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Labour Day trip to Western Vic
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Day 2 (Sun 9/3/8) – Peterborough to Halls Gap
We were up early the next morning and keen to get on the road. We knew that once we headed inland from Warnambool that it would get hot and the scenery would be pretty boring until we hit the Grampians.
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Just out of town heading west I glanced across one of the ocean-side carparks to see the Bay of Islands lit-up by the early morning sun. Not wanting to miss the light, I flashed Skip with my lights and did a u-turn back to the carpark. By the time I’d ginned around with the tripod and camera, I’d missed the best light but the view was still fairly good.
Back on the road we stopped for petrol and brekky and then headed inland through very dry and brown western Victoria farming land. Whilst not as boring as some parts of Oz, I was glad we only had an hour or so of it. Slowly the southern end of the Grampians rose on the horizon in front of us.
We headed through Dunkeld and rather than travelling straight up into the Grampians we took a back road through the Victoria Valley.
The road parallels the main range (Sierra Range) of the Grampians runs to the right and in the distance on the left you can see smaller Victoria Range, both rising out of the parched brown grazing land of the valley. Twelve months ago much of the Grampians were engulfed by a major bushfire. You can see large patches of the sides of the mountains where nature appears to have lost the battle to regrow. We crossed the Sierra Range and then headed north to Halls Gap.
Skip had arranged accommodation at the YHA Halls Gap Eco Hostel. It was a pretty flash looking place and we were looking forward to changing into some “walk-friendly” gear rather than the heavy stuff we’d been wearing. Unfortunately reception was closed until later, so after a quick change in the carpark we took off to the other end of the range to see MacKenzie Falls. As a kid I spent a few years in Horsham and we often came up to Zumsteins and MacKenzie Falls. I was keen to see how it had changed if any.
We started with the walk around to the lookout. It looked pretty much the same. It was getting pretty hot too (mid to high 30′s). We walked down to the bottom of the falls. There were people everywhere, some just sitting, others swimming. Very peaceful, and a lot cooler beside the water. The climb back up in the heat was hard work. There were a few other bikes around and Skip ran into a customer (small world).
We had thought about trying to take in a walk through Wonderland to the Pinnacle, but it was just too hot. So we settled for a a shower, a change, and then a few beers at the pub.
Dinner was a great affair at the Kookaburra Restaurant which had been recommended by a few people. The cream of pumpkin soup with Thai flavouring was tops, the steak perfect and the beer cold. We finished the evening with a walk and icecream!
