Australia Part 2

Once our two-week stay in Blackheath came to an end, we packed up our rental car and hit the road at 6:00 am for the 11.5-hour drive to the Grampians, a national park in the southern part of the state of Victoria. The drive was entirely on country roads and the biggest hazard we faced were the countless birds hopping about on the pavement, an odd feature we’d never experienced in such magnitude. We arrived without incident and moved into our creaky-floored cabin on the edge of the park. It was a fairly major downgrade from our luxurious “cottage” in Blackheath, but it sat on a large, forested tract of land with countless kangaroos, a highlight we never tired of. Our location was about 30 minutes outside of the rural city of Horsham, so we had to plan accordingly to ensure we always had enough gas and food.

Taipan Wall, Grampians National Park

Bracken Lodge

Reservoir near Halls Gap

Wallaby

Mackenzie Falls

Koala at Tower Hill

We spent the next three weeks exploring the park and outlying areas. The Grampians are a modest mountain range surrounded by endless tracts of flat agricultural land. Since it was early fall, the terrain was incredibly dry giving the landscape a rather bleak, burnt appearance. All of the water sources were at their lowest points of the year, but we did manage to find a good swimming hole at “Fish Falls” on the Mackenzie River, a two-kilometre hike not far from our cabin. The weather was variable, and we had hot days, warm days and a number of rather cold days, but little rain. The Grampians has a rich aboriginal heritage, and we visited the cultural centre in Halls Gap before hiking to some of the “shelters”, the term used to describe a site of historical significance, usually with cave paintings. We were surprised to learn that this continent had been inhabited by the aboriginals for over 65,000 years before the British arrived.

Gulgurn Manja Shelter near Hollow Mountain

Swimming at Fish Falls

Twelve Apostles, Great Ocean Road

Hollow Mountain

Swimming near Port Fairy

Although the Grampians is famous for hiking and sightseeing, it’s also one of Australia’s most popular climbing areas. The rock is sandstone, and some say it’s the best on earth. We explored the various regions and found this claim to be quite possibly true. The rock was incredibly compact, eroded into the most amazing shapes imaginable and coloured with vivid black and orange streaks that really lit up in the evening sun. Many of the areas were remote and we saw plenty of wildlife both on our drives and various hikes. The predominant animals in the park are grey kangaroos, swamp wallabies and emus, and all were shockingly abundant, which made driving in the mornings and evenings quite hazardous. We also spotted fox, deer and echidnas, one of which died beneath our cottage, unfortunately. Bird life was plentiful as well, and one of Elise’s favourite moments on the trip occurred when a cockatoo landed on our picnic table, picked up my piece of spanakopita and flew off to a distant tree to enjoy the prize. Henceforth, all cockatoos became known as “lunch stealers”.

Seconds before the "incident"...

Port Fairy

Dead echidna at our cabin

Swamp wallaby

Beach along Great Ocean Road

Lighthouse at Port Fairy

Juvenile grey kangaroo

Although over two hours distant, we made two trips to the southern coast and enjoyed exploring the town of Port Fairy and its surrounding beaches. It was here we visited Tower Hill and saw koalas in the wild, which was also one of the highlights of the trip. We were skeptical about our chances, but followed the directions provided at the visitors centre and, voila, there they were, munching eucalyptus leaves in a large tree! One of our beach visits to Port Fairy coincided with a very warm day so we all enjoyed swimming in the Tasman sea. The shell collecting was excellent and we found a dead puffer fish and penguin while walking through the fine sand.

Grampians National Park

View from Mt Arapiles

Emu at Tower Hill

Now home, the experience already feels somewhat distant, an unfortunate reality of life I guess. However, the sweet smell of eucalyptus in the mornings, the nightly screeching of the cockatoos and the ever-present stares of curious kangaroos around our cabin are fond memories that will endure. Australia was most definitely a stark contrast to both our experiences in Europe and our daily life back home in the snow-capped mountains of coastal British Columbia. Although not always easy, our time spent in the country provided an experience very different than any other.