Sammy's Rambles: Grampians National Park

The Adventure Begins

Day One – Does It Ever! A small miracle for the McCarty Family, well the children anyway. We were all up, dressed, packed and on the road by 9.15. Early risers my children are not. The drive to Halls Gap is approximately 490 kilometres so we were stocked up on driving snacks and ready to go. At Tintinara, 200k into our journey, all traffic was diverted off the Dukes highway and on to a side road that would eventually lead to the Princess Highway. There had been a major crash earlier in the day causing a large part of Dukes Highway to be closed off. Now Dukes Highway travels inland and Princess Highway runs along the coast of South Australia and Victoria. We had not been planning on visiting the beach on this particular camping trip. Our detour added a few extra kilometres to the journey, in that the Travelling McCarty’s ended up travelling 650k instead of the hoped for 490k. A fairly big detour. Perhaps travelling interstate is a bit like Texas where everything is bigger, lol. We stopped in Kingston, home of the Big Lobster, and had a very late lunch with Larry. See Larry pictured with Gary, Eilish and Connor. Having still so far to travel we decided to play ‘spot the wildlife’ along the way. Several birds, kangaroos, wombats and a koala later we remarked on the resemblance that they all had to the NZ possum. In that they were all not moving and quite flat, ha ha. We did actually see live animals too though I think many of them were just a splat away from joining their flatmates. Pulling into Halls Gap at 6.30pm we realised that we had left our booking slip at home and to make it worse, couldn’t remember the name of the caravan park we were booked into. Need a wine, NOW! There are a few caravan parks in Halls Gap so we pull up to the first one and I call into reception. Nope, not booked into that one but the very nice reception lady does a ring around and points us in the right direction. Can almost taste that wine now. We check in and find our site. Getting quite dark now and we still have to put the camper trailer up. Success at last and we sit down to a dinner so late it could almost be called breakfast just as the rain hits. Forgot to mention. That wine did taste good, regardless of the time.

Day Two – Down It Comes Time for a bit of a lie-in as after all my family is also known as the ‘Sleep-in McCarty’s’. We are staying at the Big 4 Parkgate Resort Caravan Park and I can thoroughly recommend the showers. After picking yourself up off the floor from where you have been waterblasted you are both washed and completely and utterly awake. Now fed and scoured clean we put on our walking shoes and set off to explore. Note to self, Gary’s eyes are not looking too good. We made our way to the Halls Gap Township along a public walking/cycling track. On the way Gary was christened by what we can only assume was a flying emu going by the size of the gift it left with Gary (not pictured unfortunately). Deciding it was safer to run when under the trees we made good time to the Township. As expected it was very touristy so us tourists bought blanket badges for the kids camping blankets and patronised the very busy ice-cream shop. We also picked up a walking map of the area to plan the rest of our holiday around. Rain seemed to be settling in for the rest of the day so we battened down the hatches and played cards with the kids. Have I mentioned that we are also known as the ‘Rain Making McCarty’s’. We could make a fortune camping through the drought stricken areas of Australia.

Day Three – Hi Ho, Hi Ho! It’s Off To The Docs We Go! Gary’s eyes are now swollen and glued shut. After soaking them open we decide that a trip to the chemist could be in order. Halls Gap doesn’t have a chemist so we drive on to the next town. The pharmacist takes a look at Gary’s eyes and tells us to visit a doc. Two very full medical centres later and a suggestion by the receptionist at the last one that we drive 45 minutes to the next town we are not happy campers. I tell Gary bugger this and we go to A&E. A wee wait and Gary is now armed with a lovely cream which he has to spread on the inside of his eyelids every few hours. Gross! He is now looking a bit like a rabid rabbit, eyes matching his red Icebreaker top. A move to declare a rest day. One thing all the Big 4 holiday parks seem to have over here are Giant Jumping Pillows. See Eilish and Connor pictured, . . . well, jumping. The kids have taken off to see whatever movie the caravan park is currently showing, a big bag of lollies in tow. Oh, and the rain has stopped.

