The Grampians

The Grampians is a cluster of sandstone mountains that rise up out of the flat, farm lands in central Victoria. They look quite impressive from a distance.

 We found a great free camp just near the base of one of these... 

It was very peaceful, although cold.

The Grampians is known for bush walking, so I picked a walk that climbed Mt Strapylton. It was a 4.6km return walk that was graded "hard, for fit and energetic walkers" with an altitude climb of 290m. It turned out to be a great walk, following little yellow arrows on the rocks...

I have to include this photo as it was no small feat for me to climb up on top of this rock.

I thought looked like a bird...

That night, back in the camper, it dropped down to 3 degree's overnight. Brrrrr 

Totally loving our duck-down doonah though as we have not been cold yet.

NB. You know it's cold when; A. You take out meat to defrost at Breakfast and at dinner time it's still fully frozen; B. You are breathing smoke as you lay in bed at night; and C. You've forgotten what it feels like to feel your fingers. 

After a day of rest, we were keen to tackle the biggest mountain called Mt Difficult. This walk was 8.8kms return with an elevation climb of  466m. I was slightly nervous about doing it, not sure I would make it. Armed with a large mars bar and staminade (for me), we took it on. It was a long and strenuous walk with no real track. We were climbing over rocks, under rocks and most of the way was uphill... 

This was part of the track... as you can see, no real path!

As there was no real path, you had to constantly watch your footing. We both had a couple of falls each, nothing serious. In my defence, I was highly distracted for my most spectacular fall by a man coming back down the mountain wearing WAY too much licra! I fell in front of him. 

We also passed some rock climbers, which also seems to be popular here...

After two hours of climbing, we made it to the top! 

Not a bad place to have lunch (although it was freezing up there)...

Driving back to camp, tired but happy, we were rewarded with this beautiful rainbow...

Poor Geoff must have really been smashed when we got back to camp, as he had a few real shocka's! Firstly, as he was chopping some wood with his beloved ax, a large piece of timber flew straight at him and smashed him in the shin. After icing his shin, he then decided to help me out. I was happily enjoying my 2 minute hot shower, when Geoff suddenly starting yelling at me to turn it (the shower) off quick. Suddenly, (as I'm watching from my little porthole in the ensuite, totally lathered in soap and completely starka's in the artic temperature's of victoria), Geoff's running around like a pork chop speaking 'french'. Next thing I know, he's yelling "FIRE!", and from my little peephole I see smoke is billowing out of the front of the camper. Stunned, and nearing hypothermia, I demand he tells me what's happening. Sheepishly, he confesses while I was showering, the diesel (for the diesel hot water system) was running low. So he thought he would quickly top it up before I ran out. Only problem was, he poured petrol in the system instead of diesel! Thankfully, he realised what he had done pretty quickly so we didn't blow up the camper! I was also very grateful there was still some warm water left in the hose to de-soap myself. Poor Geoff wasn't feeling so good after that, but at least it was our last night. There was also no fire, the air intake was just smoking quite a bit. 

With many happy memories of the Grampians (minus nearly blowing up the camper) we left early Monday morning. (It was 5.5 degrees when we got up at 7am to pack up!). From the Grampians we headed back to the coast to a small town called Kingston to pick up some parcels from the Post Office and stay the night. Along the way we came across this at Dadswell Ridge... who knew!

Today we are on our way to Adelaide, before flying back home tomorrow for Geoff's sister Cath's wedding. Yeeha!! (After making a few calls this morning, Geoff found out we haven't stuffed the hot water system, it got a little 'hot').