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Labour Day trip to Western Vic
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Day 3 (Mon 10/3/8) – Halls Gap to Melbourne
Another magnificent day and on the road early.
We had noticed heaps of kangaroos grazing around Halls Gap the evening before ,mostly small families of Eastern Grey’s that scrounge suburbia for food after the bushfires. On the way up to a lookout I almost hit a pair of them perched on the cliff side of the road. One bounded straight across and up the hill on the right, the other took off up the narrow side of the road waiting for an opportunity to cross. With my heart in my mouth I slowed to let him go and decided it wasn’t the morning to really enjoy the road. I saw another bigger one grazing further up the road. He popped his head up and was a bit more active by the time Skip came along.
The view from Boroka Lookout is incredible, taking in much of Western Victoria to the east, and the Eastern half of the Grampians to the south. We spent quite a bit of time here taking in the views before heading back down the road to Halls Gap and out into the flatlands.
We didn’t want to do the boring Ararat to Melbourne road; Skip’s comment was that he’d “worn the road out” over the last few weeks. So we crossed through Ararat and headed into goldfields country. I’ve not been through this part of Victoria and was surprised to see there were many features such as Mt Cole, Ben Nevis and the Pyrenees to break the skyline. We passed though Avoca with the heat bearing down and then followed a small single lane road through Talbot and Clunes.
Clunes (see here and here) was one of the filming locations for the original Max Max (see Mad Max Filming Locations). The town hasn’t changed much in 150 years, other than sealing the main street. It has a ton of character from when the town was booming from the gold rush. I looked, but couldn’t see the Max Max location. Maybe it was the heat.
Pies for lunch, and then back on the road through Creswick, Daylesford, Trentham and Woodend, before the Calder freeway and home. These are all great areas to explore, but it was too hot and we were keen to get home.
Great weekend!
