Grampians

Assalamualaikum and hi there.

Last February, my housemates and I went to Grampians. It is one of the National Parks in Victoria, Australia. As there are a lot of National Parks in this country and each of them is different from one and another, I could say that Grampians consists of rocky, boulder mountains. Yeah.

We went there by train first, then changed to coach from Ballarat Station to Stawell Station. From Stawell, again we changed to another coach to Halls Gap. And fret not, although we changed our transportation two times, we reached at our destination on time. They really followed their scheduled time as printed on the ticket.

Oh, we bought the V-Line ticket where it's applicable for the train, bus, van and also you can hop on and off the tram and PTV train for free the whole day printed on your ticket due to the Zone 1 + 2.

Since we bought the ticket online, they were sent to our mail box and we felt like getting the train ticket to Hogwarts. Haha. 

Along the journey, the view was completely different from the city - that's for sure. But just imagine you're boarding a train or a bus and travelling with spacious land on your left and right, and there were a lot of haystacks which I never ever saw one before in my hometown ! That's why people travel, to experience new things - which is completely different from their daily life and out of their comfort zones.

 A hotel nearby Ballarat Station

 

 

Know what? Actually we bought the ticket but with WRONG return date. It should be on Sunday but as you can see from the picture - it's Wednesday instead. To make it more interesting, we ONLY realized it few hours before we departed. Of course it was chaotic that morning just to find out what should we do with the wrong ticket. Can we claim our money? Where to buy the new tickets?

Despite all those questions flying around in our head, we still head to our destination. And sprinting in the morning was ain't fun. We arrived at the Southern Cross Train Station and since we had never been there before, we asked a worker there where was the train that we should get on.

"It's just over there. You've got 3 minutes left before it departs. Hurry. Run ! Run!"

KAU INGAT TAK SEMPUT LARI PECUT DENGAN BEG SEMUA TU?

 But it was worth it to pant heavily in the train then you continue your sweet dream like a princess.

Arriving at Stawell, we were worried about our tickets. Then we asked the coach driver, Roy what should we do about that. And he was generous enough to help us, drove the van to a nearby shop - as that was the only V-line dealer in that small town. He helped us to ask about the tickets and he let us to shop some food because according to him, food in Halls Gap were expensive. Then we continued our journey to Halls Gap.

 The coach to Halls Gap

Arriving there, again, he's being kind enough to be our tour guide, " I still have around 15 minutes so I can show you around and then drop you guys at the place you're staying". After a little tour, he dropped us in front of the YHA Eco Grampians Hostel. We placed our bags in the lounge because the receptionist only opens at 5 pm. It was like a cabin in a forest, cosy, small, I like it.

In order not to waste time waiting for the receptionist, we decided to walk to the information centre which was far far away because the current one was under renovation so we had to walk another 3km. It was scorching hot summer day and we arrived there just in time - before it closes at 5.

The officer there gave us a map and told us that the route to Mackenzie Fall was closed due to bush fire and only re-open in spring - after it is naturally recovered. And she suggested us to visit the lake north to the Halls Gap.

On the way back to hostel, of course we wouldn't want to walk under the sun again so we used the trail instead as suggested by Roy. Guess what - encountering wild kangaroos and emus was so much fun.

It was an easy one. Just walk leisurely, you don't have to climb anything. And we could see burnt trees - yes, it was a bushfire there about a week or two before we came.

Delleys Bridge trail. One of the easiest trails.

As the end of the trail near to the hostel, we went straight to check in and rest.

The next morning we decided to rent bicycle because it's easier to move around cycling rather than walking - and save time as well.

Early in the morning we walked to the Halls Gap town just to rent bicycle and guess what? The shop was closed. CLOSED. Just imagine what can you do by walking? So we asked locals if there any other bike rental shop. Yes, it's about 3km away. In desperation, you'll do anything. Yeah, we walked for another 3 kilometers to the opposite side of the path we took just before that !

 Halls Gap town and kookaburra

Alhamdulillah, it was opened ! Every drop or our sweat was worth it. And the rental rate was cheaper rather than the one in the town. It was $30 per day -- and the uncle at the shop was kind enough by saying, "I'll wait till 5 tomorrow". We rent the bike for 31 hours for only $30.

And that uncle also told us to cycle to the north -- "the lake is huge and beautiful ! You must see it." he said.