Day Four – A Walking We Will Go Medicine seems to have started working and Gary can see a bit better. The rain and wind have stopped so it is time to explore the Forest Park walks. We arm up with snacks, water and walking maps and walk into town. There are a series of very local walks based in what is called the Wonderland Ranges. Unfortunately they are not very well sign posted and we wander aimlessly for a bit. Following a ‘One Way’ sign we hit the trail marker to the Venus Baths walk, at least we hope so. It is a very wide and well trodden path yet still allows interesting views of the surrounding bush and landscape. Listed as a ‘...shady stroll to rockpools.’ It is a lovely walk but over too quickly so we elect to take on the Splitters Falls walk. Splitters Falls is a much steeper track travelling alongside some interesting rock formations which we dub the Pancake Rocks. We were pleased that both kids did these walks without complaint as we had more walks planned for the following days. Time to visit the bakery for late lunch and potter around the camp ground.

Day 5 – MacKenzie Falls And we get comments about windy Wellington! Last night the wind came up so strong I thought we were going to head off to Oz like Dorothy. After a relatively sleepless night we woke to kids screaming around on scooters and sun pouring into our camper. A good day for a walk. MacKenzie Falls is our choice for today. Described as cascading waterfalls and flourishing ferns our thoughts were that anything had to be more cascading the yesterdays Splitters Falls. To get to the start of the falls track we had to drive 15k along a very very windy road with twists and turns everywhere. It was not before the kids and I had our windows down and heads hanging out hoping to hold on to our stomachs. I always hoped that I would grow out of my travel sickness but apparently it is not to be. Feeling a bit seedy we arrive at the falls walk and fall out of the car gulping in lots of fresh air. The main falls walk takes you to the top of the falls and then you make your way down hundreds of steps to visit the base. We are all proud little walkers as we gaze back up at the much bigger waterfall then sit down for a well earned bickie. I was a busy photographer and took plenty of pics, some of which I have already scrapped and will post later.

Day 6 – The Pinnacle Another lovely day and a new challenge. As the kids did so well with the MacKenzie Falls track they are keen to take on the Pinnacle. This walk is a lot more strenuous and graded as medium-hard. It takes us through long corridors of rock that tower above you, known as The Grand Canyon and slowly winds up and up. We pass Bridal Veil falls which is even smaller than the Splitter Falls and walk through a very narrow rock corridor known as Silent Street. As we walk along the kids spy a rock formation that they dub Sid’s Rock as it looks a lot like a rock on their Ice Age 2 movie. Again I am busy with the camera and am currently working on a page for the Pinnacle. When we reach the top the kids are very impressed with how high they have climbed. I hope you are able to see the ground below to get an idea of how high they were. Snack up at the top then time to head back to the camper for some R&R.

Day 7 – How Wet Can It Get? We have another fall yet to see and add to our collection so the plan was to do that first thing in the morning and then play mini-golf with the kids. As it is our last full day in the camper we start the day with a pancake brekky and a good hot coffee (the kids get fluffy strawberry milk). As we eat the sun slowly disappears and grey clouds draw in. Time to walk. Along the track to Silverband Falls we spy an interesting sign that had all of us laughing though for different reasons. Have attached pic, see if you can see what we found funny. Or perhaps Gary and I just have dirty minds. For the rest of the walk the kids would point out ‘infected’, ‘not infected’ with great glee. We are easily amused. Silverband Falls are interesting in that rather than a pool of water at the base of the fall the water just disappears into a hole in the rocky ground. Pictures taken it is time to take the kids for the much longed for mini-golf. It starts to spit. We jump in the car and make our way to golf. It starts to rain. Connor is beside himself as he really wants to play golf. Deciding we can handle a little bit of rain we take up the challenge and get our clubs. It starts to pour. At the 6th tee we grab umbrellas and play one handed golf under brollys with another 12 holes to go. It was a fantastic course and we all had fun, though wet and soggy.