{"id":1120,"date":"2018-04-10T11:01:37","date_gmt":"2018-04-10T18:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fmsreliability.com\/adventures\/?p=1120"},"modified":"2018-04-16T18:08:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-17T01:08:00","slug":"grampians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fmsreliability.com\/adventures\/2018\/04\/10\/grampians\/","title":{"rendered":"Grampians"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The drive to the Grampians was typical of what I expected in Australia: long and flat.\u00a0 But then mountains pierced the horizon!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We found Halls Gap Lakeside Tourist Park and checked in.\u00a0 The woman at reception, when we asked if there was a specific place to “go” to see the roos, looked at us rather oddly and said if we didn’t see a roo in the next few hours, we needed new specs. It wasn’t 5 minutes later they were in front of our deck.\u00a0Throughout our stay, dozens of kangaroos would pass by.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>There were also flocks of cockatoos that liked the eucalyptus outside our deck.\u00a0 We would watch them as they stripped the leaves and small branches off the trees while the kangaroos scavenged the dropped leaves below.\u00a0 The cabins on both sides of us would feed the cockatoos from their decks and sometimes a cockatoo would land on our railing as we ate dinner outside \u2013 only two feet away at most!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Saturday, March 24<\/u><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>This morning we woke to pouring rain and it continued until noon.\u00a0We ventured out and drove to MacKenzie Waterfall.\u00a0 There were a network of marked tracks, but you basically had the option of descending down 250 steps to the bottom of the falls, or walk the more level track to the overlook.\u00a0 Neither of the tracks were all that long so we did both.\u00a0 The falls had a lot of water and were beautiful.\u00a0 There were lots of people at the base of the falls, yet we only saw one other family on the track to the overlook.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On the route back to Halls Gap we took the road to Reeds Lookout and the Balconies.\u00a0 Reeds Lookout is basically a drive-up, making it a great stop for families with young children or elderly.\u00a0 The Balconies required about 20-30 minutes of walking along the ridge and through some forest.\u00a0 The outcrop reminded me of a jaw of some sort of pre-historic animal and it had a very panoramic view of the valley.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Reeds<\/a><\/p>\n

We still had plenty of time, so we also drove to Baroka Lookout.\u00a0It had 2 viewpoints but neither one of them required more than 3 minutes of walking from the carpark.\u00a0 The views from here were a little different than those at Reeds and The Balconies.\u00a0 Here, you looked over the town of Halls Gap and along Fyans Valley, all the way to the reservoir and the dam.\u00a0 We could see where the meadow was behind our campground.<\/p>\n

So although our day was cut short by the weather, we made the best of it.<\/p>\n

Sunday, March 25<\/u><\/h3>\n

\"\"<\/a>There is a loop walk from Halls Gap to The Pinnacle Lookout.\u00a0It takes 5 or more hours and has a lot of elevation gain.\u00a0 I noticed most of the scenic areas along it were between (or near) the Wonderland carpark and the lookout itself.\u00a0 It would still take about 2 hours and have some elevation gain, but that was a more palatable option.\u00a0 There was also one highlight to be seen close to Halls Gap, but we decided we could do this independently of the full 5-hour loop.<\/p>\n

\"Grand<\/a>Starting from Wonderland carpark, we headed the direction of the Grand Canyon.\u00a0 This was a gorgeous area and I would advise anyone who doesn\u2019t have the energy to get to The Pinnacle, at least go explore the Grand Canyon!\u00a0 It\u2019s a gorgeous area with beautiful Rock Walls and views.\u00a0 The tracks here are very well done with huge flat boulders lined up in stair-like fashion and there are handrails at strategic places that are more exposed.\u00a0 I loved that the railings were sinewy and not straight lines.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>From there the track kept ascending and one area is called, \u201cSilent Street\u201d.\u00a0 It had rock walls on either side and continuous stairs through the continually narrowing gorge.\u00a0 As we were getting close to the point of emerging, I felt the need to put my jacket on and we saw another hiker coming down with his coat tightly pulled around him.\u00a0He warned us of the conditions stating, \u201cGet ready to be blown off\u201d. \u00a0Yep, it was incredibly windy and very exposed.\u00a0 We made our way to the lookout but really couldn\u2019t enjoy it.\u00a0 We just held on to our cameras and took a few quick shots.\u00a0 A woman was there who had come from the other carpark; she didn\u2019t stay long either!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