Uncle at the bicycle shop - picture was taken on the last day there

After that, we would like to go to Halls Gap Zoo but we didn't know where should we head. There's no signboard about it -- at all. So the uncle showed us the junction that we should take which was next to his shop.

It was nice and beautiful weather - cycling under shady trees and orchards along the road, it was breathtaking. Moreover, less cars passed by. After few kilometers cycling and yeah, we're at the Halls Gap Zoo. Hills and mountains forms barrier around it, it was just spectacular. No words I could utter.

On the way to the zoo. Weehuuuu.

Arriving at the zoo :)

The entrance fee for the zoo is $24 for adult and it was huge. It even had giraffe and other savannah animals plus desert animals. But, when we passed through the gate, a herd of deers started to surround us, sparkles in their eyes -- well their eyes are big and sparkling actually -- aiming for pellets that we were holding. Gosh. Tame deers are undeniably greedy. Not only they  seized the food packet from us, they even chased after us that we had to run away. No other option. HAHA.

 I was bullied :'<

Since it's summer, we had long day compared to night time. So went back to the hostel to rest for a while and continued cycling uphill at 3.30 p.m. It really needed a lot of energy and effort to cycle up very steep hill, or mountain should I say and we managed to get to our destination after one solid hour battling with gravity. HAHA.

Lake Bellfield - it's a dam and with such breathtaking view, no wonder people there recommended it to us. I think there's no word perfectly fit to describe the view - subhanallah. Just have a look at these pictures.

Lake Bellfield

 See the water mark?

 

And I'm completely submerged

Oh ya, since it was summer, the water level had decreased very significantly than the water level during winter.

After a while spending our time there, we decided to get back to hostel since it's getting dark. Just make a guess how long did we take to cycle down the mountain?

Just guess.

*

*

*

20 MINUTES !!

We decided to stop at the town to have an ice cream and suddenly we saw a signboard. Okay it was a map actually. Halls Gap map. We read through it and marked the attraction point that we're going to go tomorrow as what we had planned. However, we realized that there were more attractions that we couldn't visit since we only have one day left to tour the place. So, we decided to have a visit after having our ice creams.

We cycled to Botanical Garden since it was quite near and we were attracted to visit Venus Bath since the name was quite interesting. A good way to encourage tourists to have a look at the place, no?

The only way to get to Venus Bath was through Botanical Garden and no vehicles were allowed. The first gate lead to the garden and in the garden there was a second gate which lead to the Venus Bath and other trails. So our short journey started.

Venus Bath is a stream and of course full of potholes but those were only visible if and only if there's no water in the river. Say what, the river WAS dried up. For real. I know it's unusual in Malaysia but not here. While I was in high school, I learned about potholes theoretically in Geography class and wa-lah they're in front of my eyes now.

 Almost dry Venus Bath

Potholes !

And since it's getting dark we decided to get back to hostel. On the way back we saw a lot of kangaroos in a recreation park. A lot of kangaroos. It's like the field was theirs. For your information, kangaroos dislike hot temperature that's why they appeared when it was almost dark.

Wild kangaroos appearing !

The next day we woke up really early and checked out at 8.30 a.m. Right after that we left our bags in the lounge and cycled towards the town and park our bikes near the pool again. So we walked to the Botanical Garden and went through the second gate, heading to the Wonderland trail.

As the name suggested, the trail was indeed full of wonders and challenging at some parts. But as you managed to complete stage by stage, you will be awed with the view. Climbing rocky stones not to forget the steepness - crazy yet satisfying. Summer time, we could see dried stream and waterfall. Just imagine that.

 Early trail to Venus Bath and Wonderland Trail

Dried river

We would love to go to the highest lookout there but unfortunately we had so little time and had to head back to return the bikes. Our journey ended at Wonderland car park - yeah if you do have car and just want to go to the lookout, just drive and park there instead of having 2 hours journey of mountain climbing and jungle walking.

That bridge was actually across a river but the river was dried up

That's a deep pothole !

  

 

Almost at the top

This was the hilarious part. We didn't want to walk back to the town using the trail as we'll take about 2 hours to get there. So we decided to walk by the roadside until we reached the town. We hoped that any car passed by would be very generous to ask us where we were heading and would gladly to drive us to the town. IN YOUR DREAM ! Haha. No, nobody stopped and asked us, at all.

Luckily it was walking down the mountain so it ain't hard and didn't consuming that much energy. After got back to the town, we returned the bicycles and walk back to the hostel, resting in the lounge while waiting for the couch to get home.









The end.

love,

nadi