The Grampians

Travelling down the Great Ocean Road was such a good day that I really did not have very high expectations for the rest of my trip from Melbourne to Adelaide.  I was surprised that the next few days were actually very action-packed and even tiring.

After waking up early, I headed to the Grampians which are a mountain range in the Australian state of Victoria that are known for Mt. William (the highest peak), the Pinnacle (a famous lookout), the Balconies (another famous lookout), and MacKensie Falls (waterfalls).  On the way to the Grampians, I saw my first emu in the wild(!) and was actually offered a job in a VERY small town called Dunkeld (as a receptionist at a world-class hotel), but I politely declined in hopes of finding a job closer to a major city...

Australia is such a random place filled with travelers from all over the world - each day I see something strange or interesting and nothing really surprises me anymore.  On the way to the Grampians, we saw some travelers packing up their car, but they could not fit everything in, so they were giving away their belongings on the side of the road.  We were given soap, socks, and a book (in English surprisingly), all unused.

When we arrived at the Grampians, our first stop was Mt. William and we hiked to the top.  Of our group (1 German, 3 Finnish, and 2 Dutch girls along with our tour guide), I was the first to reach the top!  I felt like I did Americans a favor by proving that some of us are capable of being physically fit, and I was very excited.

We stopped for lunch in a little town called Hall’s Gap before heading to Brambuk Cultural Centre where we saw tons of kangaroos, wallabies, and emus in the wild.  We even saw a baby kangaroo feeding from its mom!

Time for our next hike, this one to the Pinnacle which is 2.1km each way and a very strenuous walk.  We followed arrows painted on rocks, and the entire ground was uneven and unbalanced.  Most of the “pathway” was on top of large rocks that we had to climb and it was very difficult.  I even fell once and scraped my knee (which may have taken away from the fact that I was first to reach the top of Mt. William!)  The view from the top of the Pinnacle is amazing and definitely worth the hike, but it was one of the first times in my life that I experienced a fear of heights.  We were so high, and there were signs everywhere warning that the cliffs could fall at any time...

From the Pinnacle, we stopped at Reed’s Lookout but decided against walking the 1.5km to see the Balconies (we were so tired from our other 2 hikes).  The only story about Reed’s Lookout is that a few years ago, a huge bush fire burned down most of the land you can see from the lookout and forced the population of koalas there to move onto an island in the middle of the lake.  The fire almost reached the township of Hall’s Gap (where we stopped for lunch), but at the last minute the wind changed direction and it was saved.  Apparently similar to the desert of Arizona, the bush (and specifically eucalyptus or gum trees) needs to burn every few years in order to re-grow.

After Reed’s Lookout, it was time to descend the 272 stairs to MacKensie Falls (ugh I hate stairs!) but it was worth it.  After hiking back up, I was glad to have a little time to relax before we passed into the state of South Australia - which weirdly enough is 1/2 hour behind the state of Victoria.

We were staying for a night in a small town called Naracoorte which is famous for its caves which are actually a World Heritage site (along with things like Uluru or Ayer’s Rock and the Great Barrier Reef).  The place where we stayed is family owned, and the parents made us dinner while we played with their puppy.  I ate kangaroo for the first time, and I thought it tasted somewhere between beef and lamb, although it was very lean.  The dad kept calling me “Miss America” and asked me if all the terrible things he had heard about the American economy were true.

The next morning, we were going to explore the Naracoorte caves before leaving for Adelaide, and 2 more people joined our tour group.  Apparently about a month and a half before, 2 guys from the Netherlands had done the same tour that we were on, but had been offered a job as potato and onion harvesters and had stayed in Naracoorte working for the family who ran our hostel.  They had paid for the entire ride to Adelaide, so they were continuing their tour with us.  Like I said, random things like this happen all the time and you just have to expect the unexpected.