From Sea to Summit

11th-12th January 2011

We headed to Tower Hill Nature Reserve yesterday morning. This is an ancient volcano crater that now takes the form of a wetland area with hills on what would have been the crater rim. It was a bit overcast and there were lots of insects about so we donned our waterproofs and headed up one of the paths to the crater rim. 10 minutes later, the clouds had parted and we were absolutely roasting as we route marched up the steps. I am so unfit as I was out of breath by half way up! When we got to the top there were supposed to be great views of the wetland area in the crater basin but there was little water there. 

We headed back down and took another route over some boardwalks. There were signs saying not to approach any snakes basking on the boardwalk but there only ones we saw were about a metre away.

We identified them later and they were poisonous – how exciting! We got another great view of a koala – in fact we got a video. I also shouted to the koala in a similar way to the Tree of Temptation in the Big Brother house – “Hey! Koala!” – and he actually turned towards me! I felt like we’d bonded!

 We also had quite an entertaining moment when we were watching an emu near the car park. These are big scary things that you wouldn’t want to get in the way of! However, this 12 year old boy didn’t realise it was there as he came speeding around the corner full sprint and nearly headfirst into the emu. I don’t know who was more surprised and scared, the boy or the emu?!

After the volcano, we headed in land towards the Grampians… we were feeling in need of some mountains! Especially as the weather was so poor on the coast.

I didn’t mention that we went to another site yesterday called the Otway Treetop Walk (click on the link if you like!)… I thought it would be good to walk around at canopy level and there was a Go Ape! thing there too… However, when we got there it was drizzling and the prices we’re extortionate considering it was just a walkway! We’d already done a short walk through the rainforest at Mait’s Rest in the rain and that was pretty wet! Therefore we bought a book on the Mammals of Australia and had a really yummy lunch instead! Seriously – Jon had one of the best burgers I’ve ever tried! I know, I know… eating Jon’s food again!!!

Anyway, we headed to the Grampians which doesn’t look that far on the map… and we’d hoped we’d get to see something of the sites on the way. However, the main place to stay in the Grampians is in the north at Hall’s Gap and therefore we had to go straight there, or risk hitting kangaroos on the road when it got dark!

It was pouring with rain when we arrived at Tim’s Place in Hall’s Gap… and the rain just got worse and worse! We had torrential rain all night!!! We got soaked stepping from our door to the car two metres away! There were even frogs trying to climb up our door to get out of the rain! On the plus side, there were 10 people stuck there with enough alcohol to make a good night and that is precisely what we did… well until an angry Frenchman came out and shouted at us  for being noisy!

The next morning I found myself washing up breakfast dishes, looking out onto the playing field covered in kangaroos! The weather was much brighter so Jon headed out to take come photos before we carried on our way. We couldn’t believe how many insects there were trying desperately to dry themselves off! We headed into the hills by car to see some of the famous viewpoints in the area. The Grampians is actually one of the best bits of Australia that we’ve seen. It’s like what I was expecting it to be like; real bush as opposed to all farmland, and rocks emerging out of the vegetation. It would have been great if we’d  had more time to really explore the area, but time didn’t permit so we made sure we visited Mackenzie Falls and the Balconies…

With the amount of rain that we’d had overnight, Mackenzie Falls was a raging torrent! We headed down the path to the viewpoint at the bottom and the path was under water! We didn’t know at the time that this was all the rain that would cause the flash floods around this area.

The views from the Balconies were gorgeous! Of course I had to make Jon go and climb over the barrier to stand in the ‘Jaws of Death’ so I could take a photo…. and of course I was too chicken-shit to go myself! I would have liked to have gone; I know that you’re supposed to do something every day that scares you… but at the same time I really value my life. : )… and I’m convinced Jon would bounce!

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