We went to the Grampians National Park, approx 250 km west of Melbourne.
It's a nice compact park with some good roads and really lovely vistas (ie. much better than these):
The geography in the park is pretty spectacular, especially since the surrounding country is generally flat and covered with unrelentingly dull farm land.
(Unfortunately I didn't get any of the really iconic images this place is famous for, so if you want to see them you'll have to either go there yourself or look 'em up on the net...)
On the way we stopped for a look at a large wind farm. Wind farms are very contentious 'round here. But me? I like turbines...
We got to the Grampians Sunday afternoon, got a map to a potential camping site, paid our o'night camping fees, and headed off... only to find some very sandy tracks that proved a bit of a handful at times.
When poor 'ol Brunhilde went over this time she swallowed a lungful of engine oil... no worries, just pulled the plugs and pumped it out. Messy business that. But all good, off we go again.
It took some time and grunting but we finally got there.
Nice spot, so we camped here for a couple of nights and checked out the local highlights...
Like the creek.
And the mysterious Aboriginal rock paintings.
The park is obviously pretty healthy at the moment with plenty of wildlife hopping, crawling and flying around...
Like this wallaby (if you look closely you'll see that she's carrying a joey - well, she just looks a bit fat but she was carrying a young'en.)
This (Laughing) kookaburra was right at home around the camp. it even swooped the camp table and swiped a piece of my lamb chop... cheeky bugger. It was happy to sit on this fireplace thingie despite it being very close to a very hot and smokey fire...
Charlie packed up his tent and found this little monster lying under it... and he was wondering where the lump under his back came from. I believe these are called Shinglebacks. If anyone knows any better please let me know. They're pretty friendly, only getting cranky when you try to pick 'em up.
Oh yeah, and there was this 'ol bugger poking around as well...
Note those fancy bags... nice!
After a very pleasant stay over at the Grampians we headed southward for the Otways NP. We camped in another nice spot, close by a rushing stream, not far from Lavers Hill. It was rain forrest, so keeping the fire going needed a lot of work and considerable patience. but all in all it was another fantastic night out...
From there we had a lovely run down the Great Ocean Road... pity these pics barely give any indication of how good it can be, even at 80kph. That road just hugs the coast for mile after gorgeous mile...
Had to get a shot of this mad photographer bloke and those dirty 'ol bikes...
We stopped for a magnificent lunch of oysters, prawns and raw tuna at the Lorne pier...
and that's about all there was too it...
Thanks for a bloody good week away Charlie. Bloody fantastic!