At this point, it started sprinkling.\u00a0 We knew of a protected area in Silent Street (where I put on my jacket) that would be protected from the rain.\u00a0 However, I wasn\u2019t keen on going back the way we came through Silent Street, because my knees aren\u2019t good on descending long and steep stairways.\u00a0 We knew there was another way back that was a bit longer, and hopefully, gentler.\u00a0 And we hoped that the sprinkles wouldn\u2019t become a hard rain.\u00a0 So we went for it.\u00a0 It turned out to be a good decision.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Once back at the carpark, it was sunny and beautiful.\u00a0 We had our lunch in the car before heading off by foot to Splinter Falls.\u00a0 The Falls were half an hour away and a lot of descent.\u00a0 This made me really glad we didn\u2019t decide to do the hike all the way from Halls Gap!\u00a0 Although a beautiful walk, Splinter Falls was nothing more than a trickle.<\/p>\n

We went back to our cabin.\u00a0 It was our last day in the Grampians so we had some packing to do.\u00a0The wind just got worse and worse, even blowing our deck furniture around.\u00a0 The upside was that because it was Sunday, all the families with kids were gone.\u00a0 Our deck overlooked a small grassy area with a playground to the right and the kangaroos would graze there.\u00a0 With kids at the playground, about twelve kangaroos at the most, would show up.\u00a0 This evening with the kids gone, we had 35 outside our deck!<\/p>\n

Monday, March 26<\/u><\/h3>\n

Today, we had all day to make our way back to Melbourne airport.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We decided to do a couple of short, easy walks in the valley.\u00a0First was Fyans Creek Loop.\u00a0 It was a nice loop with bridge crossings and tracks on both sides of the creek.\u00a0 We saw our first herd of deer here.\u00a0 We also saw a marsupial \u2013 too small to be a kangaroo, but the face wasn\u2019t that of a wallaby either.\u00a0 At the Cultural Center, we saw a flyer about an endangered black-faced Kangaroo and we think it was that.\u00a0 Neither of us got a photo and I regret that.\u00a0 By now, we had so many photos of wallabies and kangaroos, we didn\u2019t bother.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Next was the track to Venus Baths.\u00a0 This was a feature of the Pinnacle Loop walk.\u00a0 You can do a loop to the baths, one track is rugged and natural, and the other is asphalt and goes through a Botanical Garden (which sorry to say, is rather dilapidated).\u00a0 The baths had some signboards showing people a hundred years ago, bathing in them.\u00a0 The \u201cbaths\u201d were so pretty!<\/p>\n

When we were chatting it up with the lady at Wines @ Tilly, she recommended a couple of wineries near the town of Great Western.\u00a0We decided to do her recommendation of the tour and tasting at Seppelt Cellars.\u00a0 It was a huge facility and we ended up on a private tour of the tunnels dug beneath it.\u00a0 We came to find out that they only make sparkling wines and none of the production was done there.\u00a0 It had been turned into a venue to be rented out and they kept the tasting and tours for visitors.\u00a0 The tunnels were hand-dug and there were a lot of interesting stories around the winery and tunnels.\u00a0 One story was of a famous opera singer at the turn of the century (Nellie Melba, in whose name Melba Gully was named) who wanted to bathe in champaign.\u00a0 The owner of Seppelt at the time was game to make it happen and it took 152 bottles of the stuff to fill the bathtub.\u00a0 It turned out that Melba didn\u2019t like the feel of the bubbles and the bath was too cold, so she got out after only a minute or two.\u00a0Not wanting 152 bottles of bubbly go to waste \u2013 legend has it they rebottled and sold it under a special label.\u00a0 Can you imagine?\u00a0 YUCK!<\/p>\n

Two of the sparkling wines we tasted were sparking Shiraz.\u00a0Fred offered space in his suitcase so we brought two bottles home for Wine Wednesdays!<\/p>\n

The rest of the drive was uneventful and luckily our flight home was uneventful as well.\u00a0 We had a wonderful time.\u00a0 Australia is a big place, so there may be another trip there in our future.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The drive to the Grampians was typical of what I expected in Australia: long and flat.\u00a0 But then mountains pierced the horizon! 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