Dunkeld - April 2015

From Casterton, after Easter we continued east and sought out the town of Dunkeld in the Southern Grampians region. Approaching the town, the landscape is dominated by the peaks of Mt Abrupt and Mt Sturgeon.

Not too far from the caravan park in Dunkeld we found the Arboretum which was a great place to ride our bikes.  There is also an old saw mill there.

We spent almost a day climbing up to the top of Mt Sturgeon – a walk of around 7 kilometres. It is rated as a difficult walk, but the three children did it very easily, although there were more snack breaks than we had anticipated! Those breaks often gave us the chance to perch on a rock and take in the superb vistas. At the summit, the view was breathtaking with Dunkeld below us in one direction and Mt Abrupt and the smaller Mt Piccaninny in the other. 

The ascent back down was much quicker. We met an older couple on their way up. They were looking forward to a nice cup of tea at the top. I like that older people always remember to pack a thermos and are prepared to lug all that is required for a nice cuppa!

Back in Dunkeld we enjoyed ice creams and with the kids with some remnants of energy we rode our bikes around the Arboretum again. 

The journey towards home took us through Beaufort where we stopped for lunch by this lovely old fire station. 

We then had a couple of nights back at a caravan park we'd enjoyed in the past, at Creswick where we set up under the golden colour of this autumn tree:

We again rode our bikes - around Lake Calambeen and through the pine forest that is alongside the caravan park.

Not far from Creswick is the historic town of Clunes which we explored one morning. This is where gold was first discovered which sparked the great gold rush of the 1850's. No gold to be found today. In fact, Clunes is better known as a 'book town' with lots of second hand books. 'Widow Twankeys' was a colourful and eclectic lolly shop and cafe and we called in for morning tea.