It was packed. There were no parking spots in the main centre of town that was a shame as it would have been nice to stop and walk the street. Instead we found a quiet spot at the local sports oval where we found a picnic bench in the shade and could have our lunch. We were watched over by a young kookaburra that was happy to be fed by another family.

When we had finished our lunch, we drove on, heading up the steep, winding road and on to the Boroka Lookout. From here we could look out the valley of Halls Gap with the mountains closing in on the sides and Lake Bellfield at the top end. It was quite hazy from this spot but you could still see a fair distance.

We then continued our winding journey to the next lookout, Reed and the Balconies.

Plenty of tourists were at this spot with many of them completely ignoring the danger signs and the fences and sitting out on the over hanging rocks, while it gave a good perspective to my photos and the enormity of the space I just couldn’t believe the idiocy of it.

We returned to the car and onto Mackenzie Falls. We could tell this was a tourist mecca when we arrived with the overflowing car park. Paul pulled our little car into the tiniest of spots, we gathered our things and then made the walk to the top viewing platform of the falls. You could hear the water rushing before you saw it. It was impressive, but I could tell it would be fantastic from below, so we began the descent. By the look on the faces of those returning we could tell there would a price for the return, so many sucking in the air and holding their sides. No time to think about it though, we were heading down the stairs.

There were some great photo opportunities, but you had to pick your time between the other hordes. It was made harder with my tripod in tow, but I didn’t care.

Once at the bottom I found a place to capture the falls that were rushing over the rock edge and plunging to the pool below, some were swimming, though you weren’t suppose to. Others were sitting on the ledge under the fall, hidden by the curtain of water. It was a very pretty spot.

Now for the ascent. Putting out bodies in low gear we began the climb of the steep stairs to the top. We didn’t actually find it that difficult, we must be fitter than most which us surprising. We did however find the climb through the cloud of fart gas the most challenging.

Once at the top, we made it back to the car and then it was on the road and back towards Cavendish. We passed a wooden frame along the way that is used to frame the view of the Grampians, so we stopped to take some pics.

There are three others in the Horsham area that we will also check out during our travels.  We also passed by a free camp at Cherrypool on the edge of Glenelg River that Paul thought could be a go after Cavendish.

We pulled into the rec grounds just after four, being welcomed home by the neighbours. We unpacked before settling into our chairs out under the awning. There was a little drizzle in the air, but nothing too great. I uploaded the photos only to drop the hard drive and have it start beeping at me. Ahhhh! I couldn’t get it working. I will have to find someone who can recover data. Thankfully I haven’t deleted any photos off the camera cards so I still have them. I guess I will be off to buy another hard drive when we are in civilisation.

The others were getting themselves organised, so we changed and then ferried a couple to the Bunyip Pub for dinner.  With a table for 13 we settled in for the evening. The menu had changed, so we had new things to choose from for dinner, it again all looked delicious and we weren’t disappointed with our choices.

We couldn’t get over how busy the place was, I was thankful that Tracey had booked last week and for a couple extra places, so we weren’t just taking up space.  We had a great time drinking champagne, talking, laughing and listening to funny stories, the group is quite amusing and listening to the banter makes Paul and I laugh. This continued back at the camp.

By now the rain had set in, so we were perched under the annex of Sue and Wilbur’s van. Robbo and Darryl were under Robbo’s sitting around an electric heater, as you cant have fires here. It was so funny to watch. I was glad we were part of the gang, as the noise and antics went on for some time and we would have been annoyed with the late noise had we not been apart of the shenanigans.

By 11.30pm though I had to call it a night. Paul continued on for another half hour, enjoying the tales being told and realising he had a lot in common with most of these 60 year olds.

Thankfully the noise dies off at 12.30am and we were finally able to go to bed proper.