Visiting Victoria 3: The Grampians
The Grampians are a rocky mountain range about three hours west-north-west of Melbourne, noted for their dramatic views and scenic bushwalks (hikes).
As with the other entries in this “Visiting Victoria” series, I will describe my own visits to this top attraction. Tourists can easily arrange to go with tour groups to and from Melbourne, but this will be told from my perspective as having driven there, though I’ll meld more than one trip together here.
On the day appointed I drove up to Ballarat from my little village on the edge of the southern rainforest. This drive is almost entirely on small country roads through the farmlands of the “Golden Plains,” through more than one (Cressy and Rokeville) partial ghost-town — still an inhabited hamlet but with a mainstreet of boarded-up former shopfronts.
Ballarat itself is a biggish town of 100,000 which was an important center of the Australian gold rush in the 1850s. I proceeded to pick up the girls from the train station. I had never met them before but I’ve had good experiences before on trips with groups of strangers, its a fun dynamic, a grab bag of personalities. I had of course been afraid one or more of them would be prissy and difficult but they all seemed nice. They were all three young professionals in their mid twenties, in Melbourne for at least a few months either for a job or vagabonding about.
I’d take the train into Melbourne and we’d rent a car from the city! One of the girls ably accomplished the details of getting a car rental (actually via some car subscription called “Goget” for those who live in the city and only occasionally need a car) and the next day I took the train myself to the city to meet them.
Most of the drive from Melbourne to the Grampians is on the major highway the A8 that goes from Melbourne to Adelaide up north in South Australia. One turns off this highway in the country town of Ararat, where we asked at an information center if they knew if there was still space in any campgrounds in the Grampians. They laughed heartily at this, as it was now the second day of a four day weekend, and complimented our optimism.
We checked out a few of the more obscure campgrounds on the outskirts of the national park, but most were indeed all full. One we hadn’t even seen on our map but seeing a sign for, Chlamydia Falls Campground — I mean Kalymna Falls — we decided to investigate. It was a small campground of barely half a dozen sites clustered together deep in the forest and they all were occupied, se we were about to sadly turn around when some young people occupying one of them waved us over and advised that they had room for more tents at their site!
One interesting aspect about this campground was that there was one campfire that people from various different groups at the different sites all gathered together around, so it was an unusually sociable affair. And it so happened that everyone was groups of friends in their 20s and 30s, many from interesting places, so it was a very fun and interesting group.
The next morning we headed into the park through the town of “Halls Gap” which is rather the hub of the place. It’s located near the north end of the park and many of the sights to see are in that area. There’s a caravan park here and it’s generally kind of a madhouse on any holiday weekend. There’s some restaurants and stores to get groceries and supplies.
A very short walk from the Halls Gap parking area are some rock pools named the “Venus Baths” — but being as it’s a short easy walk from tourist-ground-zero when I went there it was so full of squealing kids that I took one brief glance at the rock pools and turned on my heel.
From there many of the sites are along the road into the mountains to the West. A recommended first stop is the Boroka Lookout that looks out over Halls Gap and the plains to the East — it’s the picture above where some inconsiderate person has pitched their tent right on the viewing platform — presumably that is not normal.
We headed up into the mountains to one of the main sights: MacKenzie Falls. The hike down from the parking area was a few hundred meters down a sort of catwalk along a steep cliff, it was pretty crowded with other tourists. At the waterfall itself we found an impressive amount of water sheeting down the cliff-face, despite the drought conditions that had rendered many waterways in the area completely dry. The catwalk-trail continued down the river for several kilometers to a place signs designated as “Zummstein’s.” Not “Zummstein’s Falls” or “Zummstein’s crossroads” just “Zummstein’s,” so I assume it’s some kind of interdimensional vortex. Anyway we didn’t continue all the way to Zummstein’s Whatever, but did see a kookaburra sitting on a branch over the river (they’re a type of kingfisher after all), which was novel to the city girls, and I do always enjoy seeing these cheeky birds.
Returning from McKenzie Falls (or on your way) there’s a lookout called “Reed Lookout” that looks south over a vast swath of the park with more dramatic views. The parking area and view are just off the road so it’s an easy stop.
Our next planned hike was to “The Pinnacles.” From the beginning of this hike we were climbing over interesting rock formations, including a very straight narrow slot canyon for a bit. At the end of the hike one comes to a jagged ridge, slowly sloping on the side we approached it from but dropping off precipitously on the far side. Many people were taking dramatic photos on the edge, and there was one “pinnacle” with guard-rails around it.
That evening we tried to roast marshmellows but the Australian marshmellows were too small and kind of a weird consistency and we all declared them too unsatisfactory. We had another enjoyable evening around the fire, though it was a bit quieter with fewer people and some people who had been notably drinking heavily the night before having evidently been suitably chastised by their own bodies this morning, observed greater moderation. Eventually the conversations around the crackling fire got a bit deep and philosophical, as the glowing sparks swirled away up into the stars.
The next day we hit up the aboriginal cultural center in Halls Gap before heading home. Having apparently neglected to make a detailed description in my rough log and my memory being what it is I regret I can’t give a very good description here other than that it’s very good. Of particular note is the cafe which serves a variety of scones and things using local indigenous plants for unique flavors.
And then we headed home without further incident! There’s definitely still sites I have yet to see in the Grampians, and I’m sure I’ll be back. If you happen to some sites there that I’ve forgotten please let me know!