27 to 29 March – Grampians
April 2, 2009
The drive to the Grampians took about 4 hours. Here is the sun beginning to set on a vast Australian plain.
Halls Gap was a little town in the Grampians. There was a very useful information center, which basically became our HQ for planning our treks–and getting some morning coffee.
These wild cockatoos were in Halls Gap apparently foraging by digging holes in the ground with their beaks.
The Venus springs shown above was, well, it wasn’t what I was expecting a spring to look like. Much of the water was stagnant, but I could see that if it rained there would be a substantial river.
Our 12 km trek to the pinnacle was nothing short of epic. The rock formations were pretty amazing and the terrain, unforgiving.
We came across this little cave, called Echo Cave–I’m not sure why as it surely didn’t echo. It was fun to crawl about inside, feeling almost as if the Earth was swallowing you whole.
This neat footpath was named Silent Street, most likely because when you walked within this crevasse it was… well, silent (aside from the conversations of the tourists walking in front of you).
Our final destination on the 12 km trek–the Pinnacle, complete with a breathtaking view and a very steep drop off.
These roos were all about parking lot and were hardly shy.
Our contraption consisting of two fastened wires, designed to free our car keys from the boot (trunk) of the car, where they were inadvertently locked the night before. Fortunately the passenger window had been left open about half an inch allowing us to slide this wire in. 2 hours and 6 or so car alarms later the keys were freed, and we rejoiced.
The Balaconies are a very famous part of the Grampians. Although it may look like we climbed to the top of the world to get here, the parking lot was actually a short 5 min. walk away. Now thats backpack’n!
A very cool aboriginal painting.
