Grampians 8 & 9 November 2010

Monday 8^th Nov 2010

We left home at 7am and had a very easy drive through to Halls Gap. Along the way we stopped at the SA / Vic border and took a photo of Dante and Tessa posing under the sign.

 It was lots of laughs. Just before Stawell, we crossed the 37^th parallel, well that’s what the sign on the side of the road indicated anyway. I thought it was a bit strange having a sign like that out here, so it was worth a mention, I guess??

We got to Halls Gap at 1pm (Vic time), an easy 5 1/2hrs drive. By 2pm we had the camper trailer all set up and had collected some firewood for the evening. We have a great site just opposite a creek, near where we were last year.  D & T had lots of fun playing in the creek and crossing over to the other side!! They only went in a few times.    There is also a family of ducks with 10 baby ducklings.  We had just settled back when we had a visit from one of many  neighbours that spoke to us. An apparently lone 6 ½ year old boy, who just wouldn’t stop talking, he drove us all a bit nuts. Tessa and Dante were rolling their eyes and it took a while but he eventually left.

We then walked down into the village and did a Geocache  (Stepping Stones, GC1CTQ6  ). It didn’t take long, with the stealth of baby elephants Tessa and Dante had found and retrieved the Cache from under a rock. Lucky for us it was a quiet day and there were virtually no muggles to be seen. Dante and Tessa then collected a bit more firewood and we went back to the campsite before heading up to the information centre to check out the conditions of the trails and if an evening walk was still on. Well the evening walk was no longer on, but we were shown where to go and that we could do it by ourselves anyway. The walk is by a creek and best done at dusk to see the wildlife feeding (Kangaroos and emus). The walk from Halls Gap to the Pinnacle can’t be done due to an avalanche just past the Venus Baths, so we will do the walk from the Wonderland Carpark.

In the afternoon Dante and I went to the local footy oval and kicked the ball around for a bit, while Deb and Tessa went to the shop to get some supplies for dinner tonight.

We had dinner at around 5:30 then lit up the campfire and just sat around having a few laughs and playing with the fire.

Tuesday 9^th Nov 2010

After a welcomed sleep-in, we all got up around 8, we had breakfast then headed out to scale the Pinnacle. We drove up to the Wonderland carpark and set off for the Pinnacle up through the “Grand Canyon”,  Tessa set a cracking pace for the first 15 mins Dante & I (deb) could not keep up.   After about 30 mins Tessa looked up at me and said dad would pick me up now!!  That wasn’t going to happen!

with stops at the Cool Cave

and Bridal Veil Falls

 and a stroll up Silent Street,

 then the final walk to the Pinnacle.  It took 75 mins on the way up.   Dante and Tessa were very proud when they reached the top and were very impressed with the view from the Pinnacle.   There were lots of teenage school children at the pinnacle – carrying backpacks as big as Tessa – they all looked a bit tired – we were glad we weren’t carry such heavy loads!

Along the way we walked through lush bush, past many colourful bush flowers, scampered up numerous rock walls and took in all the magnificent views of this amazing part of the world.   On the way up a family of 3 tagged along with us – the mother liked to talk – we seem to be attracting people like this!! (Random feral bogans!)   Made us all smile though.   (on that note we have found that people stop and talk to us much more with D & T in tow!   A bit like when we are out with Aiko!  We must be more approachable with children and dogs!!)

It only took 50 mins to get back to the car, we were impressed D & T wanted to go via the Grand Canyon than take an easier walk back to the car.   They enjoyed scrambling over the rocks.   We also saw some great looking lizards.

  D was impressed it was much quicker going down, they didn’t realise it would be.   They walked 4 1/2 km altogether and we think they could both manage the 6km city to bay next year.   When we got back into the car D asked if they could come with us if we come back to the Grampians next year.    That put a smile on my face, last night he was feeling home sick – (but picked up quickly after talking to his mum and dad)  

After the walk we went back to camp and got an icecream and sat by the creek and ate them. A very deserved reward for all the mornings efforts.   D & T also spoke to Ben and Nan & Pop and told them of their great feat scaling the Pinnacle, they are looking forward to telling Sarah about their adventures tonight.

After pies and cake for lunch (we can not get over how much food they consume!! Must have hollow legs!) we went off to the pool for Dante and Tessa to cool down while Deb and I had a bit of a relax and did the blog. They had a great time in the pool playing with some big thick floating mat, noodles and kick boards. Lucky the people doing laps yesterday didn’t come back today!!

Photos

D & T will do a couple of postcards this afternoon and we hope to get them into the mail so they beat us home. Dante thinks Halls Gap is a very nice town, and they are both very much in holiday mode.

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